Twenty cancer patients and their families protested this Thursday in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Health of Venezuela Due to the lack of medicines, equipment for special studies and supplies for exams in hospitals.
Meylin Padilla, a 42-year-old breast cancer patient, told Efe that for three months the equipment for chemotherapy treatment at a cancer hospital in the center of the capital has been “damaged.”
“We already have three months the chemo is not coming, you have to buy it. Besides, you have to bring the serum, the solution, your syringes, buy the filgrastim, which is placed three days after the chemo and costs 10 dollars. Other than that, you have to pay for labs outside because there aren’t any either,” she said.
He indicated that one of the tests that must be carried out, the bone gammagram, which “is not available” in any public health center, costs in private laboratories “from 200 to 300 dollars.”
“Another thing that we don’t have anywhere is radiotherapy. (…) It is hard for us, but mostly we (have to) opt for the option of having a breast removed because there is no radio anywhere, and if we do not make that decision, our lives are in danger ”, he added.
On the other hand, Marielys Romero, 32, told Efe that she felt “distressed” because his mother has not been able to undergo the continuous radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment that she requires because the machine at the Padre Machado Oncology Hospital broke down 15 days ago.
“If you don’t get radio, they don’t give you chemo. He has three weeks without undergoing his treatment, “added Romero, who has seen the need to hold raffles and ask family members for help to pay for medications and laboratory tests.
In the protest, people chanted slogans and shouted for the Minister of Health, Magaly Gutiérrez Viña, to help them.
Some wore cancer flannels and carried banners with messages such as “We want to live! Health is our right”.
Consuelo Fernández, a 58-year-old retiree, told Efe that “patients are falling back into the disease due to lack of medication, tests, chemo and radios, which are not given in all hospitals.” (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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