SA: Poverty robs baby of kidney transplant

A 20-year-old mother is devastated after her three-year-old daughter was denied kidney transplant allegedly due to her poor background.

Ncebakazi Mbirha, from Cwebe village in Mqanduli, took her daughter to the Nelson Mandela Academic hospital early last month when her body started swelling. She says her daughter was diagnosed with kidney failure and had to be operated on.

Mbirha alleges that doctors told her that her daughter will not be operated on because she has no money to take care of her. She says doctors told her they tried their best to treat her child.

Mbirha continues: "Even a doctor from Cape Town said he can't help me because I have no money or car. They said kidney transplant is for people with cars who live close to hospitals so that when the kidneys start giving them problems they can quickly rush to the hospital. So I told them I have no money. It's so painful that my child is refused treatment because I'm poor."

Eastern Cape Health Department spokesperson, Sizwe Kupelo, has however denied the allegations, saying that people cannot be denied treatment due to their socio-economic status.

Kupelo says looking at the criteria used, it suggests a discrimination that the patient in question could not be operated on because of her poor background. "We are saying not in this government. We cannot have such a discriminatory policy."

The provincial Health spokesperson says the situation “has to be looked at, because it means based on the fact that she is poor, therefore she cannot be treated and that is against the constitution of the country. We are going to look at the policy but the main concern now is to ensure that we provide treatment for this patient."


Source: SABC