It is difficult for him to speak, he is agitated. However, Paola Valencia, 51, breathlessly recounts her suffering and how her Health has worsened due to interruption from his treatment for Cancer from thyroidwhich was detected in 2012.
His body has been filled with cysts since you stopped taking sorafenib (pastilla). Every time this happens, she must be operated on to remove the nodules. From 2016 until now he has 10 surgeries.
By lack from medicines in the hospitals of the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (IESS) and the Ministry of Public Health (SMEs), Paola cannot continue with the treatment.
“With four days without taking my pastillathe tumor It grows fast, it is very aggressive. I have metastasis. Last year I had surgery column; a cyst destroyed me vertebraThey replaced it with one metal plate. In 2020, due to lack of medicine a tumor clogged my throat, I couldn’t breathe, they put a traqueostomo”, she says between tears, because the Quito woman reveals that she can no longer carry out an activity that she loved, singing.
The history of drug shortage is not new. In 2019, at the Carlos Andrade Marín Specialty Hospital (HCAM), the manager of this time, Juan Páez, denounced the finding of expired medications.
Since 2018 there is talk of irregularities. In 2020, the Prosecutor’s Office recorded close to 160 complaints. The main ones pointed to the hospitals Abel Gilbert Pontón, Guasmo and Monte Sinaí of the Ministry of Public Health, in Guayaquil, and extended to Teodoro Maldonado, Los Ceibos and Durán del Social Security.
If they operate… it ‘stays’
Paola points out that she can no longer undergo more operations. “I grew up new nodules on my neck and the doctor told me: “There are so many surgeries that there is no way, if we do it, you stay at the table, I can only take sorafenib. East medicine They gave it to me in January, but I was without it for six months,” he says.
Paola, who attends at the Hospital Eugenio Mirror Quito has had to sell his car to buy the two boxes of the tablets that you require per month. each one is worth $ 3.643,20.
“In 2016, a doctor whom I asked for my medicine told me that she could help me with a psychologist, so that I would understand that cancer was going to kill me in the end.”
Paola Valencia, insured
Abruptly stop the treatment It hurts him, the same happens when he takes it back. “I get out blisters in hands and feet. it hurts to walk and I can’t hit metal because it burns my skin, I use gloves to eat, because of the spoon”.
per day should take 19 pills. As their organism does not generate calcium, and this deficiency can contract your muscles, you should take calcium carbonate; also requires medicines for him painthe Pressurefor him stomachwhich was affected by the latest suspension of sorafenib.
While he narrates his problems he is left without breathThis time it’s not for him traqueostomobut for the cryingremembering that his daughters 16 and 18 year olds are the ones who see how to maintain it. “They should be studying, I should take care of them,” she says between sobs.
“They gave us long”…
Cuencan Wilson Baculima does not stop contemplating the portrait of his little mother, María Inés Chimbo, who was diagnosed chronic leukemiain 2018. And that is where his calvarywhich was complicated by the start of the pandemic.
“From March 2020 to November of last year they had us from date to date. we were going to shift and we they changed the datethen they told us that there was no medicine and that there was one waiting list. At the José Carrasco Arteaga Regional Hospital (IESS in Cuenca) they sent my mother to undergo a tomographybut the device was damaged”, affirms Baculima, 49 years old.
mentions outraged that in the health center they told him that in January of this year he would return to treatment. “They did not assure us anything; they sent us some exams and we made them outside to speed up and start the treatment, but passed away my mom, on January 30. His defenses lowered, he gave pneumonia and died at the age of 70.
The eldest of the six children of Doña María Inés maintains that her mother no longer wanted to know anything about the Social Security. “It was because they didn’t solve anything for us, she even fell into depressionI didn’t want to do anything anymore,” says Wilson, whose only comfort was knowing that her mother died at home, along with her loved ones.
“Don’t let them lie to the country again about medicine”
Exactly one week ago, seven representatives of cancer patient associations, catastrophic diseases, rare and others, met with the Guayas OmbudsmanFreddy Viejó, to show him what the shortage from medicines in hospitals has caused in citizen health.
“We met to determine a strategy and work together with civil society. This week a date would be set for the appearance of the managers, financial directors, winemakers, pharmacy managers of all the hospitals from the province of Guayas, public and IESSand thus determine among themselves whether or not they bought the drugs, according to a plan that must be foreseen and budgeted according to the diagnostics that have historically had patients”, said the authority.
“By constitutional provision we can inquire in public health policy and that will end in a report doctor, which could serve to be presented at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights”.
Old said that there should be a researchof a reserved nature, in which the right to the defending. And it would compare information that the health centers and each association have. “That they do not lie to the country again on issues of medicines and they can cheat with double speech. Also, we want medicines for everyone, not just for rare and catastrophic diseases”, Viejó concluded.
Legacy of the government of Lenín Moreno
At the beginning of this month, the portfolio of Health condition reported having acquired 42 of 128 medicines put out to tender during the health emergency last August and September; and on December 30, it announced the purchase of “149 types of medicine” out of 200, which would be delivered gradually over the next two months.
And on both occasions he claimed to have included the supplies for the catastrophic and rare diseases.
The Ministry of Health recognizes that the shortage of medicines and the reduction of budget for its acquisition is a problem inherited from the government by Lenin Moreno (2017-2021).
He also states that he has made two massive purchases from medicines.
However, parents and relatives from patients with these pathologies insist that these do not reach the hospital pharmacies. Or, at least, they don’t give them to their insured.