|
THE
REPORT:
By
Señora Gabriela García Juárez
Information Center of the Frente Común Contra el SIDA
Morelos 504
Centro, Oaxaca
Today,
Tuesday the 14 of May, 1993, two persons, masculine gender, presented themselves
for information about AIDS. They received information about the disease, the
stages of the disease, as well as the myths and misinformation around the
disease.
They
mentioned that they have a brother who is ill with this disease, and that he has
been receiving attention in the Civil Hospital of Oaxaca for the past six to
eight weeks before returning to his village. They also mentioned he had been
working in a city in Nuevo León, where he had first shown symptoms of the
disease (they did not say which), where he was admitted to a hospital (they did
not know its name), and received the first tests. The results were given only
to the brother, but the family knew he was sick and the mother decided to travel
to that city to see how her son was. He told her that he had been sick but had
recovered, but that he wanted to return to the rest of his family. A short time
after he returned (they did not say when that was), he suffered a relapse and
that is why he is now in the hospital, where they have performed more tests
which have confirmed that he has AIDS and he was given the medicine, CITOVIR,
which he began to take. When he got better he returned to his village, but now
the CITOVIR is run out and he has no more. Thus he has continued until about 8
or 9 days ago he began to present diarrhea and vomiting and he feels very sick.
He then communicated with his family, one of his brothers is one of the persons
with us with whom he spoke first. He does not know what to do, and so spoke
with a person who can do injections and who he believes is a nurse, this person
said he must inform the Secretary of Health because he can infect many other
people. Further, this person said they must contact a fumigator to spray with a
special liquid, very expensive but necessary, and further there may be many
problems including going to prison if this causes more infections. For this
reason they have come to us, already they have bought more medicine, CITOVIR,
and came to inform us.
They
mentioned that in the city in Nuevo León, the patient began to receive from the
doctor the medicine RETROVIR but when he came here he could not get it and was
given the above mentioned CITOVIR. They also said the patient had communicated
all this to his mother only 4 or 5 days ago.
This same
day at 4:00 in the afternoon, Francisco (Paco) Espinoza, our nurse with the
Frente Común, came to the office to speak with these two persons. He asked me
to communicate with the Señora Nancy Mayagoitia, Voice of the Frente Común and
see if she could help in this matter. I called Sra. Nancy and explained a
little of the problem. She told me she would call Dra. Bertha Elena Muñoz at
the Hospital Civil General and that she would call me back when she had a
response from the Doctora. All this we communicated to the two persons. They
told us they would communicate with us by telephone on Thursday, 16 of May
around 10:oo am to see if their brother could travel to the city to receive
attention or he would stay in their house if there was no alternative.
Meanwhile they would be preparing for the final resolution.
On
Thursday, 16 of May at 11:00 am, Paco called to the public telephone of that
pueblo to ask about the status of the young person and to see if it were
possible to come to the hospital in Oaxaca, but there were none of the family
could come to the phone because the young person was in agony but they would try
to call later.
That same
day, we received in the office a telephone call around 7:15 pm from the original
two persons who were with us on Tuesday in the Information Center. They
informed us that the young man had died at 12:00 noon on that day. I answered
that we were very sorry to hear this and that we had not been able to provide
the support that we wished we could.
Then they
said that they were very grateful to us and that if someday they could be able
to help us in any way that with much appreciation they would. They said please
excuse them for not calling sooner but the family has been very busy and sad and
that they had forgotten.
When the
call ended, I immediately called Sra. Nancy. She then wrote a letter of
condolences to the family as Voice of the Frente Común and we sent if off by
mail.
THE
LETTER:
To the
family of ________.
Dear
friends,
We are
greatly saddened to hear of the loss of your son and loved one. We feel
especially sad, also, that we could not do more to help you with him in his last
days.
However,
it gives us some gladness to know he was receiving the support and love of his
family. This is not always the case with this disease. You should feel very
proud in this respect, we believe, and we are sure that he felt so too.
We want
you to know that our thoughts and cares are with you today, and we wish the best
for you all. If there is any way we could be of help, do not hesitate to call
us. When you come to the city of Oaxaca, please stop by our office and great us.
We want to know how you are doing.
Finally,
we feel very honored that you decided to come to us in the moment that you did.
Again,
receive our most profound sympathy and our best wishes for your family.
Nancy Mayagoitia
Voice of the Frente Común Contra el SIDA
* * * |
