Siege and War Increase Suffering of Kidney Failure Patients in Yemen
YemenExtra
By: Shefa’a Abdullah
In Yemen, each day, hour and minute has not passed but carried new pains and suffering for patients with renal failure; as a result of the siege imposed by the brutal coalition on Yemen over three years, death is pursuing lives of patients continuously and every day more patients lose their life.
The dialysis machines are being worn out daily, large numbers of them are no longer usable, while technicians have not been able to repair it, because of the lack of spare parts. Dr.Rajeh Al-Hosn, who works in the renal dialysis unit at Al-Thawra Hospital in Sana’a ,capital of Yemen, confirmed that they could not even import damaged parts ; because of the blockade imposed on Yemen.
Patients with renal failure, in Yemen live in the most difficult cases, a large number of them are barely able to breathe, from excess hypersensitivity in the blood, others are transferred to intensive care, which is full of patients coming from all sections, where the patient dies, if bed is not available
While we were in the dialysis unit, a patient was transferred to the intensive care unit after he went into a coma and his condition became very difficult, clinically dead and may die after moments.
The patient was getting 12 hours per week in dialysis, but under the war, the patient is getting only 6 hours, because of the lack of medical solutions due to the siege, in addition to the large congestion of patients, with the influx of large numbers of patients who come from other provinces.
In the renal dialysis unit there are many children who have suffered ,according to the doctors “a large number of children have suffered kidney failure as a result of their fear of hearing the severe explosions caused by the raids on various Yemeni provinces.”
The Yemeni elder brother ,AbdulRahman, confirmed that his sister has got sick after a bombardment hit Nadra district of Ibb province, doctors also confirmed that a number of children in Yemen are suffering kidney failure because of the fear they feel from the raids of the US-Saudi coalition
We talked to a number of patients and their families, where is a real suffering, everyone has suffered kidney failure for many years but the situation was more compassionate than the current time in light of the brutal war on Yemen, medicines were available to some extent before the siege, while patients now hope to provide only little medicine and medical solutions to survive the rest of their lives.
Head of the Department of Nephrology in Al-Thawra Hospital , Dr. Mujahid al-Batahi, said that several reasons made difficulties increased after the decision of the coalition countries to close all air passages, sea and land :
First, preventing the entry of dialysis material, where most centers do not have sufficient stock; as an expensive, the washing session is between $ 80 and $ 100 per session, and for these reasons the cases are coming to us as a reference center, while we only have for 50 days, because we work 210 sessions a day.
Second, Patients coming from other centers, as well as patients who are unable to travel for treatment or agriculture, cannot travel which increase the burden on us, as well as closing the corridors is a humanitarian disaster.
Dr. al-Batahi explained that the number of dialysis centers in Yemen is more than 32 centers, and 7800 Yemeni are patients, if the kidney washing stops, everyone is threatened with death, in addition to cases of acute kidney failure, which is estimated to be 30-50 cases.
Dr. al-Batahi pointed out that cholera epidemic has contributed significantly to the increase of kidney failure, especially for patients with diabetes, hypertension, the elderly and some kidney-related immunological patients, as well as patients with renal insufficiency in the first and second stages under conservative treatment, the fourth and fifth patients were treated with laundry, a large proportion of 4,000 to 5,000 patients.
The US-Saudi coalition’s war against Yemen left big suffering on patients with renal failure in particular, and all patients in general, the Yemeni people in general live amid the disregard of the international silence suspicious..
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