MPILO Central Hospital in Bulawayo is demanding cash from patients who need urgent blood transfusion, leaving many poor people in a quandary.
LINDA CHINOBVA OWN CORRESPONDENT
Several patients approached Southern Eye seeking publicity for their plight in the hope that some well-wishers could assist.
Stella Masonda from Entumbane suburb yesterday said her nine year old daughter is suffering from aplastic anemia, a blood disorder in which the body’s bone marrow does not make enough new blood cells.
Masonda said doctors at Mpilo Central Hospital — where her daughter has been admitted for over a week — asked her to buy a pint of blood for her daughter, but she has no money.
“The doctor told me my daughter is suffering from a condition that makes her body fail to keep blood and I have to continuously buy pints of blood,” she said.
“I have been doing that, but now I have reached a point where I genuinely cannot afford to do so as I have no money.
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“My daughter’s condition makes her nose bleed for almost four hours nonstop and the moment she stops nose bleeding, she vomits blood and thereafter she loses her consciousness,” said a visibly dejected Masonda.
She said her daughter had since stopped going to school as her condition that developed two years ago has kept her bed ridden. Masonda said she feared losing her daughter and is appealing to well-wishers to assist her in cash or buy pints of blood for her.
Another parent Lieza Dube from Luveve suburb said she desperately needed blood for her eight-month-old twins who have heart problems.
Dube said the doctors told her to urgently buy 100ml of blood for each child, but she cannot afford to do so.
“The doctor advised me that my children have heart complications and they both require 100ml of blood urgently,” she said.
“It is very unfortunate that I do not have the money to buy the blood as each pint costs $135,”said Dube who could not stop crying.
Dube said she cries endlessly as she has been watching her babies sleep helplessly at Mpilo for two weeks, but she cannot do anything about it.
Dube said she had even offered to donate her own blood for the twins but the doctors have told her that she must buy the blood.
“I have offered many times to donate blood for my babies, but the doctor has insisted that I buy the blood but it is very unfortunate because I do not have the money but I want my children to be well,” she said.
A critical shortage of blood at the country’s major referral hospital is threatening thousands of lives.
The decision by the National Blood Services Zimbabwe (NBSZ), to demand cash upfront from hospitals is already causing shortages.
The NBSZ, which collects blood from donors and also performs the screening is not only demanding cash upfront, but has raised the price for a pint of blood from US$80 to US$135.
