Dialysis crisis: 15-year-old patient who appealed for govt support passes on
In an interview with JoyNews, a 15-year-old dialysis patient at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital who had requested assistance passed away.
The baby girl’s mother, Priscilla Asante, said that her daughter died early on Sunday morning around 1: a.m.
Madam Ruth said in an interview with JoyNews’ Richard Kwadwo Nyarko that she observed her daughter Priscilla ballooning the day before she passed away.
She continued, saying the doctor had told her this was a sign that the young girl’s both kidneys had failed.
The little girl was writing her third term exams before the tragedy, according to the headteacher of Mampong Catholic A Basic School, who spoke on Joy FM’s Newsnight on Wednesday.
Days before Priscilla passed away, the school noticed some odd changes in her, according to Mr. Francis Ampong, and sent her home with her parents.
He said that because her mother was poor, there was a delay in getting her to the hospital right away.
She was eventually transported to the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, where she passed away a few days later.
Priscilla’s mother pointed out that her daughter’s passing occurred barely one month after she began receiving dialysis therapy.
She claimed that if her daughter had lived, her dialysis treatments would have cost the family roughly GHC 1000 per week.
Madam Ruth stated that even in this little time, the family had racked up a sizable amount of debt in an effort to support her daughter’s medical expenses.
The grieving mother revealed that they still owed the hospital around GH 4,000 in order to have her daughter’s remains removed for burial on Sunday.
Madam Ruth urged the government to minimize the cost of dialysis so that those from lower-income households dealing with renal failure might afford it.
Just one day after her interview with JoyNews aired, Priscilla passed away.
The junior high school kid said that she had to leave class each week in order to go to the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital for medical attention.
She wished for a full recovery and expressed her desire to pursue her ambition of becoming a nurse.
To help her and her family pay for her dialysis treatment, Priscilla had made a plea to the public and the government.