poverty???

If someone once said that Poverty does not exist in Samoa, I would challenge them to think again. I guess poverty is defined on so many different levels that at first glance you would think, yes well we don’t have anorexic starving people dying on the side of the road, but if you want to see where poverty presents itself, step into my shoes for a day or two.

Today I watched a young mother cry, as she dutifully held her son down for me while I stuck needles and Iv lines into him. Her kid,only just one year old, had been at home for the last week at the mercy of a toxic infection ravaging his weak little body. They only now present to the hospital a whole week after they had noticed a huge red swelling on the side of his neck, and had tried conservative traditional remedies (fofo etc) until it had gotten to the point where at a glance you could see the kid was so different from his usual self. Lethargic weary, unable to smile, barely able to hold his head up. At first it made me angry- was she stupid?? The mum?? Now that I am a mum myself and am fiercely protective over my daughter to the point where I would love to carry around some dettol spray to spray on the hands on anyone who wants to hold her(!!!) I feel passionately for kids who are still unable to really look after theirselves, they are at the mercy of their (?sometimes stupid??) parents. I thought what they hell were they thinking leaving it this long?? Perhaps they didn’t know any better (that this could easily track near more precious organs such as his BRAIN ) but surely one could see from the look of the kid and the size and tenderness of the swelling that he was pretty sick. In the end it all boiled down to money. They live far away. No ones earns a paid job, they live from hand to mouth, from what they reap and sow in the earth around them. They couldn’t afford a busfare. They had wanted to come earlier but had to wait, beg and borrow to get a few measly bucks perhaps almost too late, to get to the hospital. That’s what it boiled down to. And I could see in the mothers teary eyes that this was the truth. You’d think but surely that can not be. Surely there were neighbours someone who could have given them money a ride earlier or they had a stash somewhere?? I am quickly finding out that in some parts of Samoa, money is like gold, precious and rare.

Almost every patient today who wanted a repeat script for their usual medications had already run out 2 weeks prior (thus were flying without a pilot (medications) for a while) Thus they were yet again at the mercy of scoring blood pressures and uncontrollable blood sugars…by the 20th person it was beginning to piss me off, how so careless they were, why didn’t they come in earlier like we always tell them (get your repeat medications BEFORE you run out) so I let one slip and sarcastically asked someone if they were TRYING to give themselves a ‘stroke’ by coming so late ( I know- it was a weak moment and I will regret it forever) the person then very quietly responded with a quivering voice that they were sorry, they knew they should have come earlier but this was the soonest they could get any busfare and come…I felt my heart crack. Thinking about it too, a lot of these patients do actually travel from the other side of the island…so that would be a good 10 bucks return which is a lot of money for some people. Then they get here and I prescribe them 3 months worth of meds, and the useless pharmacy who never seem to have enough stock give them only 6 weeks worth, so that this poor person has to look again for busfare they cannot afford again, sooner then actually necessary.

These people may not be starving, but when they are sick…they often can not afford to look after themselves, often its too little too late…and people die from tragically simple things…simple infections, simple conditions...that could have easily been treated/prevented.Tis a sad but true storey in my beloved homeland And I hope one day things will change, our services will improve to meet this need & people will have access to these basic neccessaties in life.