Gaza’s Kidney Patients Face Huge Risks Under Ruined Health System
(AWP) - Kidney patients in Gaza Strip are facing huge risks, including their failure to make it to hospitals under non-stop Israeli bombing raids and the reduction in the number of sessions from three to two and the session duration from four hours to three.
Abdel-Latif al-Ostaz, a displaced man from Gaza to Khan Younes, said his health deteriorated due to the lack of access to treatment. “We have been displaced from Gaza to Khan Younes. I undergo dialysis three times a week. Now it is only twice due to the current situation and lack of equipment and devices under war circumstances. I get so fatigued. This affects my taking of liquids and food. I reduce the food I get so the toxicity rate is lessened. Excessive toxicity has a negative impact on walking, muscles and sleep,” he said.
Ostaz noted that he has to attend the dialysis sessions otherwise this could pose a risk to his life.
“If there is any failure to appear in the dialysis session for a long time, may be due to the inability to walk, this could pose a risk to a patient’s life or might cause a coma or acute poisoning ending in death,” he explained.
Rahifa al-Jojo, a Palestinian woman, has a husband and a son both suffering from kidney failure.
“The father and his son both get dialysis sessions. They used to receive three a week but now they became twice a week in order to cover the number of patients who need dialysis. The shelling takes place night and day. May God protect us. We will face our destiny anyway. Each time we go for a dialysis session, we try to get a car and a driver,” she said.
Mahmoud Wadi, the head of the nephrology department at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younes, said the displacement of patients from some provinces to Khan Younes city adds to the burdens on the medical crews and equipment that do not provide the patients with what they need.
“The number of hours of dialysis sessions are supposed to be four, but due to the flow of displaced people, a session was reduced to three hours, which is not enough like all patients around the globe get based on the international and scientific standards,” he explained.