International pharmaceuticals, are you listening?

Back in the second of my worlds for a couple weeks, I came across a medical crisis which also shows poignantly the dilemma faced by many poor people every day.

17 year old D was attacked by a group of teenage gang members a week ago. He was in ICU at the government hospital for several days with 13 knife wounds in back, head, side and abdomen. He is actually from a rural area but was in the big city staying with his aunt and uncle. His uncle is a carpenter and sometimes D comes to town to help him on a project. He and 4 younger teens were attacked by a gang of teenagers around 7pm, though none of them are involved in a gang. The other kids managed to escape and run home and report it. D wasn't so lucky. He was held by 4 boys while another stabbed him repeatedly with a knife, leaving only when he finally collapsed.

He was brought to the government hospital and was in surgery for 12 hours. His intestines had eviscerated and were damaged. He's been cleaned up and sewn up but because of the damaged intestines was not able to even drink water until yesterday. He has been on strong antibiotics to prevent infection. His extended family is trying to pool their resources but they have already been stretched financially by a series of deaths recently and the only way they see is to mortgage their farm - which could potentially destroy their livelihood, and probably still wouldn't be enough.

Even tho the hospitalization may be nearly free, medicines are not. The first day alone they spent nearly a month's wages ($60) on IV solution, antibiotics, pain medication, tetanus shot, and injectable paracetamol for fever. A recent decision was made to exclude stab wound victims from government assistance for medicine. Perhaps nation wide most stab wounds are aquired in drunken brawls and thus somewhat the victim's own fault. But some of them are innocent victims, like D and like a 14 year old brought in yesterday.

D still faces 2-3 weeks more in the hospital assuming there are no other complications. D's family is faced with hard choices. They can get a loan on their farm for $1500 payable in 5 years. But they must immediately pay the first year's interest of $380. If, at the end of 5 years they have not repaid the $1500 principle plus the $1900 interest, they will lose their land. Last year they borrowed $280 from a neighbor who in turn now has the use of their mango orchard. The money was borrowed for the funeral of D's cousin, killed by a runaway truck. In a year's time the family has not been able to repay that loan, how would they be able to pay an even bigger loan? Meanwhile, the harvest this year from the orchard has been worth over $2000. They could also get a loan of $280 in which the lender then gets the entire harvest of their coconuts for two years - and longer if they don't pay it back. And how will they earn money to pay it back??? And what if someone else in the extended family gets sick? The cycle goes on and on.....

Fortunately for D, several sympathetic people have donated enough to cover a couple of weeks of medicine. If enough donations come in, perhaps the family will not need to hock their farm. But D is just one example of the dilemma facing many poor people every day. (International pharmaceuticals, are you listening?)