‘…if standing for one hour in pain outside a big meeting for important people will get me help then I am prepared to do that. I want to live.’
Almost two years of dialysis and other medical expenses have exhausted the financial resources of Nalini Mohammed and left her desperately fighting to stay alive.
It was this desperation that prompted her and her husband of 14 years, Rasheed Mohammed, to stand in front of the Conference Centre at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara with placards which read “Save my wife” and “Jagdeo/CARICOM I will die within days, Can’t afford dialysis”.
The distressed couple told Stabroek News yesterday that they were prompted by a businessman to stand peacefully with their placards at the opening ceremony of 30th Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government yesterday. This, they explained, seemed like a good way to get the attention of the government or anyone who could help.
The couple can be seen in this photo behind Mark Benschop making their appeal
The woman, her voice weak, said that the Ministry of Health had paid for 20 treatments last year but she has since been unable to get further help. According to an invoice from the 5G Dialysis Centre, Mohammed must receive dialysis three times a week. Each treatment, the invoice said, costs just over $36,000.
“We called the businessman for help and explained that we were at a standstill and weren’t getting any help… We need money for her treatment,” her husband explained.
He said they are going to wait and see what sort of reaction they will get from the appeal. He expressed hope that someone will help his wife since her life depends on steady treatment.
Mohammed was diagnosed in October 2007 with Chronic Kidney Disease [Chronic Glomerulonephritus] and End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD). In November 2007 she was advised by medical practitioners that she needed dialysis to stay alive. Both of her kidneys are failing.
“The doctor told me that I would need dialysis treatment and asked me if I could afford it,” she recalled. “I told him that I gonna try because meh want to stay alive.”
Before her illness Mohammed was a seamstress and her husband was gainfully employed. However, pain and weakness has since limited her physical activities and her husband was forced to leave his job to care for her.
“We have no children and there is no one else to take care of me… sometimes I would fall down in the house and so,” Shivram said.
No donor & rest
Nalini Mohammed and her husband Rasheed
The woman has since been advised that she needs to find a kidney donor.
“I been trying for a while to get a donor but nobody ain’t want to help me live,” she said, tears glistening in her eyes. “My husband is willing to give me one of his kidney but if he does who going to take care of who?”
Mohammed explained that she and her husband have no one else to depend on so she is truly “in a fix”. She needs a donor by August when the doctors who are able to perform the surgery will be here.
“Sometimes I does get so confused… is like I don’t know what to do,” she said. “I get tired of asking people for help… is like I turn a beggar now.”
Pointing to her sink stacked with unwashed dishes, Mohammed said she wasn’t even able to do her own household chores. Simple tasks like washing, cooking and cleaning are no longer things she can do. Her husband, she said, does everything for her.
“If it wasn’t for him I don’t know what I woulda do,” she said. “I am sick but I have a wonderful husband and I know I am well loved by him.”
Shortly after she began her treatment, Mohammed explained, a Canadian woman helped her and her husband to open a small shop which Mohammed now operates. The woman, according to Mohammed, wanted them to have a steady source of income so that they would be able to pay their bills.
However, that income is not enough to cover the cost of her treatment and they are often forced to walk from house to house to ask for help. Several people have since contributed to her treatment, she said.
“I wake up about 5 in de morning and do the normal things then I get she something to eat,” the husband said.
As he spoke of their daily routine he fought for control of his emotions. But as he dealt with the fear of his wife dying, her pain and discomfort the tears began to flow. He said she has trouble sleeping.
“When we can’t pay for she treatment some weeks we does can’t sleep,” Rasheed Mohammed said. “We does wake up at all hours of the night and she does be crying and saying how she going to die.”
The man, looking at his wife for a long moment, said that the worst part of their “problem” is that he has what his wife needs to stay alive but circumstances are preventing him from giving it.
“I can give she one of me kidney but who we going to get to look after we when all two ah we in de hospital,” the distressed man queried.
The 36-year-old woman has trouble walking even short distances. Her entire body appears to be swollen and patches of discoloration were visible on her arms and legs yesterday. Sleep, the woman said, was perhaps the hardest task for her. Worry, although it clogs her mind all day, fiercely attacks her at night.
She said that if she ever regains her health and strength the first thing she will do is get a “good long rest.
“I could hardly walk on my swollen feet that day [Thursday],” she said. “But if standing for one hour in pain outside a big meeting for important people will get me help then I am prepared to do that. I want to live.”
IS IT JUST ME !!!!! or does everyone else have to fill in their names and email addresses each time they wish to make a comment ,, this is annoying…… even when i forget ,, to fill de blanks ,, and i hit “submit” ,, and get the “absurdity” ! as i go back and try to retrieve my “original” comment ,, it disappears !?????????????????????????????????????????????????
now to address SNs delivery of bias ,, an call um news !
I ,, michael tannassee “publicly” wish to withdraw anything said or inferred by me relative to the protestors in yesterdays edition of STABROEK NEWS !…
thank you…
SN i feel u need to have more respect for the readership of of ur “esteemed” print !….
further i say not !…
Same with me , too, Michael .
I was thinking that is only me, but I have company,
Michael and Wiggins too, who mo ?.
how do i get in touch with these people if i wish to help..maybe if you list a telephone number so who ever wish to help can help
Instead of going through all this tribulation they should opt for the kidney transplant because that is what she really needs.They should be allowed to convalesce at the hospital before bieng discharged.The same way people are helping them to get the dialysis treatment,in the same way people will help them to recover after the operation.Her husband should make up his mind if he wants to donate or not instead of taking his sick wife into the streets to serve other people’s political interests.The option for a kidney transplant is open to them, people with a lot of money die from kidney ailments because their money could not have bought a donor and if this husband really love his wife he should go right ahead with the donation and transplant.
With modern medicine a kidney trans-plant operation is no longer a major undertaking but in Guyana it seems to be a monumental task . The government of Guyana should help the citizen or 1 of the CARICOM states should help , even my beloved country , Barbados . Recently , 2 fathers gave their children a kidney each and all 4 of them are doing fine .
Guyanese at home and abroad , do something to help this couple out of their troubles .
Kidney transplants are bieng done in Guyana,her husband must decide if he’s going to donate the kidney or not,he seems unwilling to me and he is playing on other people’s sentiments towards her.
I think that he is thinking that he may not LIVE if
he should do the kidney transplant for his wife Marc.
They are making a fool of themselves , she said the husband is willing to donate his kidney for an operation in August but no one is there to take care for them during their stay in hospital, I think they are at the wrong place maybe some one encouraged them so as to embarrass the Govt who was helping them, there are a lot of persons including myself I am sure who are willing to assist them during their stay in hospital, they can contact me through stabroek news I will be in Guyana during August.
Although the protest may embarrass the Government it worked. It got your attention and to even donate. All due to SN making their case as news.
Mr. Rasheed Mohammed kidneys although he’s reluctant to donate, may not be a viable match for her, fact being its a crucial preliminary procedure among others.
fool of them selves, worst than that.
if these people know what pain is all about they will never be able to stand and protest.
I CAN TELL THEM WHAT PAIN IS LIKE>
SN CAN GO TO HELL< SICK OF TYPING NAME AND ADDRESS
It’s things like these that I want my taxpaying dollars to be spent on.
Balgobin according to the article the govt already helped them with our tax $ in the tune of 20times 36=$720,000 and they are now being ungrateful, the businessman who advised them to protest there should be ashamed to use someone whose life is in danger just to fulfill some political ambition, he should instead help them and seek more business people and others to help, I think their case is closed where the govt is concerned
How many times shall I forgive/help my brother? 70 times? 70 x 70 times? 70 x 70 x 70 times?
these people are being used by people with political motives. the husband will feel no ill effects from giving a kidney. i know because since 1995 i had a kidney removed and within two weeks i was up and about. i have not had a problem.
Ah, quibbie, you’re a loving kind-hearted fellow although you try to sound tough and uncaring.