When life matters most



Pamela Mutale (left) and her daughter Mwenda (middle) made the long trip to India to seek medical attention for the little girl.

 

Mwenda had a form of nasal cancer. She was successfully treated in an Indian hospital and
is now fine and back in school.

 

When life matters most

·       Local company helping medical tourists pay for their lives

 

 

JACK ZIMBA

 

THEY say you cannot put a price on life, but for one mother fighting to save her only child, it took all her savings to afford a trip to India for treatment.

In 2018, Pamela Mutale’s child, a daughter named Mwenda, was diagnosed with nasal cancer and needed specialist treatment in India, as recommended by doctors at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH).

Before her child’s condition was correctly diagnosed, Pamela had spent about a year trying different hospitals, but the little girl’s condition only grew worse.
Pamela talks of the frustration of going from one doctor to another without proper help.
“She spent about a year being misdiagnosed in Zambia,” she says.
According to Pamela, her daughter was having headaches and flu-like symptoms, and she would usually lose balance and her sight would become blurry.
She says the first doctor who attended to Mwenda, who was only 10 at the time, attributed her condition to weight – she seemed overweight at the time - and recommended that she should lose some kilos.
Other doctors suspected the little girl had sinusitis because she had difficulty breathing through her nostrils.
At UTH, doctors suspected Mwenda had adenoids, and they offered to remove them.
Adenoids are glands located in the roof of the mouth, where the nose connects to the throat. They produce antibodies, but are supposed to shrink and disappear in adulthood.
When the little girl’s condition advanced, she started bleeding through her nose.
Pamela was a stricken mother.
“She used to have heavy clots of blood. It worried me a lot, and it bothered me that nobody was trying to investigate further, other than the basic investigations done when you go to a hospital,” says Pamela.
“The most painful part is that nobody felt they needed to do any further investigations. It really put me in a hopeless situation,” she says.
Later, Mwenda started vomiting excessively and she would bleed through her nose and mouth.
Pamela says her daughter usually experienced pain and she would cry most of the time.
“She would sleep in my arms throughout the night. We tried many medications but it was still getting worse,” she says.
Doctors at UTH had to artificially enlarge her air vents to aid her breathing through the nose.
One doctor ordered an MRI scan. When the results came out Pamela was told to get to UTH as soon as possible.
Doctors ordered a biopsy, and results revealed that she had nasal cancer, which had already advanced to stage three.
“It was overwhelming, but I didn’t have any room to break down because if I break down I would break her. I had to remain strong for her,” says Pamela.
She says people around her had lost hope.
“But I didn’t want to give up,” she says.
The little girl was referred to the Cancer Diseases Hospital, but doctors rated the success of her operation at only two percent.
It was a huge disappointment for Pamela, and she refused to take the chance.
“The level of confidence was not encouraging. I needed people who 100 percent could tell me they could do it,” she says.
Mwenda was referred to India for treatment.
That is when she was introduced Lyfboat and one of its founders in Zambia, Dr Surbhi Suden.
Lyfboat is a new company in Zambia now connecting hundreds of people to hospitals abroad, to get the right information before they jump on the plane.
Lyfboat, which is an international company, connects thousands of patients across the globe to some of the best doctors and hospitals for various treatments, including cosmetic surgery.
Pamela speaks highly of Dr Suden and her team at Lyfboat.
“She was really helpful and it gave me that motivation and encouragement that there was hope for my daughter,” she says.
She adds: “Lyfboat managed to lighten the burden I had because they kept my daughter happy.”
Pamela says she had to use all her savings – she had been saving for a house – in order to afford the trip to India to treat her daughter’s condition, because her insurance company could not help her.
“They told me I did not follow procedure,” she says.
Her daughter’s treatment and lodging cost about US$45,000.
Pamela is now happy her daughter’s life was saved – she calls it a “miracle”.  But she is not oblivious of the many people who die trying to get medical treatment abroad, but cannot afford it.
She says through her daughter’s sickness she came across many children in need but could not afford treatment abroad.
“I had to use up all of my savings, but what about that person who comes from a low income family or from the village, what happens to them?”
Her hope now is that many people could be given a chance to access better medical treatment abroad just like her daughter.
In fact, a week before I talked to Pamela about her daughter, a colleague of mine had lost his sister who had been on a waiting list for government sponsorship for medical treatment abroad. She died on the queue.
Most medical treatments abroad cost over K100,000, a life’s fortune for many poor families.
Those unable to foot the bill are assessed by a team of doctors and then put on a long list of patients for Government sponsorship, and hope they get evacuated before their condition worsens.
Many do get help, but many don’t.
But for some people, even getting the right information about the new concept of medical tourism is hard. How do you know where to go, and how much it will cost?
Medical tourism is a fast-growing industry. According to Patients Without Borders publishing group, the industry is now valued at around €80 billion worldwide, with 20 to 24 million patients travelling for medical treatments annually.
Mitika Gupta is co-founder of the Lyfboat Zambia.
She is a computer engineer who worked for Microsoft and Amazon but quit her job to help found Lyfboat.
Mitika says it is important for patients to have sufficient knowledge about their condition and the procedure required, as well as the hospitals best suited to deal with the condition before they can jump on a plane.
She says Lyfboat gives patients the chance to compare hospital fees, while at the same time getting doctors’ opinions before they even set out on an expensive trip abroad.
For Mitika, her biggest satisfaction is to see sick people get well.
She hopes the company will in future be able to help some poor patients to get on the plane to seek medical attention abroad.
She wants a stronger linkage between Zambian and Indian doctors.
Anuj Gupta, who is chief executive officer and founder of Lyfboat Zambia, has a personal story to tell about medical tourism.
He writes on the company’s website: “I consider myself a child of the global age. I was born and raised in Zambia to Indian parents. I studied in the US, and then worked at various multinational companies before moving to India to start my own IT consulting firm. With such a diverse background, I am fortunate to have friends, family and a network in all parts of the world.
“My global network didn’t matter however, when my father fell seriously ill and had to travel from Zambia to India for medical care. Suddenly, my world was turned upside down. When mortality stares you in the face, you feel fear that you have never imagined before. The only thing that matered was that my father got better. I wanted to find the best and most trusted care for my father. I talked to multiple people, who offered varied opinions and suggestions, but I was on information overload trying to keep track of all the feedback and was still not convinced of the ‘right’ choice. Thankfully, my elder sister, who is a doctor and works with several doctors and hospitals in India, helped assess our options and make the right decision for my father’s care; opinions are always plenty, but picking the right one can be the difference between a life saved and a life lost.”
Anuj adds: My father was treated and is healthy today, but the journey to good health was not easy. I wish there was a Lyfboat then – to provide the information and tools to research treatment options, prices and get trusted opinions all in a single solution.”
“Lyfboat is not just a start up for us. It is our purpose, of helping others, being manifested. If Lyfboat can help you or your loved ones find the information you require, to get the right treatment at prices you can afford, I would consider our work a success,” Anuj says.