GAZA, (PIC)
The danger threatening kidney failure patients in the Gaza Strip is no longer caused by bombing or the collapse of hospitals alone, but has also become linked to the shortage of a medical substance whose price does not exceed one dollar.
With the running out of “bicarbonate”, an essential substance for operating kidney dialysis machines, hundreds of patients have entered an extremely dangerous stage, at a time when medical teams warn that the continuation of the crisis could turn life-saving treatment sessions into insufficient procedures, leading gradually to death.
The crisis worsens day after day inside kidney dialysis departments, where hospitals have been forced to reduce treatment hours and the number of weekly sessions, in a desperate attempt to prolong the remaining medical supplies, while patients pay the price of this shortage from their health and lives.
A missing substance, and the lives of hundreds of patients at stake
The director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, Dr. Mohammad Abu Salmiya, warns that the running out of “bicarbonate” threatens the lives of about 650 kidney dialysis patients in the Gaza Strip, confirming that this substance, despite its low price, is an essential element that cannot be dispensed with in kidney dialysis sessions.
He said in a statement to the PIC reporter that the continuation of its absence means depriving patients of full treatment, which may lead to serious complications that directly threaten their lives. Reducing treatment sessions, a forced decision
Because of the acute shortage of supplies, medical teams were forced to reduce the duration of the kidney dialysis session from four hours to only two and a half hours, and the number of weekly sessions was also reduced from three to two.
Dr. Mahmoud Shehada, a kidney disease specialist, confirms that this procedure does not represent sufficient treatment, but rather a forced attempt to maintain the largest possible number of patients in light of the continuous running out of medical supplies.
Serious health repercussions
Shehada warns that reducing kidney dialysis sessions leads to the accumulation of toxins and fluids inside the bodies of patients, which raises the chances of suffering from serious complications including heart disorders, high potassium levels, shortness of breath, and loss of consciousness, and it may end in death if the situation continues.
He points out that kidney failure patients depend completely on regular dialysis sessions, and that any delay or reduction in treatment directly reflects on their chances of survival.
A cry from inside the hospitals
Dr. Abu Salmiya, said, “Is it reasonable that 650 kidney dialysis patients lose their lives because of the bicarbonate substance whose price does not exceed one dollar?
We have already started reducing kidney dialysis sessions from four hours to two and a half hours, and from three sessions weekly to two, and this poses a real danger to the lives of patients … save kidney dialysis patients.”
An appeal to save the patients
In light of the continuation of the siege and preventing the entry of medical supplies, fears are increasing over the transformation of the “bicarbonate” shortage crisis into a new humanitarian catastrophe added to the series of collapses witnessed by the health sector in Gaza.
Doctors and health institutions demand the international community and humanitarian organizations to take urgent action to bring in life-saving medical supplies, confirming that every hour of delay means the approach of more patients to death, at a time when they could have been saved by a cheap medical substance.