We visited Amna in Pulau Penang Hospital in Penang, Malaysia on October 30th. It was amazing to finally meet her and her mother (we already knew Rizal, her father, quite well). I was nevertheless very frustrated not to be able to tell her in her own language all that was being done for her around the world.
Amna seemed ok, even though very fin and tired. We gave her a teddy bear: I remembered the importance of “the teddy bear” when my friend Adam had leukemia. Also, it’s well known that a teddy bear helps you to sleep, to not be afraid of the dark, to talk to… She was just thrilled.
The hospital was not as bad as we had expected it to be: for a public Malaysian hospital, it was actually pretty good. Nevertheless, not reaching the standards you can get back home. The Children’s department is a big room with dozens of beds lined up together: no intimacy for the children and their families. Also, children are not separated according to their illnesses. Nobody asked us to wash our hands before entering: you can actually enter and leave the room without being asked anything. The doors of the room are wide open.. a few meters from the street, the market, the pollution..
I was lucky to be able to meet Amna’s doctor, Doctor Yeuh. I told her that we were trying to financially help Amna’s family and that we also wanted to make sure her transplant would take place in a good hospital. Doctor Yeuh kindly took some time to explain to me several things:
Not being of Malaysian nationality, Amna’s medical expenses are entirely at charge of her family.
It is not possible for Amna to be transplanted in Penang, as no hospital or clinic actually do this kind of operation. She would need to go to Kuala Lumpur. Doctor Yeuh has already contacted the two public hospital in KL that do the transplants: Amna has been put on a waiting list. The reality is that she will never be operated in time. Which leaves us with the private hospital: but the cost of the transplant in one of those is just simply not affordable.
Amna’s sisters need to be tested for the transplant as soon as possible. The quicker the better.
If we had the financial possibility to put Amna back in the first hospital she was in (better standards), we would have to get a recommendation from Dr. Yeuh.
The Junaedis went back to Banda Aceh with Amna the next day. Amna had finished her chemo and wanted to go see her sisters. Although doctor Yeuh said there was a huge risk of infections, there was no possibility for the family to stay in Penang until the next chemo.
I visited them at their home in Banda Aceh a week later. Amna seemed ok, and she was very happy to be home with her sisters. Friends had come buy, and that seemed to give her strength.
Since then, Amna has been back to Penang for her fourth chemo, an dis coming back to Banda in a few days. I should be going and seeing her them.
Emily