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A long and winding road to recovery
By Lan Tian, Song Jing and Liang Qiwen (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-28 11:00 Tears trickled down Hu Ailing's wrinkled, dark face as Beijing health officials confiscated three dialysis machines. Leaning against the open gate of the courtyard where workers were loading them onto a truck, the devastated 54-year-old could only repeat: "The machines are our kidneys. They are taking away our kidneys."
For four years, the four men and six women, who all have kidney failure, visited the courtyard at least once every three days to use the equipment, operating the machines manually, which helped to reduce their medical expenses by three quarters. But on April 2, Tongzhou health bureau decided to confiscate the machines, deeming it an unlicensed medical practice.
A former fruit vendor from Wangzhuang village in Inner Mongolia, his nephritis developed into uremia 13 years ago, with his family spending 600,000 yuan ($88,000) on medical bills. In the end, he abandoned his young wife and aging parents in search of better and cheaper treatment. He said kidney dialysis cost more than 500 yuan each time at the public hospital in his hometown, 50 percent of which could be paid for by the rural health insurance, but it only cost 80 yuan each time using their own machines. Wu Ming, a professor at Peking University's school of public health, said: "Without permission from an authority, the medical practice has many safety risks. But it's understandable patients want to treat themselves at home due to the high medical expense." |
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