When Dr. Saira S. Khan enters the cancer ward of the JPMC one can se the signs of hope in the pain-ravaged, poverty-stricken patients lying there.
She goes around every day providing succoaur, talking toe patients, explaining what is being done for many expensive drugs prescribed for them so that the “regime” of medicine would not be broken.
She hands over some money to the mother of a 13-year old boy who has been discharged so that he can be taken back to Shikarpur; she also arranges for ration to be sent to the family of an old man- the bread winner who has been devastated by cancer for months, unable to earn an income.
While talking to one patient in pushto, she arranges to relieve the misery from a distended abdomen, then she goes on and tells another woman in Bengali that she’s going to be all right.
None of these patients are going to survive. They are all terminally ill. Chemotherapy by has rendered them bald and burnt their skin. They are continuously nauseous and in unimaginable pain. Dr. Saira asks, ‘Can they not die in dignity and space?’
Dr. Saira is not employed by the JPMC but has been a daily visitor to the cancer ward since 1972, providing counseling, medicines, soup, porridge, fruit juices and arranging for the dead to be taken away by their near and dear ones in dignity.
This slow, painful death of a cancer patient need not be so. For one, if the disease is detected early, cure is almost certain. If the disease has spread its tentacles deep into the body the agony of the living dying patient can be reduced by proper medical and nursing care.
Both of these Dr. Saira has striven to provide at first on her own and now through the Medical Aid Foundation organized by her to such an end. She has succeeded in bringing into its fold many caring people who give time and money to this cause.
Dr. Saira’s deep involvement with the prevention of cancer and the subsequent setting up of Early Detection Centers at Neelam Colony, a slum in the backyard of affluent Clifton, and at Mahmoodabad, with plans for setting up many more around Karachi, began at JPMC when she observed that the wards were full of terminally ill patients. Where as with the advancement is Cancer Research the world over, cure is not very difficulty. Here just because diagnosis is delayed the patient would die.
Also over the years she saw that due to the heavy rush and the apathy prevailing in Government hospitals a woman who, for instance, would come with a small lump in her breast, ended up with a fungal breast, before her turn for a biopsy would come around. From a curable patient the woman had become one who would probably end her life in agony.
So early detection was an absolute necessity. To this end public awareness would have to be created, so that any recurring fever, or a seemingly early on and the chance that the man, woman or child has cancer can be eliminated.
Also detection work should be facilitated for all income groups, especially the under-privileged who have nowhere to go but to the overburdened, under-managed government hospitals.
The early Detection center at Neelam Colony was set up in May, 1989, and has already examined over 500 patients for cancer. Fifteen where found to be afflicted with the disease in the early stages and thus saved from the devastating end.
What strikes one at the Clinic is the information given to the residents in bold letters in Urdu over white-washed walls, regarding the seven signs to look out for in their bodies which could be a massages the cancer has invaded the tissues and organs. Many men, women and children have come, or have been brought to the Clinic for examination when they felt that one or more of these symptoms were present.
Women are taught how to examine their breasts for lumps. Facility has been provided to have a biopsy of any lump discovered.
Pap smears to detect cervical cancer which, along with breast cancer, accounts for the largest number of women suffers is done at the center a regular basis.
The full time doctors trained at detecting cancer are present at the center. Which also provides routine vaccination for children and deals with the various medical problems of the residents.
All cancer detection work is done free, whereas for any medicine given out by the center Rs. 5 is charged.
Dr. Saira’s contention that cancer can ravage the whole family leads her to engage herself in active counseling of both patient and family members. She goes door to door whenever she hears of a patient through the hospital or friends or anywhere and talks to the children and the spouses, trying to alleviate some of their fears.
She has come across many men and women with open fungal cancerous wound letting out such a foul dour that it drives everyone away. Such persons lie dying with no one except the very near ones venturing close to the bedside which, in most cases, consists of a rag-like sheet thrown over a bed in the remotest corner of the house.
Even today, with the advancement in hygiene, it is not uncommon to see men and women with festering wounds and maggots crawling around. These sights never deter her, in fact they strengthen Dr. Sairs’s resolve to work hard at finding a means whereby such gross inhuman conditions can be eradicated.
The revelation to the family of the cancer patient can be quite shattering especially if the family happens to be not of any considerable means. It is common to see the children of dying women in the cancer ward to be wandering around the hospital since the father has to go to work and there is no one to look after them at home.
If the patient happens to be the bread winner then use medical expenses reduce the famous to total destitution. In any case the family sells, borrows and uses up every resource available to them to pay the hospital and drug charges.
Many a time Dr. Saira has regularly supplied ration to a stricken family to tied over bad times, or has arranged to re-equip a rehri wallah’s cart so that he can go ahead with his work.
The family of the cancer patient needs as much support as possible. If only well-to-do individuals-and they are innumerable such beings in Karachi would “adopt” a patient each, see to their medicines and help tide over the crises, many families would be saved from total destruction. The Medical Aid Foundation tries to do as much us can be done with its limited resources.
This brings us to the question of fund raising. Dr. Saira refuses to organize big extravaganzas to raise funds. Why do people have to be entertained to help the dying and suffering? So much time and effort is used in organizing these Charity shows and the whole issue becomes lopsided. |
