45000

A few weeks ago, we brought an eight-year old girl from Magu District Hospital to Bugando. She had a worrisome abdominal mass that turned out to be Burkitt’s Lymphoma, a form of cancer quite common among children in this part of Africa.

Last week, I tried to follow up on her condition (I had been working in the outpatient clinic and not on the wards where she was staying), but couldn’t find her or her medical records anywhere.  I asked other doctors and nurses, but no one could remember what happened.  At Bugando, a lot of precious time is lost in trying to find missing records, equipment, and people.  After a few days of searching, the records were finally found. She had died shortly after arriving at Bugando.

What struck me was how much her stay at the hospital cost. Children under 5 years of age are supposed to receive free hospital care in Tanzania. But families with children over 5 are on their own. When parents bring their children to Bugando, expenses add up quickly.  

This girl had stayed at Bugando for only 4 days but after an ultra-sound, an x-ray and some medications, the bill for this little girl came out to 45,000 shilings. This amount represented probably more than half of her family’s income for the month since the average Tanzanian salary is about 80,000 to 100,000 shilings per month, or $60 to $75 US.

I was grieved for her family, and wondered how they felt, after having traveled this far, and spent so much money to have her life snuffed out so quickly.