A hospital visit

Yesterday I went with 3 GC staff to pay a visit to one of the main hospitals in town where people living with AIDS are treated. We saw three people who are currently getting treated for AIDS-related symptoms, people who for various reasons have not started antiretroviral therapy. This is one of the best hospitals in town, but still by Western standards it's shockingly dirty, full of people - which in a way is nice, because when someone takes ill often the whole family or at least 2-3 members basically camp out with the patient to keep them company and help them out. But the bad side (particularly if you don't have much money) is that as in the case of this first patient, he came in the night before around 7pm and it took until past 10pm that they finally got him into a room. (Of course, there are many nightmare stories in the US where it takes much longer than that!) He was very, very thin, could barely lift his head. 10 years ago he left Makassar and went to another city where he was involved in lots of drag shows, was a well-known community leader. But a few months ago decided to move back here because he was getting so sick. To be near his mother, who was sitting there right beside him, calm but worried, with thick glasses. She knows everything and is very supportive. Hopefully GC can help get him set up on antiretrovirals as quickly as possible.

After spending 20 minutes or so with this first person, we said goodbye and went to the second room--like the first, a room where it's 4 patients to one room. When we walked in the second room, we walked toward the bed of the second patient and he called out Tom! Someone who knew Bill and I from 2000, so we caught up and he wanted to know all about my becoming a professor. I barely recognized him - not as sick as the first person, but also very thin and weak. Sitting up in bed but definitely not doing well - hasn't been able to work for two weeks. He was getting a T4 cell count (this is important for HIV management) done for the first time that very day and with that data might be able to get antiretrovirals soon. The cell count lab test costs 700,000 rupiah - a little over 70 dollars, which is a month's salary or more for many people here. The government is supposed to pay but apparently the lab folks where trying to get his family to front the cost - sounds like it got worked out.

The third room was the hardest - a larger room, 8 patients to the room, and all of them persons with AIDS. 7 out of 8 were injecting drug users, the 8th a gay man GC is providing support to. He's been here for several weeks and the GC staff are worried he's getting depressed and that's going to effect his health even more. As with the first two patients, there were family members there, so we talked to them a bit about ideas for cheering him up. We also talked a bit to the person in the bed next to him - an injecting drug user, but lonely for some company and advise, so we chatted him up to. There just aren't enough NGO workers to go around right now. The nurse in charge of the room, which is basically known as an AIDS ward, a young man, was very nice and clearly competent - I'm thankful for that. But I've heard stories of doctors and nurses walking right up to the beds of AIDS patients and saying "this is what you get for having sinned - you should think about that!" Looking at the room full of thin men - all men - and their families fretting over them, I couldn't help thinking, this is going to be the future of Indonesia if prevention efforts aren't scaled up. More and more hospitals where more and more beds get taken up by AIDS patients, more needless suffering.