'I call people and beg for help' - Renal patient shares how he's financing his treatment

A renal patient, Micheal Asante, has opened up on how he is coping with the cost of treatment.

Speaking with GhanaWeb’s Ishmael Batoma on the latest edition of #SayItLoud on GhanaWeb TV, he shared that the cost of each dialysis session is so expensive that he mostly relies on family and friends, even to the extent of calling people to beg for help in order to afford his treatment.

“It’s not been easy. Mostly, I have to depend on friends and family. I’d have to say most of the time I have to call people and ask for help; for support. Wherever the support will come from; whichever amount. Sometimes, I also get support from my church members.

"I also ask people for support. That is how I have been managing this situation. It’s not easy to work with this condition when you are in the private sector because they require a lot of us. It hasn’t been easy. Mostly I had to depend on friends and family,” he told the host.

When he was first diagnosed, Michael tried to continue working so he could support himself financially but had to quit working after suffering a stroke in 2021, four years after his diagnosis.

Not only did this end his career, his dreams of going to law school also ended.

“I used to work with an insurance company. I was forced to stop and quit the law programme. In 2021, I was forced to stop because I had a severe stroke from the condition. There was too much stress. I had to stop the programme and also resign from the insurance company.

"I had to stop because the family got involved and said that if I kept stressing myself, things might get out of hand. How I recovered from that strong in 2021, I still do not know, but, in the end, I realised that I had to stop the programme and resign,” he added.

Micheal mentioned that though he is advised to have three dialysis sessions a day, due to financial difficulties, he is unable to follow that recommendation and instead has two but he is forced to have just one session at private health facilities when the renal unit at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital is closed.

He said “The advice is for me to do three but usually because of the financial cost involved, I do two and since they even closed the unit down, I’ve been forced to do one session in a week because I can’t afford the amount the private dialysis centres are charging for two dialysis in a week. It’s not easy so I’m forced to do one session in a week.”

He added that he often schedules his dialysis session in the middle of the week to help manage his condition for the remaining days.

Watch Micheal Asante's interview with Ishmael Batoma below:





VKB/ ADG