By Trevor Makonyonga
“Saturday was a crap day. One day I’ll write a thread about being a chronic patient in Zimbabwe. All i can say for now is that it’s the pits. #ZimbabaweanLivesMatter #ZanupfMustGo”
This was the last tweet of the late Sidumisile Moyo, a kidney patient. Her tweet was filled with emotions and pain and she promised to write a thread which she never had a chance to write and all we can do is make meaning out of the words of others who are experiencing what she felt during her lifetime.
Sidumisile’s case is one of many which spotlights the collapse of the country’s health care system and how it has become scary to even fall ill.
Most people are dying way before their time because of the current state of hospitals where nurses and doctors have abandoned their workstations citing incapacitation and most people feel that the government has failed.
The Kidney Trust Zimbabwe tweeted, “It is with a heavy heart that we inform you of the passing of Sdumie C Moyo. @AyamaahSoul. A daughter.. A sister. An aunt. A friend. A completed work. 29.06.1991 – 10.08.2020.”
They then narrated what it is like to be a kidney patient.
The Trust tweeted, “So here we are, in need of emergency dalysis and ICU admission. Mater dei hospital demanded 3,100usd up front, Mpilo hospital ICU is only taking ONE patient. Yet a civil servant earns the equivalent of 30usd. Chronically ill patients matter too. #ZimbabweanLivesMatter
“As if that wasn’t enough, the ambulance service demanded 29usd up front, then our friends at the blood services are demanding $140usd for a single pint of blood. All that and an additional 140usd worth of dialysis consumables per session. #ZimbabaweanLivesMatter.”
This is the situation on the ground which has led to the majority of Zimbabweans to start the #ZimbabweanLivesMatter movement.
When people lose their lives in an unwarranted way and when their basic human rights to health, water, life and education it is important to focus on reminding those in charge that lives of the citizens matter.
Here is what remains when people lose their loved ones in a manner they know could have been easily reversed.
“Baby sis. I’m broken. As your last words echo through time and space, @it_is_i_dalud and I owe it to you, to press on. We will forever love and cherish you. Hugs and kisses. #ZimbabaweanLivesMatter.
“This didn’t have to be your last tweet sis…I know what you went through but I just wish you could have held on a bit longer. Maybe if you would have gotten your dialysis session and that blood transfusion, you’d be here now. Mom, Dad, @iamndue and I will always love you.”
These were the tweets of the siblings of the late who are mourning their sister.
As COVID-19 is ravaging through the land, most people haven’t been tested and some relatives are only finding out that their loved ones had the virus after they have passed on.
Something needs to be done as soon as possible to revamp these ailing but important sector. Put politics aside and make the country great again!
