Pemba lacks beds for spinal cord fracture patients

8th November 2011

Chake Chake hospital in Pemba is facing a shortage of special beds for patients suffering from spinal cord fracture as well as specialized nurses.

This was explained by specialist surgeon Dr Shabani Issa over the weekend in an interview with The Guardian about people who had fractured their spinal cords after falling from clove trees during harvesting.

He said people suffering from spinal cord fractures needed special beds which were currently not available in the Isles.

“Such patients are never allowed to stand up and go to the toilet, for instance. They are supposed to remain where they are all the time," he stressed.

He said the number of patients always went up during the clove-harvesting season and that the ultimate result was paralysis if not death.

The specialist surgeon said that using normal beds for such patients resulted in increased pain. He added that lack of wheelchairs also complicated their care and treatment.

Dr Shabani said that apart from the shortage of the special beds, the hospital lacked trained nurses to take care of people suffering from spinal cords, and that the few who were got married and moved elsewhere.

He said this affected the kind of care and timing of taking medicine for the patients. He called for the training of more people in administering first aid in case a person fell off a tree.

“The people need to be trained on best practices of handling people falling off from clove trees. Proper handling is critical, as it could decide whether a patient would end up paralysed or not," said Dr Shabani.

Pemba North Regional Police Commander Rashid Yahaya Bugi said that in Micheweni district 39 people fell off clove trees this harvest season.

He said among the victims were children. He called on the people to take such patients to hospital instead of keeping them at home.

Some of the interviewed victims said they were surprised to be asked to produce Police Form 3 before treatment, and wondered whether they were not entitled to compensation.

Zanzibar Trade Corporation (ZSTC) general manager Suleiman Juma Jongo confirmed that the victims were indeed entitle to compensation. He said the government of Zanzibar was planning to buy 3000 tonnes of cloves this year and that already 28bn/- had been set aside for the purpose.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN