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'Already happy with a paracetamol'

Doctor Ilse Zaal offers primary care to refugees in Hungary as a volunteer. For example, she visits a care institution in Fülpösdarócz, where refugees...


Ilse Zaal, doctor for the mentally handicapped and trainee palliative care physician, has traveled to the Hungarian village of Beregsurány. As a volunteer she offers primary care to refugees for ten days. She is staying in a temporary aid station about a mile from the Ukrainian border. Her journey is an adventure, special and also exciting. Because what does Ilse find? How can it be significant? Ilse gives a personal insight into her diary three times. Follow her second story here.

“Today I visited a care facility in Fülpösdarócz. About 60 patients with intellectual disabilities and/or psychiatric problems live there. About 25 of them are refugees from Ukraine for whom access to specialized medical care is difficult. For transport to the hospital, as long as it is not an emergency, they depend on the willingness of the mayor to take them there. Only four carers are employed on a total of 60 patients.

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Often no help
And so I met a young woman with a low IQ. She had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, but was no longer taking antipsychotics. She received no help for her psychiatric problems. Through an interpreter I found out that she had delusions. Everyone knew her because she drank too much alcohol every day and became aggressive.
Another woman with two young children was deaf. Her eldest daughter had good hearing, but had a significant speech delay. Probably because her mother didn't talk. Due to her psychological problems, she and her children often retreated to the unhygienic room. And a huge mess. There is no help available for them either. Aside from a busy carer then. Who - when we were there - got mad at her for not cleaning up yet…

 

Already happy with a paracetamol
Down the hall was a young couple with two young children, both with progressive metabolic disease. In Ukraine, the children received enzyme therapy to slow the progression of the disease. But this had stopped since the flight to Hungary. The parents have been trying to regain access to this costly therapy, but so far without success.

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Both children clearly had trouble breathing. It took them a lot of effort and they looked tired with minimal effort. In the Netherlands they would get puffers to relieve these complaints. To make these puffers work properly, a spacer is needed, but they didn't have one. Their respiratory complaints have therefore increased considerably. In the Netherlands, these children would receive pediatric palliative care, with attention for physical, psychological, social and spiritual problems. Here in Hungary I made mother happy with paracetamol and reflux medication.

And of course I've been busy arranging a space-saver room, but I haven't succeeded yet. In extreme cases, I will send one when I am back in the Netherlands."

Read Ilse's first blog here


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