Pretoria - Potentially life-saving treatment came too late for a 27-year-old Ethiopian refugee to South Africa, who was due to ask the high court on Tuesday to force health authorities to give him dialysis.
Badesa Fokora died shortly before Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) could fight the system on his behalf.
Fokora had been refused dialysis at the Helen Joseph Hospital – he did not qualify for a kidney transplant because hewas a foreign national.
As a result he left the hospital and residents took him to the LHR office. “When he came here he was not even able to leave the car and he eventually collapsed,” said David Cote, of LHR. He was rushed to the Kalafong Hospital but died soon after.
Fokora was in South Africa on a valid refugee permit and healthy while he worked here as a shopkeeper. He fell ill about a month ago and residents took him to the Helen Joseph Hospital, where he was diagnosed with double kidney failure.
He was classified as an emergency patient and doctors agreed he urgently needed to be placed on to the chronic treatment programme to survive. This involved dialysis and an organ transplant. But the doctors said he could not be placed on the programme as he was not a South African citizen.
The hospital confirmed his condition was life threatening, but said due to the National Health Act, it could simply not help him as the programme was not available to foreign nationals.
LHR had planned to challenge this decision and compel the health minister to exercise his discretion to have Fokora placed on treatment.
LHR, watchdog for the vulnerable, also planned on challenging the exclusion of refugees from medial treatment.
In court papers drawn up before Fokora’s death and with the aim of convincing the court to order his treatment, it was said that his health was deteriorating by the hour and that death was imminent if he did not urgently get help.
LHR stated that it was only policy that stood between Fokora and life-saving treatment. They were due to argue on Tuesday that the policy which prevents refugees from being placed on the chronic renal treatment programme, was unconstitutional. This argument included that refugees mainly fled their countries of origin and could not go back if they needed life-saving treatment. LHR said it also violated the right to life for all as enshrined in the Constitution.
“LHR is disappointed that a young man has died under preventable circumstances. The National Health Act is clear that the minister has a discretion to order chronic renal treatment to foreign nationals.
The manner in which the (health) department has treated Mr Fokora is a gross and unjustifiable violation of his rights to health care, dignity and life,” said LHR lawyer Patricia Erasmus.
Pretoria News