With our Cathay Pacific Airways partnership, we can take the money saved from airline travel across the globe and use it directly for patient care.
Like for Rigita.
Rigita was eleven when she first started showing
symptoms of epilepsy.
The seizures terrified her family. Their first resort was a mix of financially back-breaking medical treatment and traditional medicine.
Rigita was first taken to India (where her father works), where she endured x-rays and other expensive tests. However, the doctors couldn’t diagnose anything. Her family back in Nepal was also organizing traditional Shaman visits, hoping it might improve the situation.
In rural Nepal, the seizures caused by epilepsy are routinely ascribed to a possessive spirit, and it isn’t easy to reject this sort of diagnosis made by elders.
“What can you do when the elders are involved?”
Rigita’s sister-in-law said with a hapless smile.
The family was confused, and deeply frustrated to see Rigita face a crippling and seemingly incurable illness. She would not talk coherently and had to be taken out of school. Her mother had difficulty taking care of her since she already had an overwhelming number of household chores.
A large number of patients taking medication for epilepsy have the chance to recover. But they need to continually take the right medicine — sometimes for years .
So when Rigita didn’t get better right away, they simply stopped trying to seek treatment.
Ayear ago, our Community Health team started implementing a home-visit program, which means community health workers visit patients with chronic diseases (like epilepsy), pregnant women, and new mothers in their village, bringing care closer to the patient.
Sunita Kumal, one of Possible’s community health workers who works in the village Rigita lives, began routinely checking on her.
She tried to persuade her family to take Rigita to Possible’s hospital hub for a thorough exam:
“They kept saying tomorrow or the day after, and kept avoiding it,”
she says.
But Kumal persisted, explaining treatment would work as long as she consistently took her medicine.
Finally, they listened.
Now, Rigita has been taking her medication for more than a year now, and Kumal still visits her home on a regular basis to make sure her condition is improving.
“It has been drastic… I can tell you that much!” Kumal says.
“She would not speak a word, would not even look at you. Now she is talking! Whenever she sees me up at the hill during visits she calls out to me, ‘When are you coming to my house!’”
We asked Rigita what she wants to do now that her health is back on track. “Go to school,” she said shyly. She has missed out on a number of years because of epilepsy, but says she wouldn’t mind going back to where she’d left it.
Cathay Pacific Airway’s support of our integrated healthcare model means we can track a patient’s health from their home, and take care of them throughout their entire life, instead of providing short-term solutions. This is critical for patients with chronic diseases, like Rigita, who need continuous and dignified healthcare — care that solves for the patient.
