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Israel Rivas Bastidas, father of a four-year-old girl with leukemia (cancer), demanded Secretary of Health of the federal government, Jorge Alcocer, a public apology after he said the medicine methotrexate is a secondary component in the chemotherapies Y If it is not supplied for a few days, there is no medical urgency.
Rivas Bastidas, Accompanied by other fathers and mothers with children in the same condition, accused that Alcocer Varela had a lapsus brutus and asked to recognize that He was wrong and would do a lot of apology, because he offended them, because methotrexate is 85% of cancer treatment And it is irreplaceable.
“Here it is, Mr. Secretary, everything in blue, look if you can see it, the methotrexate. We took out the bill yesterday with my wife, it's more than 85% methotrexate, imagine, said the same doctor, who is also a irreplaceable medication in the treatment for children with leukemia, it seems to me that the secretary had a lapsus brutus, and that it is very human to acknowledge that he was wrong, and that it would do us much good to ask us for an apology as parents, because he did offend us”Said one of those affected.
The father went to the Chamber of Deputies to a meeting with the president of the Commission on the Rights of Children and Adolescents, Rosalba Valencia (Morena), to request help for the shortage of that medicine in the Federico Gómez hospitals of the Ministry of Health and November 20 of the ISSSTE.
It should be remembered that some of these fathers and mothers blocked access to Terminal 1 of the International Airport of Mexico City last Monday due to the lack of the drug used for the chemotherapies of minors.
At the meeting, Rivas Bastidas said that the deputy offered them that she will press for the supply of medicines to be restored.
“How do you think we feel like parents after this guy (from the secretary's answer) we asked our parents… if they were their children, what would they do? Would the secretary of Health feel calm if he had a daughter of four years and a half who are not giving him chemotherapy ?, would he be calm ?, is a question we ask ourselves to the parents, or to the media I ask you another question, go to the Hospital Angeles de México, to the Hospital Médica Sur, do you think that Is there a shortage of methotrexate for children in hospitals of that private level? Noooo! Why? Because it pays, ”he added.
He also questioned whether in private hospitals, where you pay for consultations, there would also be a shortage of this medicine and said no, because there you pay … but “we who are not economically able to have a child in a hospital of that level Well, yes, take the scrub. ”
He requested a meeting with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, since he said that they have requested it for three months but have not responded. He revealed that the metrotexate treatment has a cost of between 380 pesos and 30 thousand pesos per dose and asked the President to accompany them to a chemotherapy session so that the children captivate him.
“That he attends us and that he comes to see our children, because many tell him that we are infiltrated, that we are paid by someone, we invite him to live one day. I do not know if he has incorrect data, I suppose they do report it badly, but we invite him to meet our children, who will captivate him, and to live a day of chemotherapy with them, ”said the father.
He warned that as long as there are no medications, the struggle of the parents will continue, as they analyze the promotion of protection, even before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and also maintain social protest in the streets.
Deputy Rosalba Valencia promised to be an interlocutor between parents, the Secretary of Health and officials of the Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks (Cofepris), to address this problem.
He acknowledged that Alcocer Varela's comment was “very unfortunate. I don't know how many pressures the health secretary brings, but he as a doctor is a sensitive person; however, they are also human, and as humans we also sometimes make mistakes, ”said the legislator of Morena.