WHO KILLED ROSARIO?

Question WHO KILLED ROSARIO?ROSARIO lived and died in Tanyong. The youngest of four children, she resembled most of the other infants in the community: under-nourished and pot-bellied from intestinal parasites. She and her siblings were all fed on condensed milk, her mother having been advised not to breastfeed because a doctor said that she had a ‘heart condition’. Rosario had constant bouts of diarrhoea and respiratory infections. But it was not until she went down with measles, complicated by coughing and diarrhoea, that her parents decided to take her to a health centre.The physician there prescribed three drugs that would last four days. The cost of the drugs was $4.50, equivalent to three days wages for Rosario’s father. Since Rosario did not seem to be responding to the treatment and because the family did not have the wherewithal to buy more drugs, the treatment was stopped. Rosario’s condition worsened. After her parents had borrowed a further $7.50, they took her to a private hospital. The cost of the overnight stay plus dextrose and other drugs came to $15. She was brought back home and died within a week. Rosario was a year and a half old. The story of Rosario is a factual case study used by Philippine health groups to explain the health care system. The setting is the barrio Tanyong, one of the more than 600 slum colonies of Metro Manila. Some 8,000 people are crammed into five hectares of land, living next to a polluted river which in the rainy season literally submerges houses with flash floods. In the summer stagnant water sends up a foul stench.Question.Reaction on why Rosario died, and give recommendations to prevent the death of another “Rosario”.  Health Science Science Nursing Share QuestionEmailCopy link Comments (0)