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Help Asylum Seeker with Emergency Surgery!

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URGENT: Help cover the costs of an emergency myomectomy [surgery to remove non-cancerous growths in the uterus] for an asylum seeker in Athens! N. is suffering from uterine fibroids, causing intense pelvic pain and heavy bleeding. After months of inaction and not receiving treatment from federal authorities, N.’s only surgical option to avoid a hysterectomy, or a total removal of the uterus to treat fibroids, is to receive care at a private facility but she cannot afford the surgery. Help N. avoid a total hysterectomy and sterilization at 23-years-old.

 

BACKGROUND:

 

N. is a 23-year-old Congolese national and asylum seeker in Greece. She was diagnosed with a uterine fibroid upon her arrival at Samos in November 2019. Despite the doctor’s assessment that N. required urgent surgery, which could not be performed at Samos, she was not allowed to leave the island but instead was forced to stay in the dire living conditions in the so-called ‘hotspot’ on Samos. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) eventually granted N. an interim measure under Rule 39 of the court. The ruling, issued on 12.3.2020, required Greek authorities to transfer the applicant to a location where she would receive timely and unobstructed access to healthcare relative to her state of health. N. was not actually transferred off of Samos until 14.5.2020, two full months after the court’s emergency ruling. She was relocated to Ioannina, but did not receive the surgery necessary to remove the tumor from her uterus.

 

After several months without receiving treatment, and facing worsening symptoms, N. made the decision to travel to Athens, where she was told hospitals would be more equipped to treat her fibroid, in comparison to the smaller countryside hospitals of Ioannina. N. was forced into homelessness upon her move to Athens, with her only source of income being cash assistance from UNHCR amounting to 150 EUR per month. Her condition necessitates the use of large sanitary products to account for heavy vaginal bleeding, as well as painkillers to treat the daily pelvic pressure, backaches and leg pain. These expenses depleted most of her monthly income, leaving little for food, let alone money for rent. Fortunately, a friend eventually agreed to let N. sleep in his flat as a guest.

 

Athens went into a strict lockdown in November 2020 in the face of rising COVID-19 cases. After the lockdown was lifted, N. was finally able to access public and private healthcare. She first went to a public hospital on 26.3.2021 and received a tomography and MRI. The doctors confirmed the presence of a uterine fibroid more than a year after her initial diagnosis. However, they told N. that because of the growth of the fibroid and the time spent without treatment, they did not have the capability to remove the fibroid without completely removing N.’s uterus. This hysterectomy would leave the otherwise healthy 23-year-old infertile.

 

A devastated N. sought out a second opinion, and was put in contact with Vassili A, an IVF and fertility specialist at a private clinic, in May 2021. Doctor A. is an expert in the field of fibroids, and told N. he could perform a myomectomy, which would remove only the fibroid while leaving N.’s uterus intact, allowing her to have children in the future. The myomectomy is a serious intervention which would cost the applicant 3500 EUR.

 

N.’s PAAYPA card, which provides asylum seekers with access to healthcare in Greece, does not cover any kind of private healthcare, and N. would therefore be forced to pay for the costs of the surgery out of pocket. With her only income being the monthly 150 EUR from the UNHCR, this is not feasible.

 

Despite the ECHR ruling that the Greek government was required to guarantee the applicant with timely and unobstructed access to adequate healthcare on 12.3.2020 (N.O. v. Greece, no. 13086/20), authorities have refused to provide the applicant with the surgery urgently needed, more than a year after the diagnosis of her fibroid. The courts have reaffirmed the government’s obligation to provide N. with unobstructed access to the health care she needs, but have declined to take further action. Doctors at the public hospital as well as Doctor A. confirmed that, had N. been treated upon her initial diagnosis, they would have been able to easily remove the fibroids without performing a hysterectomy. What would have been a routine surgery is now a complicated procedure requiring specialized medical care.

 

The negligence and inaction of Greek authorities as well as lack of enforcing mechanism for international human rights courts effectively amounts to forced sterilization for N. She desperately wants to be able to conceive in the future, but knows that putting off surgery any longer threatens her own life.

 

We are therefore crowd-funding to cover the costs of N.’s myomectomy, which Doctor A. has agreed to perform at the cost of 3500 EUR. The window of time in which the surgery is possible is quickly shrinking, as everyday without treatment makes it more difficult to remove the fibroid without impacting her uterus.

 

A donation of any amount will keep a struggling young refugee, alone in Athens and deprived of healthcare for over a year, from losing her ability to have children in the future.

 

Please donate and share. All donations will go directly to covering the costs of surgery. Refugees and asylum seekers have a right to healthcare under law. Help right this wrong!

 

 

 

Spendenteam (2)

Layla Beckhardt
Organisator
Einnahmen über €25 aus 1 Spende
Berlin
Philipp Schönberger
Team member
Einnahmen über €10 aus 1 Spende

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