By Bronwen Reed and Sophie McNeill
The extraordinary generosity of ABC viewers – including an anonymous donation of $200,000 – has stunned the management and medical staff of East Timor’s Bairo Pite Clinic and will dramatically improve care and conditions at the overburdened, independent hospital.
Bairo Pite and its medical chief, Dr Dan Murphy, featured recently in the Foreign Correspondent program The Clinic.
The plight of one sick little boy in particular – eight-year-old Sergio, who was stricken with a cancer that had disfigured his face and neck – prompted many in the audience to ask what they could do to help.
Bairo Pite management established a crowd-source fundraising portal and set a target of $30,000 to fund Australian-based medical treatment for Sergio, and the donations poured in.
Specialist medical expertise was mobilised in Australia and the hope was that the boy would be well enough to fly to Australia for life-saving surgery and treatment.
But in the end the money and the best intentions of some of Australia’s leading paediatric and oncology specialists arrived too late for Sergio.
A biopsy conducted in East Timor revealed his nasopharyngeal carcinoma was too advanced and had generated secondary cancers in his abdomen. Sergio’s cancer was inoperable.
Bairo Pite medical staff devised a palliative care plan. He fought on bravely but lost his painful battle and died last month.
“Sergio happens to be a victim of having been born in the wrong place,” Dr Murphy said.
“He was born in a place that doesn’t have any access to proper healthcare … and as much as we tried and as much as you people tried we could not get him into a facility that has the capacity to deal with his problems.”
East Timor healthcare system reliant on external support
In an email to contributors, Bairo Pite offered to refund donations to the Sergio fund but hoped the money could be used to help save the lives and relieve the suffering of other critically ill patients.
“We can assure you that, if you allow us, your donation will be used to continue treating many sick children in Timor Leste,” the clinic said.
“We know that with the help of generous, compassionate people like yourselves, we can make a big impact on the lives of many, many children in Timor Leste.”
Dr Murphy, an expat American GP who has been the driving force behind the little hospital for 16 years, said he and his staff had been overwhelmed by the generosity of Foreign Correspondent viewers.
To date, more than $500,000 has been raised since the program went to air and it is already making a difference.
These additional funds can be used for projects which will enhance the hospital and the services it offers. In the pipeline there are plans for a new X-ray machine, treatment room and kitchen.
The challenges remain great with more than half of the population of East Timor living in poverty, according to a recent UN report, and nearly 45 per cent of children under the age of five classified as underweight.
“I would say the efforts of our clinic are slowly getting better because we’re getting access to a few more resources but the need is so tremendous, that it’s going to be a long time before we can do it ourselves,” Dr Murphy said.
“The Government is also trying to do it but I’ll tell you, organising such a program and making it work effectively is more than just having resources.
“It takes also experienced personnel and people who have had decision-making training done in a place where they can then go and implement a good program when they do have resources.
“So it’s a complex problem and we’re finding that it’s going to take a long time to make that effective.”
Malnutrition, leprosy affect children in East Timor
Other patients featured in The Clinic have responded well to treatment in East Timor and surgery in Australia.
In August, Tomas Pinto travelled to Melbourne with the help of the charity, East Timor Hearts Fund, for life-saving heart surgery.
The specialist who treated him was very happy with the outcome of the procedure and Tomas has been doing well in subsequent check-ups.
He has returned to work as a teacher in a Dili high school and is enjoying normal family life.
Jeca Pereira, 11, travelled to Melbourne’s Monash Heart Service in September for a procedure to repair damaged valves in his heart that left him breathless, dangerously underweight and unable to attend school.
He is back on his feet and returned to the classroom.
When five-year-old Paolo visited the Bairo Pite clinic, Dr Murphy suspected he had leprosy and sent him off for tests that confirmed the diagnosis.
Paulo has responded well to treatment and is expected to make a full recovery.
East Timor has the highest rate of leprosy in South-East Asia but it is a disease that is completely treatable and preventable.
Dr Murphy is optimistic that if they can get to all the outlying villages and identify those suffering from the disease, it will be entirely possible to eliminate it from East Timor.
At four years of age, Ozmenia arrived at the clinic weighing just 6.7 kilograms.
Her chronic malnutrition was the result of the grinding poverty her family endures in a remote mountainous village with no easy access to clean water. Hygiene is a big problem.
Ozmenia remains on the clinic’s malnutrition ward, and her bowel has started to work, but only occasionally.
She continues to suffer complications and the clinic does its best to meet her needs.
Dr Murphy reports her personality has blossomed, however, and she is now taking charge of her fellow patients and ordering everyone around.
It is hoped surgery will help to change her overall health status.