The Generalitat de Catalonia will no longer derive more patients abroad to receive protontenting treatment, if the therapeutic options in Madrid, where there are two centers, are adequate.
The Catalan Parliament voted last week in favor of a proposal of the citizen party presented by Deputy Anna Grau and who achieved this important step for many oncological patients and their families.
Grau tells this diary that “when we paid the Conseller, he admitted reluctantly that it had to be derived to Madrid and promised to do so in the future. Our interpellation followed the motion we did not expect anyone to aiming anyone, but
In the end we had amendments to all groups [minus the Cup and the PP], who did not want to be left out. We accept the amendments of Junts and ERC in one of the key points, which makes direct reference to the derivation commitment of children within
, not outside Spain, to commit them more and be able to demand with greater force their compliance “.
A point that did not get ahead was the commitment to cover the expenses of families who had to move to receive treatment outside Catalonia.
Grau explains that “the section containing the envelope of economic aid to families that still have to take their children outside, only because it is the result of a Vox amendment, it was rejected. We only vote ourselves, Vox and the PP»
. Something that regrets the deputy, “because it shows that how by pure and hard sectarianism, it can vote against what citizens specify and also have right.” However, Grau’s party does not throw the towel and affirms that “we will be back.
To ask for aid for families through the amendment road to the budget “.
Since the Columbus Foundation, Javier García Tankor, welcomes this news with joy because it considers that it is “reconnected a strange situation” and believes that many new families will be helped. The same one that moves this newspaper La Mother of Matilda, Sofia, who believes
that telling the story of his daughter “has fulfilled his goal”.
The stories of Alma or Ithiel will no longer be repeated, among others, that, in the first pandemic attack in Europe, March 2020, had to fly to Germany and Switzerland to eliminate the tumor of their body.
Now that the old continent lives one of the most dramatic waves, it helps to put in context the situation by which two families had to happen about 20 months ago.
Montse, the mother of Ithiel, wants that “all this we have passed and have denounced worthwhile so that others do not go through it.”
Dignified, the mother of the soul, also considers that “it is a beautiful news.”
Digna remembers those days with bitterness, because the bad news that his daughter had cancer, all the obstacles and problems of traveling were added outside to receive treatment in full explosion of COVID cases.
“We were there all the confinement, two and a half months. The Covid truncated all the plans we had.”
A soul, five years, detected a radiosarcoma in the jaw.
She had to receive ‘radio’ and ‘chemio’.
But doctors soon saw that the most appropriate therapy were the protons, they were more ‘direct’ because they would not leave sequels in tissues or surrounding organs.
“From the Vall d’Hebron Hospital, they decide to derive us to Germany. At no time from Madrid, we traveled just before the March lock, the idea was that my husband, Miguel, was accompanied by Saturday and returned Sunday. In Spain, it was
There was the melting of Alma, Aleix, with his grandparents. But Miguel could never come back. There were no flights, no possibility due to confinement. ”
They left on March 14 and returned at the end of May.
“There you get together with other parents in your same situation and you find out that there are other communities, such as Andalusia, that it was derived to Madrid. The worst thing is that if something is complicated, the language barrier, in addition to the economic, supposes
An important lock “.
Alma not only received his protontency treatment at the West German Proton Therapy (WPE) center, in addition, was given the last reminder dose of the ‘chemio’ because they would not return on the precise date.
Montse, Ithiel’s mother, also recalls a few weeks of anguish with many plans changes.
“First of us, we thought we were going to Madrid, but we were told that it was not possible, so it was assigned Nice. And well, we prepare everything to go there. Not only was I going to receive a treatment, but I tried to inform me well what things we could
Doing together during the medical stay, know the area. I wanted to create a pleasant trip despite everything. But at the last moment, they changed their mind, and they derived us to Switzerland. ”
For Ithiel it was not the first time.
With little more than a year they detected a children’s ependymoma (a frequent tumor in children that is located in the fabrics of the brain and spinal cord) and she traveled to Switzerland, in 2012, to be treated.
“But, now, with possibilities in our country, why did we have to go outside? It is things that are not understood,” says Montse.
Ithiel does not keep serious sequelae of that first ‘found’ with cancer almost a decade ago.
“They told us that it was going to be very delicate and that they could make effects, but it has only needed growth hormone. And, in the cognitive plane, yes, it needs reinforcement classes, although not beyond other children.”
Montse and dignified agree that children see everything with resignation.
“Ithiel Sometimes I was wondering why we could not go to Madrid, we have a family in Salamanca and in the process we had been accompanied.”
Shared loneliness is what finally remains to families.
“You relate to other Spaniards, families in your same situation, you know they understand you. But we were away from home, with my other son at the house of their grandparents, whose routine had also broken because of the beginning of the pandemic. Soul
It has never been complained, it is very strong. His brother never extended how those days passed away from his sister and his parents; now it’s when sometimes he asks if we’re going to go back to the hospital, “says Digna
