‘I could have died’

When you feel ill or have a health concern, most people trust doctors at our nation’s hospitals to address it and help. However, 38-year-old Keella Gift learned the hard way that doctors are not infallible and now she has absolutely no confidence in the public health system.

Gift’s story started about two years ago. As one of those persons who was always involved in breast cancer awareness, Gift regularly performed self-examinations. It was during one such examination that she discovered a small lump in her left breast.

She visited several health centres and, after some time, she was eventually forwarded to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mount Hope. However, when she eventually saw a doctor, instead of taking her concern seriously, she was told that since she was under 40, it was not breast cancer but a lump caused by high estrogen levels.

“When I finally got to see the doctor, he upset me. He did not even examine me. He treated me as though I was worried for nothing.

He was insensitive. As a doctor he should have been more concerned, especially since cancer is one of the leading killers of women in the world,” she said.

However, some months after, she realised the lump had grown larger.

She therefore returned to the Mt Hope facility and requested an ultrasound. “I begged. I told them I had no money to go and do this privately, if they could please send me to do a test to make sure the lump was not cancerous. After all that, they gave me an appointment for six months later,” she recalled.

As the months passed, Gift felt a severe pain in her chest. It became so bad that she thought she was having a heart attack, and had to be taken to the hospital. They took X-rays and blood tests and realised that the lump had grown to half the size of her breast. She was prescribed painkillers and an ultrasound appointment for one month later.

On the day of her appointment, she went to the hospital, took a number and waited patiently for three hours. When her number was called however, she was told that the technician had already left for the day.

Upset and worried, Gift told some of her friends about her experience and they helped her to schedule an ultrasound appointment at the Scarborough General Hospital in Tobago for a few weeks later.

After seeing the results, Scarborough Hospital referred her to the National Radiotherapy Centre in St James. A few weeks later, a biopsy on the lump was performed. However it was another two and a halfmonths before she got the results of her biopsy because of a clerical error.

On August 10, 2016, she was diagnosed with Stage Two breast cancer.

She said even when she was diagnosed, her experience was not pleasant. “When they first told me I had cancer the doctor was like, ‘So you know you have cancer right? You know they have to cut off your breast right?’ He was there on his cell phone the whole time. While attending to me he was on What’s App,” she said angrily.

“From the time I found the lump to the time I was diagnosed, it was almost two years. Being a person who was always aware, and who took the necessary precautions, I was really upset to have to go through that. I just think doctors should be more sensitive to women’s health. Because of that I have no confidence in the public health system. I detected it early and if they had taken me seriously they could have done a quick surgery and got it out. I would not have to go through all of this,” she said.

Gift noted that after her diagnosis, she had to undergo numerous tests on her blood and heart, as well as CT scans to determine if the cancer had spread. Thankfully, it did not. However the doctors told her she needed to undergo surgery but they needed the lump to shrink before they did so.

However, after researching cancer treatments, Gift decided against chemotherapy. She now attends a private clinic where she undergoes alternative treatments to shrink the tumour.

She added that although she had only good things to say about the doctors and nurses at the Scarborough Oncology Centre, and mostly positive experiences at the National Radiotherapy Centre, months of irresponsibility, waiting, pain, weakness, and weight loss cemented her determination to take care of her health privately.

“If I had depended on the public health system, you might never have met me. You might have been going to my funeral because with cancer, a delay of one month can have some serious repercussions,” she said. “I take responsibility for not going for a second opinion privately. I didn’t have the money to go but I should have borrowed it, or raised funds like I do now. I want other women to go and get a second opinion. If I had done that I wouldn’t have been this far gone.

And yet, I thank God it’s just Stage Two. Every time I think about it I get upset. It brings on a rage in me.

But I have my daughter to live for, I have my career, and I have to focus on fighting for my life,” she concluded