Saving in Mishchenko style

Member of the Public Chamber Maxim Mishchenko, leader of the pro-Kremlin Young Russia movement, said in an interview with Izvestia that by spending money on one cancer patient, the state deprives nine other patients of help. I quote. “There are ten people who can be helped, they are lying and waiting for an ambulance. And there is one person with cancer. And we spend money on prolonging his life, while depriving people who can be quickly returned to duty. This is the paradox of the situation: humanism is imaginary. Of course, we cannot ignore a dying person with cancer, but we will still lose him, he will die, and we will not help ten healthy ones.” As Izvestia writes, Mr. Mishchenko proposes, first of all, to allocate funds for medicine for everyone - prevention, clinics, outpatient clinics, obstetrics, obstetrics. “And for the super-expensive and super-heavy, there must be a mechanism for collecting money, sponsorship, charity, because no economy can support this.”

Of course, no sane person can calmly pass by such a statement. That’s what happened - a wave of indignation arose on social networks, and Mr. Mishchenko immediately stated that the journalists had misunderstood him.

In fact, I think he was very well understood. It’s very much in the style of young pro-Kremlin leaders to talk about what you don’t know. The main thing is to be loud. To be heard. Otherwise, there is no way to remind the world of your existence. In my opinion, even the initial message of Mr. Mishchenko’s statement is incorrect.

If in Russia today cancer patients were helped as they should be, then, of course, a lot of money would be spent on this and, perhaps, the dilemma outlined by Mr. Mishchenko could be considered purely theoretically. Although this is undoubtedly a Nazi dilemma - if you are sick, you should not burden anyone and should die quietly and unnoticed so that “the sovereign’s money” is not spent on you. Because the state doesn’t need people like you - it needs strong, healthy, able to walk in formation.

But the fact is that now even one cancer patient cannot “save” nine other patients - because as much money as he should be is simply not spent on him. Everything the state does for him is a profanation of medical care. I'm talking about ordinary cases, not those that end up in the newspapers.

A little less than 8 years ago, my mother called me. My father fell ill and was diagnosed with acute bronchitis, but the illness did not go away for two months, he almost stopped walking, and it became clear that the diagnosis was wrong. The father was brought to Moscow. The first doctor, after looking at a general blood test, said that it looked like leukemia. The examination confirmed acute myeloblastic leukemia. According to doctors' forecasts, my father had two to three months to live.

Following Mr. Mishchenko's logic, we should have simply waited for him to die. But we, of course, tried to save him. Endless waits at the district clinic, where people line up to see an oncologist from early morning. Queues at various medical centers and clinics. Even a healthy person can break down in these lines. And the patient, who can barely stand on his feet, must somehow endure it, get to the doctor and receive treatment. What is happening now in our district clinics, Mr. Mishchenko, is no longer medicine, it is a way to slowly kill a person.

I found one good doctor who told me: “Register my father in Moscow.” It turned out that Muscovites with this disease have the right to receive a very expensive German drug from the budget. I will not name him, knowing the passion of some fellow citizens for self-medication. I’ll just say that this drug in Germany is prescribed to many patients with this diagnosis. For free. In Russia, patients are not even told about this drug. In Moscow, it is possible to obtain this drug only if the patient, knowing his rights, himself demands that it be prescribed to him. And he doesn’t just demand, but provides a certificate from a doctor confirming that this particular treatment is indicated for him. And if you are not a Muscovite, or simply do not know about such treatment, or have not found a doctor with a human face, then you will receive the usual conservative chemotherapy, which is painful to endure, gives a lot of complications to other organs and simply kills patients like my father. . But it is cheap - this is the most important issue that worries young comrades like Mishchenko.

The course of treatment that my father underwent led to stable remission, he lived for almost 4 more years. For another 4 years he was a completely healthy man. Since my father was always an active person, he even decided to get a job. But since we only agreed to a gentle regime, he went to the kindergarten closest to the house and offered them his services. They agreed with the manager that he would work as a supply manager for a symbolic salary, and the money remaining from this rate would be used to purchase the necessary building materials, detergents, etc. He gave his all to this work. He was very loved in this kindergarten. He repaired their taps and electrical wiring, cleared the snow in winter - he came home cheerful, flushed from the cold. If someone here reproaches me that my father “took” municipal money that could have helped someone else, I will answer that my father repaid this municipal help in full. And I’m also sure that none of us has the right to choose who dies and who lives.

I am happy that my father had these 4 years. He saw his grandchildren grow up. All his life he worked for the state - no, he didn’t even work, he plowed like an ox. He built villages, houses, dams. And now he has time to communicate with the children. Talk about your life.

And I am absolutely convinced that all citizens of my country have the right to this kind of real medical care. For these 4 or 6 or 10 years that they deserve simply because they live in this country. That pseudo-medicine, on which, according to young Kremlin activists, so much government money is spent, has not worked for a long time and does not save people. This is just a way to use government money. So, Mr. Mishchenko, before you count how much one cancer patient costs and how many patients can be saved without helping this cancer patient, but actually killing him, count how much money allocated from the budget for medicine ends up in the pockets of officials. Remember the scandal with the stolen tomograph and hundreds of other stories that the newspapers did not write about. It seems to me that if all this “state” money, but in fact ours, taxpayers’ money, is directed to its intended purpose, then the question of whose life is more priority – a cancer patient or a woman giving birth in a perinatal center – simply will not arise.

I could also tell you about how my aunt was dying of cancer two thousand kilometers from Moscow. Who was also diagnosed very late. How, after cutting her up on the surgical table, they sent her home to die. How, until her last days, she was not prescribed drugs to alleviate her inhuman suffering. The man died for two long, painful months. For two long, painful months, during which she received no help at all, the district oncologist threw up his hands: “There is nothing we can do to help here.” Three days before her death, she was prescribed drugs - when her relatives, having written letters to various authorities, simply stormed the oncologist’s office. How could you save on it, Mr. Mishchenko?