Why Scikoop is important for me

Why I believe? Scikoop is important

Scikoop is a Information technology? company that works to improve the quality and relevance of health innovations and healthcare through the participation of under-represented groups in research

First I have to admit my bias,? I have a personal interest in Scikoop being successful and? it is the reason I collaborate with Scikoop.

?The why is a long story.? years in the making. To? explain, ? I have to tell? Ruth's story backwards and? start with the end of her? life. For over fifteen years, I watched my wife Ruth suffer a cascade of medical issues. Ruth spending her final years bedridden, in pain and depressed. Only when I was able to afford retirement? could I? stay home with her.

Almost two years ago Ruth was hospitalized during the first wave of the pandemic. For four weeks Ruth and I were apart. Ruth was? isolated in the ICU. Her only contact with the outside world was limited to phone calls, texts, pictures and smuggled goodies. Eventually someone determined Ruth was expected to die, and only? then? I was allowed what was expected to be? the one short compassionate visit .? Despite the rule? we were lucky!? Sympathetic doctors decided to break the protocol and I was allowed unrestricted access. Ruth was not alone in her final week and? died knowing? she was loved and not abandoned.

With access? I got a personal view of the hospital coping with Covid 19.? What I witnessed that week was horror. There was heroism, not the superficial bravery of? bad fiction but? the real grit of health care workers doing hard jobs,? Working and caring despite? the apprehension and palpable fear that? I? saw? in their? eyes and heard in their words. Always? showing? kindness and compassion .

I saw young patients half my age arriving in the ICU. Initially they were? alert but alone, then? the viscous progression to a? coma on a ventilator and then they were gone.? To all the deniers let me be deliberately blunt.? These patients were in by breakfast, in a coma by lunch and dead at dinner time.?

Sadder images also? engraved on my? memory? of? the elderly , alone , denied the compassion of human contact. their final time enduring? solitary fear.?

I spoke with? angry doctors, angry with themselves for being unable to cure their patients, angry with the slowness of the governments to react, and angry not with the fear and confusion of the public but? at the willful ignorance of those self appointed experts who even now wilfully fail to believe or understand and? who place more importance on politics, and? self interest .?

Fortunately since Ruth was in? isolation, she saw little of this. Though the interstitial lung disease denied her oxygen, she was still capable of interacting with others. Her stay was eased by compassionate nurses. Ruth? told me of ? her joy at meeting African nurses because it made her? feel as if she was finally? back home. After five long weeks the struggle was over Ruth fell asleep and did not wake up.

?A final horror, the funeral directors were? understaffed and overworked, everything delayed. Then there was? the sight of little cardboard boxes? scattered in piles on? a table, each one filled with the ashes of someone's? family member.?

This was the conclusion of Ruth’s story? but it is only the introduction to my ? reasons ? why Scikoop is important.

Before I met Ruth, she and her friends were doing something joyful. They were? riding toboggans. A hard bump and a harder landing and? Ruth suffered a broken back. The damage was repaired by? fusion surgery and a long recovery, almost.? Life long depression treated with drugs.?

Ten years after our marriage, Ruth's back problems returned as the? fusion was? failing. She was in ? constant pain .? At first the pain was relieved by OTC painkillers with codeine and? then only? by prescribed opioids . Knee replacement surgery resulted in more pain and? there was a spiral of? increasing the levels of? prescribed? morphine and oxycodone .? Eventually? Ruth’s? daily dosage would have been fatal to most people. Pain, ? Addiction? and depression

I do not know? if? there is a link between opioid use and kidney disease, but Ruth developed kidney stones and had recurring infections. Unable to take Penicillin? the doctors had to try to find antibiotics Ruth could tolerate?

Then the final medical problem;? Ruth diagnosed with Interstitial Lung Disease and COPD. Smoking did not help but we were told the Interstitial Lung disease was probably (not definitely) a rare side effect of the antibiotics.?

So what was learned from all the medical effort? Nothing that would have helped Ruth.?

With so? many questions, so much anguish , and? no coherent answers . It seems obvious to me, the non scientist, that more research is still needed. Research that considers the whole person not just the individual problem.? Research that needs to be explained to the public.?

Yes this? is personal and I am thankful? I get to? collaborate with and help Scikoop help researchers help others.