Don’t spend large amounts on herbs

I WRITE as a doctor who has been involved in looking after Yvonne Tore, a woman featured in The National’s Weekender of May 14.
Yvonne has microscopically confirmed (lab no 2818/2020) cervical cancer.
The diagnosis was first made last October, when the cancer was found to be 2B; a stage which is unfortunately too advanced for surgery to be beneficial.
Yvonne was very short of blood (anaemia) when she admitted to ward 9 in October; she received multiple blood transfusions and also medical treatment for her severe anaemia.
We also found out that she was diabetic.
The treatment for this condition was also commenced.
When Yvonne was discharged from our care on Feb 1, (to continue palliative and diabetic treatments as an outpatient), she was in much improved condition.
However, Yvonne’s cancer has continued to extend and it is now stage 3.
I would like to take issue with the writer who has written the story of Yvonne in a commercial way – almost as an advertisement or promotion for the herbalist.
I am in no way suggesting that the herbal treatment may be making Yvonne feel somewhat better, but, it will not cure her cancer and her prognosis on that score is unchanged.
I would also like to state that no staff of the Port Moresby General Hospital gynaecology service ever said to Yvonne or her family that she would “not live for more than three days”, perhaps we may have said she was unlikely to live for more than three years, but even when we state a probable prognosis like this, we always follow up our clinical opinion with the statement that “God always determines the hour and day and not us, the doctors”.
Yvonne and herbalist Silas have not proven conventional medicine wrong, herbs do not cure cancer and Yvonne’s cancer persists.
People with cancer should be advised not spend large amounts of money on herbal remedies for terminal conditions.
But doctors do recognise that social support (love from the family) and herbs can make a patient feel better for a time.
Do not deposit money into the bank account of the herbalist (as advised by the writer); this message is fraudulent and a con.
Yvonne is welcome to come back for review of her cancer at any time at the gynaecology outpatient’s clinic.

Prof Glen Mola,
Head,
Obstetrics and Gynaecology
SMHS-PMGH