|
Fred's Story by Dr. Rick Donlon, one of four founding physicians of CCHS Fred is in his mid-30s and has been HIV positive for 10 years. I met him after one of his multiple admissions to our county hospital for serious opportunistic infections, including overwhelming histoplasmosis (a fungus native to the Mississippi delta). Fred's "CD4" or "T-cell count" was down to 6; a count less than 200 qualifies as AIDS. His bone marrow was infiltrated with fungus and had all but stopped producing blood products. He had no appetite; daily diarrhea had reduced him to skin and bones. He required a host of medications to fight various infections that his body was incapable of resisting. Fred was dying. Though he knew about his disease and the possibility of treatment, he had never been willing to attend the local public HIV clinic. His reasons were a complex combination of shame, denial and a culturally rooted distrust of the medical establishment. |
|
Read more...
|
|