JINHA

ESKİŞEHİR – In the Anatolian city of Eskişehir, HIV-positive Congolese woman Kapinga Tishimanga died, along with the baby she was carrying, after doctors refused her treatment. Her husband, Diela Joseph Dieala, has filed charges against the medical professionals responsible.

According to Kapinga's husband, Diela Joseph Dieala, doctors at Osmangazi University refused to treat Kapinga, who was six months pregnant and experiencing severe pain. They sent her back to the Eskişehir State Hospital where she did not receive adequate treatment, thus condemning her to death. She passed away on February 18.

"I believe my wife was not treated because she had HIV," said Diela.

The Congolese couple had lived in Eskişehir for two years, according to Turkish newspaper Radikal.

The couple called an ambulance on February 15^th when Kapinga began experiencing shooting pain. The doctors informed them that Kapinga had HIV, but did not want to admit her to the hospital because the couple's insurance had expired the day before.

"They asked the ambulance workers, 'why did you bring this patient?' The ambulance drivers even had to ask the people working in the emergency room to admit her," said Diela. "We waited in the emergency room for two hours, with no one helping her. My wife was lying down in a bed and no one was taking an interest in her."

After two hours, a doctor administered a serum, but Kapinga's shooting pains continued. The ambulance took them to the state hospital, where doctors administered some stomach medication, but did not give her full treatment because she was pregnant.

Two days later, said Diela, there still had not been sufficient medical intervention. Kapinga first lost the baby, then died.

(fk/mg/cm)