DOH Cuts Affect Kalaupapa Patients

KHON 2 TV News
July 20, 2009

Reported by: Gina Mangieri
Email: gmangieri@khon2.com
Last Update: 7/20 7:12 pm

Kalaupapa, Molokai

As the axe is taken to state department budgets, what could happen to the Hansen's Disease branch that cares for patients in Kalaupapa Molokai?

Supporters of the service want is spared from cutback, especially as Father Damien who cared for them is about to be made a saint.

For decades starting in the 1860s, people with Hansen's Disease or leprosy were sentenced to the remote peninsula of Kalaupapa Molokai.

After antibiotics proved an effective cure, the people were officially freed but many stayed.

"First of all we have a statutory requirement that we are to care for the former patients of Kalaupapa until the last one passes," said Senator Kalani English.

That has been funded through the Department of Health's Hansen's disease branch, just over $6 million in the last fiscal year.

Four million dollars to Kalaupapa, the rest to patient care at Oahu's Leahi hospital and to the control division.

There are about 20 surviving patients.

"It's very important to maintain their dignity, to maintain their sense of wellbeing and for them to just know they're cared for in the final years of their lives 40 the youngest one is probably now is 70 years old," said English.

The state senator representing Kalaupapa has asked that the Hansen's disease branch be spared they budget axe, whether an incremental cut or a doing away with altogether.

"I'm sure that they will defend the expenditure by the state to keep these patients alive. If they weren't there they'd be in a nursing home in Honolulu and they'd probably cost just about the same and yet they would be in a place that would be foreign for them," said Dr. Kalani Brady.

The state Department of Health said, "The severe budget crisis requires that all state programs be scrutinized to determine where budgetary savings may be realized. Please be assured that DOH will not make cuts that would jeopardize the health and safety of the community.

Those seeking to protect services for Kalaupapa say all eyes should be on saving this cause especially as the sacrifices of Father Damien who tended to the patients are about to be immortalized in sainthood.

English adds, "How we treat Kalaupapa now will have great impact on how Kalaupapa is remembered."

Original article URL: http://www.khon2.com/news/local/story/DOH-Cuts-Affect-Kalaupapa-Patients/kAN-0nYmy0WHvPkeEccNmA.cspx

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