Cricketer in coma hit by Sri Lanka’s meltdown
Mother providing 24-hour care can’t afford to power nebuliser to keep him alive as country’s crisis deepens
It was a phone call Asitha Peiris will never forget. Akshu, her son, had been knocked down by a train while returning from cricket practice, an out-of-breath teammate told her. She immediately rushed to the hospital.
For four, agonising months, Akshu, 30, a professional cricketer, who had starred for Sri Lanka at youth level and played in the UK for seven years – including for Nottingham, Aberdeen and Guildford – fought for his life.
Although he survived, he has spent the past three and a half years in a coma, on life support, and has to be tended to around-the-clock by Ms Peiris.
“I can’t express it enough, I love Akshu so much. Everyone said it, we had such a special bond,” said Ms Peiris, as she showed The Daily Telegraph around their Colombo home, which has become a permanent shrine to Akshu and his former career.
Now, Akshu’s survival once again hangs in the balance. Not because of any change in his condition but as a direct impact of Sri Lanka’s devastating economic crisis, which has left the island on the verge of social and financial collapse.
In mid-may, the country defaulted on its debts for the first time – it owes £27 billion, but has less than £1 million remaining in the bank. While Colombo has approached the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout, in the short term the country’s situation remains precarious.
Anti-government protests continue to rage, despite the resignation of Mahinda Rajapaksa from his role as prime minister. These have at times turned violent – an MP was beaten to death in mid-may, and the heavily armed military have been deployed with a “shoot on sight” mandate.
Meanwhile, doctors have already reported several preventable deaths among Sri Lankans unable to get life-saving medicines after heart attacks or strokes, and the country has run out of 14 life-saving drugs. And now, fuel shortages threaten to prove just as deadly. Unable to import enough, Colombo has regularly endured daily power cuts of more than 10 hours since March. Residents are now forced to join miles-long queues for petrol and diesel – but often return home empty-handed.
The constant whirr of a nebuliser keeps Akshu alive. Ms Peiris has installed a power generator to keep the devices functioning during the power cuts, but this requires up to one and a half litres of petrol per hour and power cuts sometimes last up to 16 hours a day. To preserve its dwindling supplies, the Sri Lankan government has banned citizens from filling up household containers with fuel or diesel, for personal use.
There are also strict limitations on the volume motorists are able to purchase.
Ms Peiris said there have been several times over the past few weeks where she has run out of petrol to power Akshu’s life-support. When the power has been cut off in her home, she has relied on the kindness of neighbours and cricket fans, who had donated one or two bottles of petrol from their own measly quota. Since Akshu’s accident, Ms Peiris, a proud woman from an upper-middle class background, had avoided speaking to the media. She initially chose to sell her family’s properties and vehicles to pay for Akshu’s treatment – even pawning her remaining jewellery – but she now has no more savings to spend.
Swallowing her pride, she took to Facebook on May 22, describing how the ongoing fuel shortage would make it “impossible” for her to continue to run Akshu’s life-support. “Desperate times require desperate measures … if any of you can step up and donate one to two litres [of fuel], it will help him [for] another hour,” she wrote.
Several Colombo residents have come forward to donate fuel but she knows that such kindness is unlikely to last forever.
Akshu’s medical bills have doubled since April and inflation is predicted to reach 40 per cent in the months ahead.
Meanwhile, the cost of a litre of petrol and diesel has increased by 259 per cent and 231 per cent respectively since last October, and further price rises are expected.
The family’s situation is far from unique. Earlier this week, a two-dayold baby girl developed jaundice and died in the central Sri Lankan town of Haldummulla, after her parents were unable to find enough fuel to drive their sick daughter to a hospital.
“The situation is getting worse,” said Dr Vasan Ratnasingam, a spokesman from the Government Medical Officers Association, Sri Lanka’s leading public health body.
“The shortage of drugs is now being impacted by a growing shortage of fuel in the healthcare system. There are instances where patients can’t reach hospitals for emergency care and they will lose their lives.”
The quality of care provided by hospitals has also been drastically impacted by fuel shortages.
At least 90 per cent of nurses have missed shifts or turned up several hours late for work at the National Hospital for Respiratory Disease (NHRD), situated on the outskirts of Colombo, due to fuel shortages and price increases, according to KG Tharangika, a member of the nursing staff at the NHRD.
“It has become a big issue as there are certain essential duties that we are having to skip while we are stuck on the roads. It could affect patient care and cause deaths,” said Ms Tharangika. “I am now spending half of my monthly salary on just commuting to the hospital.”
Meanwhile, Ms Peiris remains optimistic for Akshu’s future – hoping he can receive cutting-edge treatment in the UK – and her son has shown small signs of improvement.
Akshu’s eyes have, again, produced tears and she believes his hearing may have returned.
“I believe one day that he will be cured, that one day he will sit up in bed. He used to love the snow in the United Kingdom and we could go back there and see it together,” said Ms Peiris. In the meantime, she must keep up the search for fuel.
‘One day he will sit up in bed. He used to love the snow in the UK and we could go back there and see it together’