Deportation threat ‘a death sentence’
A young man with kidney failure is pleading to stay in New Zealand, knowing he’ll face a painful death if deported to Tonga.
Tamahanga Tukunga is among a growing number of Tongans requesting help because dialysis is not available in their home country.
‘‘I don’t want to die,’’ the 24-year-old said. ‘‘I’m still getting used to life.’’
Dr Gerhard Sundhorn, a public health researcher at the University of Auckland, said Tukunga’s health would decline rapidly if he was deported.
‘‘It’s basically a death sentence,’’ Sundhorn said. ‘‘He’d die within a matter of weeks, and it would be quite a horrific death.’’
Tukunga arrived in Auckland in March last year on a one-month visitor visa.
He declared on his visa application he did not have any medical condition that required or could require renal dialysis or hospital care during his stay.
The law student was admitted to Middlemore Hospital two days later with end-stage kidney failure. He was previously fit and healthy, without diabetes, and doctors don’t know why his kidneys failed.
Since then he has received dialysis three days a week; as a foreign national he’s not entitled to that treatment and could be deported to Tonga within a year.
That’s despite his relatives doing everything they can to cover costs, including sausage sizzles back in Tonga, and sending yams to sell in New Zealand.
They are making voluntary payments of $500 a week to Counties Manukau DHB, although that only goes part of the way to covering the cost of dialysis, which can run to $80,000 a year.
Andrew Simpson, chief medical officer at the Ministry of Health, said hospitals were obliged to provide treatment to ‘‘anyone requiring acute services’’.
‘‘If they are not eligible for treatment, they can expect to be invoiced for the services they received,’’ he said.
However, DHBs are often forced to write off the costs as bad debt, with Auckland DHB alone pursuing $13.6 million in unpaid costs from foreign patients as at August 31, 2017.
The Immigration and Protection Tribunal has ruled that deporting Tukunga would be ‘‘unjust and unduly harsh’’, and has granted him a one-year work visa so he could explore treatment options.
One of the factors considered by the tribunal was a lack of treatment in Tonga. Sixty people die in the Pacific nation each year from chronic kidney disease, and the Tongan government is yet to follow through on a 2012 promise to establish a dialysis unit.
Sundhorn said deciding whether to provide compassionate treatment for foreign nationals was an ethical dilemma.
‘‘We’ve already got a huge problem here,’’ he said. ‘‘Providing dialysis for type-two diabetics and kidney transplants will cripple our health system.’’
Sundhorn suggested the Government should consider directing Pacific aid to projects such as a dialysis unit for Tonga.