Jose Blanco
‘s family could not believe it when last February they received a notification from the Valme Hospital informing them of the suspension of the treatment for multiple sclerosis that he suffers from because he exceeded the age limit for which it is prescribed. its financing. This resident of Moron de la Frontera is 62 years old and, according to the only argument put forward by the Andalusian administration, which in turn hides behind the fact that the guidelines of the Ministry of Health are followed, this medicine can only be applied to people under 55 years of age . A “surreal” situation, according to relatives, since Jose began to be administered whenhe was already 60.
Jose Blanco was diagnosed with primary progressive multiple sclerosis 14 years ago when he was 48. He spent years without specific treatment, from test to test and with notable deterioration, until in the summer of 2018 he was called from the Hospital de Valme to propose participation in a clinical trial with a drug called Ocrelizumab with which they believed good results could be obtained. “We didn’t think about it. We had nothing to lose and it was something new that we hadn’t tried before,” says Jose Jonathan Blanco, Jose’s son.
So it was. The results were on track as expected and “already with the first dose he began to look more lively,” says his son. “With the second application, he no longer wanted to take the electric motorcycle that we bought him to move around the house and the town. He was very well and could walk little by little only with the help of a crutch”, he points out.
However, all this progress was cut short a year ago when, after receiving the third dose in January of last year, they were informed of the withdrawal of the Ocrelizumab treatment that they had been counting on for a year and a half with no explanation other than the of being older than 55 years. That’s when a real ordeal beganfor this Moronera family that sees how Jose’s health is degrading little by little. “I decided to go to the hospital to ask for an explanation and they told me that I could file a claim . The situation was so surreal that even the administrator who took the document from me was surprised at the reasons they were giving us for withdrawing a treatment that was so good results I was having in my father”, affirms Jose Jonathan who, in addition, claims to have a letter from his father’s neurology in which he emphasizes the “significant improvement” of the patient as a result of the application of this now withdrawn treatment .
The Board says that it follows “guidelines” from the Ministry of Health and this that “
“Is it logical that they prescribe us a treatment with which it has been shown that my father was doing much better and that after a year and a half they take it away from us because he is over 55 years old if he was already 60 when they began to administer it
It is something that he does not have neither feet nor head”, Jose’s son wonders.
As a result of these twelve months without receiving treatment, Jose’s health “has plummeted.” As his son explains, “he has gone into depressionand he doesn’t want to go out on the street or go to the countryside, which has been practically his life during all the time they have been well”. “His health began to go backwards practically from the moment he found out that They were going to stop administering it, I imagine that psychologically just thinking about it when seeing that it was so well. But in the last three months is when he has hit an impressive drop and I would say that he is even worse than he was before they gave him this treatment”, highlights Jose Jonathan, who asks the administrations that Ocrelizumab be subsidized again for its dad.
