Memet’s father has been in prison for many years, and his mother has been living outside the Republic of North Macedonia for a long time. He lived and grew up with his uncle and aunt. Memet had a birth certificate, but unfortunately that was the only document he had as personal identification. After he turned 18, Memet’s mother came to Macedonia and he immediately applied for the issuance of an identity card for the first time. Here, Memet faced an obstacle for the issuance of an identity card because his mother is leaving Macedonia again and the officials requested a property certificate to determine the correct address of residence. Unfortunately, the house where his uncle lives is a wild building and thus it was automatically impossible for young Memet to have personal identification and thus health insurance. About a week ago, Memet complained of stomach pain, with ongoing vomiting and thirst for water. The uncle took him to duty at the Shuto Orizari Ambulance. The doctor gave him an injection that is a substitute for Ketonal. The pains continued, and his thirst for water did not diminish. The next day, his uncle went to KARIL – Clinic for Anesthesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Treatment. The doctors admitted him the same evening in a difficult and extremely alarming health situation. From the statement given by Maja Moysova, an anesthesiologist at KARIL, it is noted that Memet came with hyperglycemia that appeared in childhood. – “He lived with hyperglycemia for a long time, and when it reached enormous values, he was brought to us. We fought for life. We cannot even know if he had other diseases. We will know some things additionally after we get the results of the tests.”
Let’s remember that just two years ago, nineteen-year-old Tony Sully died. The reasons for the untimely death of this boy are not yet known because this boy, having no birth certificate, never had a health card or an identity card. This socially disadvantaged family had no money for private medical examinations. Hence we ask – Until when will the state not take responsibility for persons without personal identification/persons outside the health insurance system? How long will young lives have to be extinguished in order to make changes in the law on acquiring personal identification? We, as an Association, ask the institutions to immediately find an appropriate solution to facilitate the procedure for acquiring the first identity card, i.e. if both parents are alive but one of them does not live with the child for unknown reasons, so that there is no obstacle to the acquisition of personal identification of the child.
Association Initiative for Women’s Rights from Shuto Orizari expresses its condolences to the family of the deceased Memet.
