Cancer patient waits on TRHA letter to get treatment

A singer with the Signal Hill Alumni Choir, Keion Moore, who suffered a relapse of T-cell anaplastic lymphoma in September, is awaiting a referral letter from the Tobago Regional Health Authority (TRHA) to restart treatment.

Diagnosed with this rare form of cancer in 2014, Moore also said the dosages of drugs administered for an initial six cycles of treatment were short of the required amounts and believes this may have led to his relapse.

In an interview at his home in Lowlands last Wednesday, Moore, also a checker with the Tobago House of Assembly’s Division of Infrastructure, recalled that in 2014, he noticed a swelling on his left arm on his return from a trip to Switzerland with the choir.

His mother, who he lost to cancer of the cervix in 2014, advised him to have it checked out by a doctor.

After three opinions from three separate doctors, in Tobago and in Trinidad, as well as from a visiting dermatologist who took a specimen to New York for testing, Moore said he was diagnosed with T-cell anaplastic lymphoma.

He told Newsday Tobago that that he was put on six cycles of treatment, and whilst on his second cycle, the swelling in his arm disappeared and he was granted a clean bill of health. He was advised to complete all the cycles, however, which he did.

But then the swelling returned, not just on Moore’s arm this time, but on his entire body.

“Six months later (after completing the six cycles of treatment), it returned and this time it was worse than it was before because first it was just my hand but this time, it is my entire body,” he said.

Moore said the startling discovery was then made that the dosages of drugs administered for his initial six cycles of treatment were short of the required amounts. He said in September, when he went to the doctor in Tobago, a consultant who visits from Trinidad, he asked for a list of all the drugs that he had used and the quantities. He reported that the attending consultant, in reviewing the information “realised that I didn’t get enough drugs because she said if I had got the adequate amount of drugs I would not have got a relapse.”

“I remember even while undergoing the treatment, it was even surprising to the doctors in Trinidad that I wasn’t getting any side effects, but they too later discovered that was because they did not give me enough medication,” he said.

Moore said he was currently having difficulty breathing, and doctors have also discovered dust on his lungs, which he said was making sleep a challenge.

“It is very tiring, depressing some days because I cannot do the things I am accustomed doing, eating the things I am

accustomed eating or even going to the places I am accustomed going.

“I live by myself, so I have to get someone to come home to me daily to do the dressing. I explained to my co-workers and supervisors what is actually taking place. I had more responsibilities and I would have informed them that I am no longer able to carry out the functions. I supplied a letter from Oncology stating that I am a cancer patient and they advised that I should be assigned to light duties. Some days I am unable to work,” he said.

But despite knowing about his relapse since September, Moore is yet to start treatment for his cancer this time, which is to be done at a private institution in Trinidad, it not being available at public health facilities, and must await a letter of referral from the TTRHA.

“I am awaiting a letter from the consultant hematologist to send to the Medical Chief of Staff (TRHA) … I need to begin my treatment as soon as possible. We have to now do over all six

cycles of therapy and with the right amounts, it will go away once again,” he said.

“I am hopeful that it would soon be over…I have to wait, I cannot go any further, I have to wait on this letter from the Tobago Regional Health Authority, and they are the main keep back at this time,” he said.