A note about Fakelaki

Fakelaki (φακελάκι) is the little envelope. But, in Greece is also used to indicate bribery of doctors.

Enter Amalia Kalyvinou. A young philologist that died in 2007 due to the shortcomings of the Health System, and the inability of some doctors to do their job properly.

Amalia started to ache from 8 years old due to a cancer Neuroma (a cancer tumor created right around a nerve). She was going from doctor to doctor but her cancer – that started as a fully operatable tumor- remained undiagnosed and doctors were refusing to search for her case further.

When she got diagnosed, it was already too late. The Neuroma became a progressive type of Cancer called Neoplasm. She had to deal with this spreading disease, mutilation of her leg and a national health system that makes a blind eye on bribery and has absurd bureaucratic and time consuming demands.

While she was sick and having the heaviest therapies, some doctors stood against her instead of trying to save her, she had to put off with the greed of the private health care and wait long hours for just one stamp from the national insurance.

In her last years of her life, she shared her experiences with the world through her blog, conviniently named fakelaki.blogspot.com, naming all the doctors that she bribed, all the doctors that failed to do the obvious but also the doctors that fullfiled their duty and made her pain a little more bearable.

So, in the end, her story didn’t had a happy end. But, it managed to move the general opinion towards the national health system and it’s disseffect.

My feelings? I don’t know. I just agree on a phrase of her : this kind of doctors (that take bribery) and the uneffective ones should be the exception. Not the rule.

In the 1st of June it’s now the day of protesting for a better national health system. But is it enough?

Allow me to answer: It isn’t. A “day about something” was and will never be enough as long as morals and minds won’t change in a permanent and consistent way. This is too far away from what Amalia wanted.

Either way, my friends, It’s a story I wanted to share with you and, at the same time, memorizing the voice of a victim.

And sorry for the depressing story…