A homeless woman suffering from lung cancer spent five agonising hours on the steps of a church in Porto after being discharged from hospital on May 2. In excruciating pain and unable to move, the woman was dropped off outside the church by a taxi driver paid by the hospital.
Churchgoers took notice of the woman’s ordeal and the national press was quick to report on the case.
Público wrote that the woman – named only as Rosa and aged 46 – was being treated at the Joaquim Urbano Hospital for a respiratory infection.
A regular patient at the hospital, Rosa was given little hope of ever making a full recovery.
But during her latest spell at the hospital, Rosa’s life went from bad to worse.
Her husband Armindo – a recovering drug-addict with whom she has a 16-year-old son – was unable to pay the rent and the family was kicked out of their home, with all their belongings reportedly still in the house.
They had already lost their €400 monthly benefits when their son was forced to quit school to assist his mum with her illness.
Armindo is said to have asked the hospital to keep his wife there until the situation was resolved, but the hospital stated that Rosa was “determined to leave”.
A source for the hospital told Público: “Her doctor had informed her that she had no home to go to, but she said that she had family in Carvalhido and so she was discharged” – and “feeling sorry for the woman”, the hospital paid for a taxi to take her to wherever she wanted to go, said Armindo.
She was dropped off outside Carvalhido church, on the same street where her husband works as an unofficial car park attendant.
Rosa spent five hours on the church’s steps, with only a blanket, some pillows and a bottle of water, until police were alerted of the situation and called the social services.
It is reported that the family was soon provided accommodation in a hostel in Porto, with the social services now trying to find a solution to the family’s housing crisis. The authorities are also apparently looking into why the family lost their benefits.
