Thursday, September 8, 2011

A Day in a Bolivian Hospital

Apparently in Bolivia, you don't make a doctor's appointment because the doctor's don't follow a schedule. That's why me and my tranlator/friend Amalia sat at the Emergency Room for an hour and a half, waiting to see a doctor. I still don't know exactly what's wrong with me (see the last bullet point under "Similarities"), but they treated me for dehydration and General Funkiness.

I noticed some definite differences and similarities. Here are my findings:

Differences:
  • No one uses gloves: I saw a nurse wipe the spittle from an old man with a tissue and didn't even wash her hands afterwards!
  • Lots of hospital staff walking around in stilleto heels.
  • HIPAA would've had a field day with the amount of personal papers with people's names, ID numbers and other information just floating around.
  • General cleanliness: while I didn't feel like I was in any danger of getting an infection from the place being dirty (cause it was really, quite nice), I definitely saw a bunch of wrappers on the E.R. floor and quite possibly some blood splatter on the curtain that separarted my space from the next one over. Yummy.
  • The bill! I got out of there with a doctor's exam, an IV and fluids and lab work done for about $58. Maybe there is something to this socialized medicine thing...
Similarities:
  • Nurses (infermerias) work hard. No matter what country you're in, they're the ones doing the majority of the work, chatting you up with their bedside manner (which you may or may not understand) and just generally busting thier butts to help you.
  • Doctors work kinda hard. My doctor was great, but I saw him sitting at the desk a lot more than I saw him working with patients.
  • IVs hurt. I'll be honest, I was kind of proud that it took me 30 years to need my first IV. All that pride melted away as they put that bad boy in my hand. Yowza!
  • I can sleep anywhere, as proven today when I took a snooze while hooked up to my IV even though there were flourescent lights in my eyes, cell phones ringing incessantly and a very tenacious person using the paging system over and over and over.
  • If you need to give a sample, it won't come. Nuff said.
All in all, my experience with Bolivian medicine was good today. I already feel better and less dehydrated and am looking forward to starting on the medicine my doctor prescribed me.
God has proved himself, once again.

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