A Typical Hospital Trip

Last week, a neighbor boy was very sick and we feared malaria or h1n1. Our local medical clinic in Santo Tomas was closed most of the week--either entirely closed or just no lab tech. Apparently there was a "lab worker strike". We couldn't even get a reference sheet to go to a hospital. So, I took him to the second best hospital in town--Hospital Regional--to the ER. I will take you all step by step through the process of getting seen at a hospital here. Keep in mind, this was to the ER, so it was faster than a regular appointment.

Arrive at hosptial. Search everywhere for Emergency. Signs take you through maze, but never any emergency area found. Go outside. Find an ambulance, thus find ER entrance. Enter ER and ask personnel where to go. Sent to caja (to pay). Wait in line. Caja lady tells me we're in wrong line, since he had insurance papers (SIS). Sent to SIS caja. Wait in line at a window. Wrong line, sent to other window. Finally get to window, sent to get make copies of the SIS paper. Search everywhere for copy window, find in other corner of hospital. Return and give copies. Sent to next window. Stamped, signed, fingerprinted. Get to wait in line for ER doctor. Talk with doctor. Sent to lab to get fluids tested. Wait at lab area. Find out I'm waiting in wrong spot. Wait in lab line. Get to front, but told to return to SIS caja because I didn't have proper stamps yet. Wait in SIS caja line and get stamped. Return to lab line to wait again. Get to front and told that I'm not in the right lab line. Need to go to ER lab. ER lab in a back hallway. Wait there. Lab worker takes my papers then tells me he needs the needles. Have to go to pharmacy. Go to pharmacy and ask for needles. Cannot get in pharmacy. Must go to SIS pharmacy. Don't know what that means. Pointed in a different direction. Looking everywhere for a SIS pharmacy. Return to ER doctor to ask where to buy needle. He writes me a rx to buy the needle and sends me outside. Go outside and look all around for pharmacy. Find a stand selling snacks. Ask security guard where to go. Sent outside of hospital premises to a pharmacy on the street. Order needle. Sent to another caja to pay. Pick up needle. Return to ER lab and turn in needle and get testing done. Wait outside of lab for a LONG time. During the wait, many random people stare at us (at me, the gringa) and some come ask me where I'm from and if I was very hurt by the death of Michael Jackson. Over time, everyone leaves. Most areas of hospital closing for siesta time. Go back to lab to ask how much longer. Find out it was already done, but no one informed us. Take results back to ER doctor. Talk with doctor. Done.

In the end, the kid was going to be okay. Everything came out negative. Still, the process was so ridiculous that it made me boil with anger. I was muttering my frustrations to myself under my breath--in english. Who knows how people actually get help. So many people need it. I asked a few personnel what it is like for someone who dying. Do they help them faster? Or haul their body around so they can get fingerprinted and stamped and sent everywhere but to a doctor?! The Adventist exponentially better, only the common people cannot afford its care.

Just a little FYI on health care in Iquitos.