Hospital

February 16th 2009.
Since I started posting I have received a lot of positive feedback from people. It really means a lot to me to hear from you guys reading this. It is what keeps me going and focused. One of the 3 goals of the Peace Corps is to educate Americans once you return about your experiences, but with this blog I feel as if I am fulfilling that mission as I live it. Thanks for reading.
It is hard for me to write back to everyone and to make it detailed as I only get about 20 minutes of internet time once or twice a week. I write these blogs each night or every other night on my computer and then post them online once I get internet access.
Anyway on to today’s experience… This afternoon we visited a local hospital here in San Vicente. We were told that it was primitive and that it was definitely not what we’re used to. I am nervous writing this post because I’m afraid I won’t do it justice. The words that come to mind if I had to explain it in just a few sentences are: atrocious, horrific, dreadful, shocking and horrendous. The emergency waiting area was outside underneath a sheet metal roof. In the waiting area were wheel chairs that were plastic lawn chairs with wheels. Inside the hospital patients laid on old rusted steel gurneys. Between 20-50 per room. It was about 90 degrees inside and there were no curtains around any of the beds. The first room we walked into had about a dozen women laying around like they were half dead. Most with IV bags above them…hanging by a jerry rigged clothes hanger. The woman closest to us was in the middle of pooping. In America this situation would be unimaginable. We would use diapers and catheters to take care of the problem…Here that doesn’t exist. No privacy, no curtain, no help, no nurse, and no family. She was by herself, laying on her side, holding a pail under her ass with a piece of shit about to fall into the pail. All while 36 gringo Americans looked on. It was horrible. It was the same story as we walked throughout the facility: sad faces, dirty spaces, and VERY little medical equipment to work with. The Peace Corps doctor pointed out a stethoscope that was so old that it was probably safe to assume that this type had not been used in America during our lifetime. In the maternity ward women gave birth with no anesthesia in extreme heat without any fans while flies circled the room. We later found out the hospital was 138 years old and is the only hospital for the entire region. As for us Peace Corps volunteers we were consistently reassured that if we ever get sick we will be evacuated by medical helicopter or driven, depending on our site location, to the premier hospital in the country which is located in the capital. It is a private hospital that is on par with American standards.