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Wednesday
30 April 2003
Emergency
Medical
In
my never-ending search to give you first hand
experience to living here, I fell off of a small
cliff last Monday night at a small Hotel near Santa
Ana.
It was about 5 feet down to a sloping garden full of
rocks and stakes. It was totally dark so I could not
even brace for the landing. I landed on my right
hand and knee and slid down a little before I
stopped. I shouted a lot of obscenities so anyone
around would know I had a problem, but no one could
hear me. I stood up and knew I had hurt myself
pretty bad.
I
walked to the office and my guests, driver, and the
Hotel Manager helped me wash the wounds and put ice
on them to help keep the swelling down. After
examining the damage we concluded I should get real
medical treatment.
We went to the Red Cross station in Santa Ana. Four
very friendly competent first aid people immediately
started cleaning the wounds, took my blood pressure
twice, took a blood sugar test, and dressed the
wounds. My middle finger on my right hand was bent
sideways like it was broken or dislocated, so they
recommended I go to one of the SS Hospitals or to
one of the private Hospitals for X rays.
I knew the service at the SS Hospital would be free
since I have my card, but I thought I would get
faster service at one of the private Hospitals AND I
would be able to write this article so you would
know how fast and inexpensive emergency treatment is
at one of them. There was NO charge for the Red
Cross treatment.
I
got to Hospital Cima San Jose at about 9 PM. There
was one person signing in at the Emergency
admissions desk. It took about 5 minutes and then it
was my turn. I had my Driver’s License and they
got my name, address, and phone number. There were no
questions of how I would pay.
I then went straight to an examining bed, where the
Doctor and two nurses listened to my sad tale of
woe, examined the wounds and asked me to go to X Ray
with one of the nurses. I walked in and immediately
the technician sat me down and positioned my hand
for the two X Rays.
The
nurse walked me back to the Emergency bed and I
waited about 10 minutes for the Dr to return with
the X Rays. The good news was, there were no broken
bones or torn ligaments. He directed the Nurses on
how to super clean the wounds and brace the
finger.
They put a US made rubbery type of waterproof
dressing called DuoDerm over the wounds. This is a
product guaranteed sterile and stays flexible and
waterproof so it keeps the wounds sterile. He
prescribed a pain killer and antibiotic, gave me his
card which includes his office, home, and cell phone
numbers, and told me to call him day or night if I
had any problems at all. He asked me to return in 5
days to see how I am doing. All of this was in
perfect English, and in a very sincere manner.
The
nurses finished with the dressings and brace and
asked me to wait for the prescriptions. It took
about 15 minutes for the prescriptions and I went to
pay the bill.
Dr
cost
32,000 Colones
X
Ray cost
12,096 Colones
Dressing
cost
25,558 Colones
Equipment
cost
1,350 Colones
Emergency
Room cost
8,810 Colones
Finger
brace cost 3,307
Colones
Total
cost
83,122 Colones at 390 Colones/dollar = $213US
The
total time from entry into Emergency Room to exit
was one hour.
I
met a British gentleman on Friday who was
vacationing here with his wife and aunt. The aunt is
80+ years old and fell and broke her hipbone. His
wife is an RN in England and very picky about
Medical services.
He stated they were both very impressed with the
quality of the treatment the aunt received. He said
they implanted the latest US technology hip
replacement where the bone actually grows into the
replacement. He complemented all of the Drs and
Nurses and stated the cost was very reasonable. The
care was way superior to the UK.
What
a country!!!
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