General Hospital

Late this afternoon I went with Sue, a woman here from MN, to look into getting oxygen tanks so that we can bring Mickey home from the hospital.  The tanks are more expensive than we thought ($250), and the doctors recommend having three on hand.  We tried to get them to give us a deal, but no dice.  They did say that the director would be in on Thursday and that maybe he would be willing to negotiate.  After talking some amongst ourselves, we decided to go to the hospital to make sure that doctors would discharge Mickey and to verify the supplies that we would need.

     On a side note: patients in Haiti CANNOT discharge themselves from the hospital without a doctor's permission.  They can't leave the building at all.  So, even if a patient wants to go home or the family wants the patient to come home, he can't.  Civil rights in America are great--we can't be kept in a hospital without our consent.


We left the oxygen store place and drove to General Hospital in downtown PAP.  I wanted to take pictures because I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  Mickey is housed in the TB ward, which is nothing more than what looks like a large Army tent.  There had to have been at least 45 patients in it.  I'd say there was about 6" in between the hospital beds.  It's a free hospital, so patients' families have to provide food for their family member.  The only toilet facilities are the buckets next to the bed (the nurses--what few there are--don't want families to bring food in the Styrofoam containers from the streets because then the patients use them to toilet in).  There is zero privacy.  A nanny is there with Mickey 24 hours, but that is not much company.  He is an intelligent young man without anything to do.  He is so thin and weak that one rubber glove under his back was causing him pain.  When we removed it, he could finally turn onto his back instead of having to stay on his side.  The first thing Mickey asked for was to come home.  We explained that we couldn't do that yet, but we were working on it.

I know in America we complain about health care, having to share rooms in the hospital, the poor quality of the food, etc.  Never complain.  Please.  We Americans have it so good most of us don't even realize it.  The blocks around the hospital are filled with pharmacies, labs, funeral homes, etc.  It is not unusual for a patient to have to go around to the pharmacies and purchase the supplies needed for his surgery and take them to the hospital.  We complain about the high cost of medical care in the U.S., but at least we don't have to buy our own surgical supplies before an operation!

Please pray that Mickey's health continue to improve, even slightly.  Please pray that we can find the money to pay for the oxygen tanks.  Please pray that when (if) he comes home that we can care for him properly.