Mama is 91 years old. She came to Nicaragua Christmas of 2019 to stay a few months, but with COVID-19, she has been stuck here since...much to our great delight. She has been doing very well until the last two weeks when her health has been getting a bit shakier.
After we got to the hospital emergency room and many hours later, the ER doc determined that she had a case of acute pancreatitis. She had to be admitted. So, as I write this on Saturday, she is sleeping in a nice hospital bed with four pillows. I have WIFI. Sarah who stayed with her last night so I could sleep…bless her heart…slept on a pull-out couch with sheets, pillow and blanket. The room is air-conditioned. Everyone in and around the hospital follows PPE protocols to the max. Nurses come in with rolling stations to take her vitals. Mama’s internist speaks English as well as Spanish, so Mama can talk to him directly. And it is really nice, and all I can think of is how glad I am that she can afford to be in this hospital with her insurance so that she feels as comfortable as she can.
Nicaraguan public hospitals are great. But they cannot afford all the niceties that this particular private hospital can. This same week, Diana’s son…our office administrator… had surgery in a public children’s hospital…one of the new hospitals built in the last years. He had a good bed. He was in a good clean room and she had a chair to sit with him. The staff did their best to follow PPE protocols.
When Hagan, Diana’s son, went home they did not have a hospital bill. None. So far, we’ve paid out $700 for Mama's ER bill and - I know – even that is a small cost compared to the U.S. health system.
The other thing that I am grateful for is that this private hospital has thorough testing laboratories: besides a battery of blood tests, she has had several EKGs and an ultrasound. The ER doctor thought that maybe Mama was having a heart attack until all the blood work results came back and her pancreas enzymes were “out the roof” and “wacky”…those are both medical terms, I am sure.
I kept thinking about our hemoglobin laboratory machine at our Nueva Vida Health Clinic being broken. What if someone right now had serious pain like Mama's and we could not test them until we come up with the $6,500 needed to replace the machine?
In many ways our clinic services are limited by funding, as are the public hospitals here. Nicaragua is a poor nation and even poor this government has taken amazing steps to bring the quality and access to health care up, but they cannot provide what this private hospital does. Because not only do the public hospitals NOT charge their patients, but this private hospital has a robust tourism plastic surgery service and the hospital was built by the only Central American billionaire who lives and prospers in this poor nation. The hospital is also on the side of Managua that is completely opposite of where we live. Besides being opposite locality-wise…the neighborhoods are wealthier over around the hospital. More infrastructure…more resources…well, you get my drift.
Mama woke up a bit ago and being bored asked me about news. I told her about Sen. Ted Cruz getting in trouble when he flew to Cancun instead of being with his fellow Texans in their time of need. She nodded and smiled…and I thought to myself, “he is in solidarity just about as well as I am, sitting here in the A/C in a cushioned chair in the ‘fancy’ hospital. Cruz wanted to be a ‘good dad’ as he said and I want to be a good daughter.” I should reread my blog on hypocrisy.
My bottom line is that I wish every Nicaraguan could come to a hospital like this and walk out with no bill, unlike we will. I wish every Texan had water and heat no matter the neighborhood they live in. I wish every person on earth had what they need to live and then a bit more to be more comfortable. I do hope that my trying to bring that last bit to fruition makes me not AS hypocritical as Ted Cruz, but I’m not so sure it does.
-Kathleen
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