A Friend Goes to the Hospital

In September a friend of mine was drinking with his cousin and some other friends at the Texaco station in Melchor (border town with Belize). While they were sitting there, a blacked out car pulled up and opened fire on the group of them. One of the friends was killed, his cousin was hit in the arm and a 9mm bullet hit Luis in the neck, hitting below the chin on his left side and exiting on the right. He lost a lot of blood but before that could still walk. An ambulance "rushed" him the 1.5 hr trip to San Benito and their public hospital.

Luckily the bullet didn't hit anything important. He had surgery and afterwards could talk. He had difficulty swallowing but was told that was because of the swelling. I saw him the day after he was admitted. It was not my first time to the hospital, but I'd never been to the wards before.

I walked to the information desk even though it was 1pm and visiting hours aren't until 6-8pm. Luis told me on the phone, "They'll let you in. You're white." I told them I was there to visit Luis and what bed he was in. Not only did they let me go, the lady got up from her desk (with others in line behind me) and walked me past the police checkpoint and into his room in the Men's Surgery Wing where she pointed at him and left.

I say his room, but it actually belonged to six guys. They each had a worn out hospital bed with different sheets on them (the family is responsible for providing linens) and none of them had a gown on. They were all in various stages of dress with one guy in a long sleeved flannel shirt, jeans and his rubber boots. Luis was down to some barely on shorts. It was hot. There was no TV, no magazines, no air conditioning or even fans, not even any public health posters. Somebody had brought Luis a small desktop fan and his phone charger. He also had several bottles of water and a gatorade, but he couldn't swallow so it didn't do him much good.

I spoke with him for a few minutes sitting on the end of his bed (the chair for his guests was taken by the fan) but it was hard for him to talk because of the swelling. He took his bandages off and showed me the bullet holes before re-sticking them back on. It was actually hard to sit there because of the stink. I'm not sure whether it was him or one of the other 5 guys sweating and recovering from surgeries. I ribbed him about his choices in friends (the one who died was the target of this "cleanup") to which he replied, "Everybody has their problems."

This was on a Thursday and even though the doctor thought he would be ready to go on Saturday, he would have to wait until Monday when the doctor got back in town. Doctors take turns flying in from the city to work Monday-Friday in these free government run hospitals. On the weekends there is only one first year resident for the entire hospital. The highest rank in class gets to choose their location first and nobody wants to come to Petén so most hospitals here are run by your lower than average medical students on the weekends. They're not allowed to discharge very many people.

He was sent home Monday and has pretty much recovered. I told Shelley that I now have a list of 26 different emergency plans that rank above going to the general hospital. One of those is to let me slowly but mercifully bleed out (ok maybe not, but our Vet is truthfully #2 on the list.)

Even though I don't think there are very many privacy laws in Guatemala, my US conscience wouldn't let me take pictures. Instead, here's the scene of the shooting:

How Not To Sharpen A Machete

Wednesday Mateo came over to work in the yard. He is a 15 yr old Kekchi teen and one of our last remaining friends from New Horizon. Starting last week I asked him to start helping around the yard by chopping the grass, pulling weeds, checking on the bananas and other various things. He needs/wants the money and it is really nice to have some help with work and twins taking up all of our time.

That day he was supposed to chop the weeds outside the fence and then spray the yard for ticks. Apparently we brought home an infestation in the mud on our vehicles from Santa Rita.

After about an hour he came to the back door holding his finger. He asked me if I knew anything about wounds. Having a well supplied medical kit thanks to my mom I told him to come in. The hand was so bloody that I couldn't see the wound so we turned our deep freezer into an impromptu operating table. After cleaning the area I saw that he had sliced his left index finger from one half of the nail to the other half of the opposite side. A nice clean cut because this boy really knows how to sharpen a machete (when he's paying attention.)

After cleaning him up and dressing the finger I began a long discussion about taking him to the Mennonite clinic (Good Samaritan) to see what the nurse there thought about it. There was much argument and he claimed everything would be fine if I would just let him finish chopping the yard and go home so he could put some weeds on it.

He argued with me all the way to the gate where he got in my pickup for the drive down the street where he protested all through the check-in process. His curiosity had him complying more than anything else because he'd never been to a "hospital" as he called it. It was really just a house with 4 rooms. After a 5 minute wait the nurse called us back. She complimented my fine wound dressing abilities (she's apparently seen too many Guatemalan weed varieties) and then argued with Mateo about stitches. She told him that if he promised to eat six eggs a day for the next week then she would let him go, but if he was going to just eat tortillas and salt the wound would take 3 weeks to heal and she was going to stitch him. He promised to eat the eggs.

Then she gave him instructions about bathing. He is supposed to keep the area dry for 5 days, so she told him to put a bag over his hand when bathing. She asked to make sure he had plastic bags in the house, and then followed up asking if the bags had holes in them. Again, this lady knows a lot about Guatemalans. He promised.

She asked him to wait in the hall and walking out of the room he asked me where the machine was that would tell him how much he weighed. He's seen too many movies. The nurse laughed and said he might as well get something fun for his trouble so she weighed him at 104 lbs which he thought was way too low. I can tell you this because I live in Guatemala where privacy laws do not exist...

After another 5 minutes they called us into the front room where they gave him tylenol and amoxicillin along with a booklet about God. Grand total was Q24 ($3). I left a bigger offering because I had benefited from their services before at no charge.

On the way home we stopped at the store where I bought him 30 eggs and some plastic bags. She didn't know that his family is so poor that Mateo doesn't know how to eat an egg, but he thought maybe his mom would know how to fix them. What I bought may last until tomorrow because the whole family will be eating them. He also didn't have any plastic bags. We argued some more about the medicine and when to take it as well as not removing the dressing. Then he finished the yard and sprayed for ticks. His biggest problem now is that he is left handed and wanted me to teach him how to write with his right hand before school tomorrow...Sorry bud.

Our next adventure will be when I take him to get a tetanus shot. He can't remember ever getting a shot and claims he doesn't need them.

Guate Health Care

Right before we came back to Guatemala I noticed a spot on my arm that didn't look right. My mother, of course, wanted me to go the doctor right away, but without the insurance to cover it I decided to wait until I got back to Guatemala. I asked for a recommendation for a good Dermatologist in Guate from a missionary group we are a part of, and received many recommendations. I ultimately chose Dr. Carlos David only because three different people had recommended him. I have a family history of Melanoma and Basal Cell Carcinoma, so I didn't want to take anything too lightly.

I called with three days' notice and had no problem booking the appointment. Dr. David was very thorough and took careful notes on family history and all other information. He was also concerned about the spot and recommended that it be excised and sent to a lab for Melanoma testing. He usually does surgeries in the mornings, but since I was leaving the next morning for Petén, he asked me to wait 20 minutes while he prepared his room for operating.

The whole procedure was painless and actually fun to watch. He cut very deeply and stitched it back up with 7 stitches. The entire time spent in his office was about 2 hours, and that included consultation, surgery, and payment. The total bill for this was $300, including the lab testing. This happened on a Thursday, and he called me late Monday afternoon with the results that everything came back normal.

I love Guatemala City medical care, especially for non-emergencies like this. Fast and Cheap.