How operations go in some foreign countries

[Nancy]

Just thought you might like to know how these surgeries go in some foreign countries. Someone we know was just released after his heart valve surgery. He was in the hospital for 16 days.

If this surgery is offered at all in some countries, the patient buys the valve themselves, and pays for the operation prior to surgery. The hospital bill must be totally paid before the release of the patient. TEEs are done without any numbing or feel-good stuff.

There is no pain medication given to the patient post-surgery, no little pillows, no warm fuzzies from the staff. Spirometers consist of a soda pop bottle filled with water and a straw that you blow into.

So we are so lucky to have the kind of care that we do.

 

[KimC]

God bless America! Tx Nancy.

 

[MelissaM]

Thanks for the reminder, Nancy. We are SO lucky to live in this country. Really and truly blessed.

My friend just returned from a stint working with the World Health Organization in Zambia. The pictures and stories she told were straight out of the early 1900s. The hospital beds were bare (sometimes rusting) metal with the thinnest of mattresses sitting on a slab of concrete. Families surrounded the patient to give the care we normally get from nurses here.

Sometimes vaccines were given without sterilizing the skin. Sometimes the skin was sterilized with distilled water. The syringes were burned behind the hospital in six-foot pits - medical waste management. It was tough getting the locals to totally believe in the vaccine, because some of the vaccine went inert (and was ineffective) from not being kept cold enough during transport.

It begs the question of how we can be so fortunate while our neighbors across the ocean can be so lacking?

Melissa

 

[liamty]

Foreign country!!!

Foreign country!!!

I know that Australia is a foreign country to you all....but gratefully we are not quite that bad!! We even pioneered a bit of heart surgery! We all need reminders of how lucky we sometimes.

 

[Nancy]

This kind of care doesn't happen in most countries, but there are many countries that are not as advanced as others, and I'm sure there are also some countries that don't even offer this kind of surgery.

 

[fyrfytr]

Hi Nancy,
We had two ladies from our church travel to India on a Medical Mission Trip and they gave a report last Sunday. It is unbelievable to hear and see what little some have for medical treatment. How Lucky we are!
Have A Great Weekend!

Dave
_____________________________
Surgery: 4/21/03
Aortic Aneurysm Repair
AVR, with a St. Jude Mechanical
Heart Center of the Rockies

 

[Nan]

Wow!!! How lucky we are!!!

 

[alicia]

How right you are Nancy! We take so much for granted and this "eye opener" is sobering for us. Thank God we live in a country that has such good medical care. Keep reminding us of this and maybe we wont feel so sorry for ourselves. We do have it good!

Alicia