Big Difference in Little China's Hospitals
It is rare that I find something that boils my blood so much to the extent that I will write about an experience only 6 hours after it has occurred and that 6 hours having been spent sleeping to recover from the ordeal. Indeed I am talking about the state of this one hospital that I attended in Dalian last night. The silver lining, is that the patient (who is not me thankfully) survived and is now well cared for in a different hospital which I am happy to say actually exceeded expectations but the night itself is a tale worth telling and news worth sharing.
It started with a call during a friend's birthday where we were just about to head off home after a night of beers, shots and guitars, what one would call a rather normal Sat existence in Dalian. Suddenly my Chinese mate Jason's expression clouded over as he beckoned me to go with him to the accident site of a friend that I had just met earlier that evening and had left about 15 minutes prior to go home on his motorbike. Whilst I used to have grandiose images of myself one day riding a solid race bike round the hills of Australia with a buxom young lass tightly draped around my back, these were totally laid to rest when we arrived at the crash scene. The unfortunate recipient was an American bloke named Jamie, he had only arrived in Dalian 3 months earlier, spoke no Chinese, had practically no friends and had come like many others to seek the relative lucrative position of English teacher at one of Dalian's many Universities.
Having come to a cross road intersection, he had gone straight on the green only to have a car turn into him. The front of the car was smashed, his bike in tatters with oil spilling out on the road and we found Jamie sitting some 10 metres from the site where he had obviously been flung from his bike, sitting with his head in his hands. Lady Luck had resulted in his phone not being broken and in his pocket enabling him to call Jason, practically his only Chinese friend in Dalian who was but just an acquaintance. The crash site was a mix of curious by standers and Dalian Taxi drivers who had stopped to watch the ordeal. The lack of language had meant that no one was able to talk to Jamie until we got there. At this stage, the police had arrived and what we thought initially as heaven sent the ambulance to the nearest hospital.
To speed up proceedings, I accompanied Jamie to the hospital in the ambulance and Jason stayed behind to answer the police questions on the crash site which were now starting to get heated because it was realised at that point that the crash was between Jamie and American and a government official. It was 1am, suspicion of alcohol involved and a bureaucratic nightmare for the police who I was informed later on had to go to several levels of authority to decide what to do with the situation probably for fear of a public relations scandal. To end on the crash site before moving to the real story in the hospital, I was told by Jason that one of the more "humourous" sights whilst waiting for things to get sorted was that of taxi drivers casually chatting to shabbily dressed policeman about the accident, inspecting and commenting on the quality of the smashed bike, cigarettes in hand whilst petrol and oil was leaked all over the road.
You would think a ride in an ambulance would be an efficient affair, after all it has the same trimmings, stretcher bed, paramedics in the back and flashing lights. However as we were trying to leave the crash site, one of the curious taxi drivers had parked us in to the crash site. A few beeps and cuss words later, the taxi had moved slightly to the side to allow the ambulance to get through, the driver of which promptly leaning out and obviously telling the taxi what he thought of his mother. 2 minutes later at a traffic light (in times of emergency they seem to heed the traffic rules!) we had discovered that the taxi driver had followed us and was now parked alongside the ambulance and had got out of the car to abuse the ambulance driver. What ensued was the incredible scene of swearing where the ambulance and taxi driver started getting into a fist fight and the two paramedics sitting at the back with me got out to force the taxi driver to get back into his car. On top of that the nurse next to me started flinging abuse through the window. Now if I could understand the local Dalian lingo I would probably have increased my swear word vocabulary 100 fold at that moment but what was not so funny was that Jamie was still in the ambulance bleeding, and finding it extraordinarily hard to breathe due to the what was later found to be 3 broken ribs. But the men of DongBei (North East China) decided that their mothers face was more important at this particular time.
That was to prove to be just the start. You really get to find out how much Chinese you have learnt when you have to try and comfort someone you don't really know and there is a group of doctors and administrators flinging questions at you and expecting you to translate to the bleeding American. Fortunately it was good enough to get him registered and to tell the doctors that he couldn't lie down and where he was hurting. However fearing more medical type questions soon enough I called another Chinese friend of mine Harry and he and another Chinese speaking Russian mate of his came over to lend a hand. When they arrived I thought well this could be the end of an exciting night. Little did I know it was to be just the beginning.
The next 5 hours brought a number of occurences that I believe will forever be etched in my mind and endear me forever grateful for having access to an Australian health care system.
- We found out that procedures meant that before anything could be done ie cleaning, stitching, disinfecting, a CCT scan had to be done first but this could not be done until money was parted with. Considering this was 1500RMB a considerable amount, none of us had this money on us at that time. China is different in the sense that even in an emergency, you have to pay before the doctors will do anything. So 20 min of running around filling in forms and finding alternative ways to promise funds at a later time had to be done before a scan was done and all this time Jamie was lying bleeding in the corner.
- He was'nt the only one bleeding, the floor was littered with cigarette buts and dried blood of which no one cleaned in the 4 hours I was there and Jamie informed me that during the CCT scan, the scanner itself was splattered with blood.
- Things got worse after the scan when we found out that Jamie had no real license to ride motorbikes in Dalian and didn't have health insurance. To his credit though the government official that hit him did come to the hospital and gave us some initial money to get things started.
- Post scan they finally patched him up to stop the bleeding but then decided that the two open wounds in his leg needed surgery so we had to get more money for that. Hence began a 1 hour trip around outside to try and withdraw enough cash from Jamie's credit card to pay for the next step in the treatment process. In the meantime he was made to wait not in a room but in the main walkway of the emergency centre. In that time we managed to witness a couple of gangsters bringing in girls that they had obviously beat up.
- Having come back with the 1,000 or so Aussie dollars that was needed, we were then informed that they needed to do another X ray to check on his leg. Approximately 2 hours had passed since we had been in the hospital, no cleaning of wounds, antiseptic or patient care had been administered at this stage. After money was paid, only then did the treatment begin which ironically was to have a blood test to see if the wound was infected and a shot in the ass to prevent infection. Whilst doing this, I witnessed to my horror the doctor pull out an old pair of rusted scissors to cut away the bandages whilst calmly reasurring Jamie that its OK the scissors are no where near your wound.
- Upon all the tests coming back OK, we are then told that there are no doctors available so you will have to wait in the corridor for 2-3 hours until they can operate on you. In the meantime they still can't patch you up, clean you, give you painkillers or find you a quiet place to rest cause you can't get any of these until the doctors see you, its procedure!
- After waiting 2 hours, it hit 6am and we were told it would be at least another 2 hours before the doctor's were available. By this time Jamie bless his soul was an absolute wreck. He had come down from shock so was feeling the pain for real, every breath hurt, his legs although bandaged were still bleeding profusely and he wasn't able to lie down so was exhausted from having to suppport himself on his hands cause his body hurt too much to relax. This was the last straw for us and we decided to look for another hospital.
This is where the story gets better. In short, we found a hospital that had a wing for foreigners in Dalian, they sent an ambulance to the other hospital to pick him up, hooked him straight up to a drip and monitoring equipment, prior to anything else got 2 doctors on him to clean him up and stitch up his leg wounds, got another Xray done to actually find the 3 broken ribs and had him in a private room propped up on a mattressed bed with pillows, all this in about 2 hours. The place smelt like a hospital, the doctors were professional, the nurses smartly dressed and caring and their patient care was excellent although limited by Jamie's lack of Chinese.
The night ended at 11am this morning when after a short breakfast stop I finally got home and crawled into bed. It was my second all nighter in a hospital and one really hopes that there wont be too many more.
Jamie although now settled is in for a rough week until his ribs start to heal a bit. He has no real friends in China so I will go and visit him probably tonight later on and during the week. The financial and legal consequences of not having a license or insurance will probably come into affect later on. But he is alive and well looked after now I think. Although I didn't go through what he did, it was a bit of a smack in the face that I am indeed not living in a developed country any more and as usual it is times like this that makes one appreciate all the more what one has.
It is rare that I find something that boils my blood so much to the extent that I will write about an experience only 6 hours after it has occurred and that 6 hours having been spent sleeping to recover from the ordeal. Indeed I am talking about the state of this one hospital that I attended in Dalian last night. The silver lining, is that the patient (who is not me thankfully) survived and is now well cared for in a different hospital which I am happy to say actually exceeded expectations but the night itself is a tale worth telling and news worth sharing.
It started with a call during a friend's birthday where we were just about to head off home after a night of beers, shots and guitars, what one would call a rather normal Sat existence in Dalian. Suddenly my Chinese mate Jason's expression clouded over as he beckoned me to go with him to the accident site of a friend that I had just met earlier that evening and had left about 15 minutes prior to go home on his motorbike. Whilst I used to have grandiose images of myself one day riding a solid race bike round the hills of Australia with a buxom young lass tightly draped around my back, these were totally laid to rest when we arrived at the crash scene. The unfortunate recipient was an American bloke named Jamie, he had only arrived in Dalian 3 months earlier, spoke no Chinese, had practically no friends and had come like many others to seek the relative lucrative position of English teacher at one of Dalian's many Universities.
Having come to a cross road intersection, he had gone straight on the green only to have a car turn into him. The front of the car was smashed, his bike in tatters with oil spilling out on the road and we found Jamie sitting some 10 metres from the site where he had obviously been flung from his bike, sitting with his head in his hands. Lady Luck had resulted in his phone not being broken and in his pocket enabling him to call Jason, practically his only Chinese friend in Dalian who was but just an acquaintance. The crash site was a mix of curious by standers and Dalian Taxi drivers who had stopped to watch the ordeal. The lack of language had meant that no one was able to talk to Jamie until we got there. At this stage, the police had arrived and what we thought initially as heaven sent the ambulance to the nearest hospital.
To speed up proceedings, I accompanied Jamie to the hospital in the ambulance and Jason stayed behind to answer the police questions on the crash site which were now starting to get heated because it was realised at that point that the crash was between Jamie and American and a government official. It was 1am, suspicion of alcohol involved and a bureaucratic nightmare for the police who I was informed later on had to go to several levels of authority to decide what to do with the situation probably for fear of a public relations scandal. To end on the crash site before moving to the real story in the hospital, I was told by Jason that one of the more "humourous" sights whilst waiting for things to get sorted was that of taxi drivers casually chatting to shabbily dressed policeman about the accident, inspecting and commenting on the quality of the smashed bike, cigarettes in hand whilst petrol and oil was leaked all over the road.
You would think a ride in an ambulance would be an efficient affair, after all it has the same trimmings, stretcher bed, paramedics in the back and flashing lights. However as we were trying to leave the crash site, one of the curious taxi drivers had parked us in to the crash site. A few beeps and cuss words later, the taxi had moved slightly to the side to allow the ambulance to get through, the driver of which promptly leaning out and obviously telling the taxi what he thought of his mother. 2 minutes later at a traffic light (in times of emergency they seem to heed the traffic rules!) we had discovered that the taxi driver had followed us and was now parked alongside the ambulance and had got out of the car to abuse the ambulance driver. What ensued was the incredible scene of swearing where the ambulance and taxi driver started getting into a fist fight and the two paramedics sitting at the back with me got out to force the taxi driver to get back into his car. On top of that the nurse next to me started flinging abuse through the window. Now if I could understand the local Dalian lingo I would probably have increased my swear word vocabulary 100 fold at that moment but what was not so funny was that Jamie was still in the ambulance bleeding, and finding it extraordinarily hard to breathe due to the what was later found to be 3 broken ribs. But the men of DongBei (North East China) decided that their mothers face was more important at this particular time.
That was to prove to be just the start. You really get to find out how much Chinese you have learnt when you have to try and comfort someone you don't really know and there is a group of doctors and administrators flinging questions at you and expecting you to translate to the bleeding American. Fortunately it was good enough to get him registered and to tell the doctors that he couldn't lie down and where he was hurting. However fearing more medical type questions soon enough I called another Chinese friend of mine Harry and he and another Chinese speaking Russian mate of his came over to lend a hand. When they arrived I thought well this could be the end of an exciting night. Little did I know it was to be just the beginning.
The next 5 hours brought a number of occurences that I believe will forever be etched in my mind and endear me forever grateful for having access to an Australian health care system.
- We found out that procedures meant that before anything could be done ie cleaning, stitching, disinfecting, a CCT scan had to be done first but this could not be done until money was parted with. Considering this was 1500RMB a considerable amount, none of us had this money on us at that time. China is different in the sense that even in an emergency, you have to pay before the doctors will do anything. So 20 min of running around filling in forms and finding alternative ways to promise funds at a later time had to be done before a scan was done and all this time Jamie was lying bleeding in the corner.
- He was'nt the only one bleeding, the floor was littered with cigarette buts and dried blood of which no one cleaned in the 4 hours I was there and Jamie informed me that during the CCT scan, the scanner itself was splattered with blood.
- Things got worse after the scan when we found out that Jamie had no real license to ride motorbikes in Dalian and didn't have health insurance. To his credit though the government official that hit him did come to the hospital and gave us some initial money to get things started.
- Post scan they finally patched him up to stop the bleeding but then decided that the two open wounds in his leg needed surgery so we had to get more money for that. Hence began a 1 hour trip around outside to try and withdraw enough cash from Jamie's credit card to pay for the next step in the treatment process. In the meantime he was made to wait not in a room but in the main walkway of the emergency centre. In that time we managed to witness a couple of gangsters bringing in girls that they had obviously beat up.
- Having come back with the 1,000 or so Aussie dollars that was needed, we were then informed that they needed to do another X ray to check on his leg. Approximately 2 hours had passed since we had been in the hospital, no cleaning of wounds, antiseptic or patient care had been administered at this stage. After money was paid, only then did the treatment begin which ironically was to have a blood test to see if the wound was infected and a shot in the ass to prevent infection. Whilst doing this, I witnessed to my horror the doctor pull out an old pair of rusted scissors to cut away the bandages whilst calmly reasurring Jamie that its OK the scissors are no where near your wound.
- Upon all the tests coming back OK, we are then told that there are no doctors available so you will have to wait in the corridor for 2-3 hours until they can operate on you. In the meantime they still can't patch you up, clean you, give you painkillers or find you a quiet place to rest cause you can't get any of these until the doctors see you, its procedure!
- After waiting 2 hours, it hit 6am and we were told it would be at least another 2 hours before the doctor's were available. By this time Jamie bless his soul was an absolute wreck. He had come down from shock so was feeling the pain for real, every breath hurt, his legs although bandaged were still bleeding profusely and he wasn't able to lie down so was exhausted from having to suppport himself on his hands cause his body hurt too much to relax. This was the last straw for us and we decided to look for another hospital.
This is where the story gets better. In short, we found a hospital that had a wing for foreigners in Dalian, they sent an ambulance to the other hospital to pick him up, hooked him straight up to a drip and monitoring equipment, prior to anything else got 2 doctors on him to clean him up and stitch up his leg wounds, got another Xray done to actually find the 3 broken ribs and had him in a private room propped up on a mattressed bed with pillows, all this in about 2 hours. The place smelt like a hospital, the doctors were professional, the nurses smartly dressed and caring and their patient care was excellent although limited by Jamie's lack of Chinese.
The night ended at 11am this morning when after a short breakfast stop I finally got home and crawled into bed. It was my second all nighter in a hospital and one really hopes that there wont be too many more.
Jamie although now settled is in for a rough week until his ribs start to heal a bit. He has no real friends in China so I will go and visit him probably tonight later on and during the week. The financial and legal consequences of not having a license or insurance will probably come into affect later on. But he is alive and well looked after now I think. Although I didn't go through what he did, it was a bit of a smack in the face that I am indeed not living in a developed country any more and as usual it is times like this that makes one appreciate all the more what one has.
1 Comments:
At 9:35 PM, Erika said…
Hey Terence.
I can understand why your blood was boiling- my blood was boiling when i was reading this and I wasn't even there!
I am mostly annoyed at the attitude of the doctors- that in order to save someone's life, you need to be paid first. Where are the doctors gone that actually did medicine to help people? Or is medicine all about prestige and money now- and who cares if a few people die, they were poor, they don't matter.
And that got me thinking- Australia gets doctors from overseas... expecting them to have the same level of training as Australian doctors. hearing the infection control in Dailan got me really scared. What happens if one of those doctors treated me?
Thank God for Medicare :)
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