Two Worlds of Medical Care

They asked me to compare 

but how do you say what is the same between an apple and a lion

A goat and a tarantula

A yellow school bus and a purple daisy

You just can’t

There’s a world where basic medical care is a privilege 

One that may always be just out of your reach

Begging friends to borrow just $10 for medicine you need

Or spending a whole month’s salary on your loved one’s hospital stay

There’s a world where mamas and their newborn babies cannot leave the hospital premises until they pay for the services but their beds are given to other patients as soon as they are medically able to discharge

One where if you can’t pay for oxygen, you don’t get it

Every lab, test, and consult adds up and you no longer have what you need to feed your family

Do we get medicine this month or do we feed our babies?

There is a world where  going to the emergency room means entering a room full of 20 beds

Where people may wait all weekend just for a simple test

Sometimes those urgent situations have to be treated on the nurse’s desk in the ped’s ward because every bed in that room is full of sick kids

Urgent life and death situations are told there are no room and there is nothing they can do for them

In one world, in the PACU with everyone else who had surgery that day, you may see a rat run across the floor as you try to position your child every so cautiously because his oxygen stats are low but they have to search the whole hospital to find a tank—there are none ready in the PACU.

In another world, the PACU is a whole specialized floor of a hospital where you may get your own room to recover in with a pull out couch, a comfortable chair, and even a TV on the wall.

In one world there may be access to one or two bathrooms close to your extremely sick child that you share with many other people, you may even get desperate enough to pee with other people showering right next to you.

In another world, in that own room, you also have your own bathroom to use as often as needed with all the privacy you need.

In one world, overworked hospital staff are stretched way to thin to give the needed care, vitals are taken with the same portable devices you may have in your home and not often enough. 

In another world, there are so many amazing nurses, doctors, and other hospital staff, while still are likely overworked are able to give individualized care and after every bedside encounter they ask if there is anything else they can do to help and will come running at the push of a button.

In one world, you have to have friends or family that will bring you food and run errands to pay for the medicine, oxygen, or anything else you may need before you can use it.

In another world, you can order food to be delivered right to your room and medicine is given simply because you need it.

In one world, comprehensive care is almost impossible. Patients (or caregivers) struggle to remember their whole medical history, it is not accessible at the click of a button, and you are often required to go to different clinics and hospitals for different things.

In another world, when a new issue arises a whole new specialty is added to your team. The amount of tests, labs, check ups, etc. we have been able to get in one building has been mind boggling, not to mention it’s easily accessible to every specialty or new medical professional that may be interacting with the patient. 

In one world, hospitals struggle to say open because of lack of gas for their generator, staff unable to get to work, staff not getting paid, gang violence, or lack of oxygen availability.

In another world, one will always be able to get the care they need. They may have to wait longer than they want, they may have to pay a lot of money, they may have to get a second opinion, but they will eventually get what they need.

It’s not fair

It’s not fair that among so many other things the quality of medical care you can get is largely based on where you were born.

I know not every doctor or hospital is able to give the level of care that J has received while in the states but I’m both infinitely grateful and incredibly humbled for the care he has received.