The other night I experienced the most shocking moments of
my life.
I am currently on holiday in Brazil with my girlfriend, seeing the sights and
hitting the beach, soaking up the sun and eating as much food as is possible
before I head back to delights of the UK. Three days ago we went on a tour into
the Atlantic forest of Brazil, containing jungles and filled with dangerous
snakes like the corral, spiders and jaguars, panthers and other creatures you
don’t normally see on your average daily commute in London. Towards the end of
the trip we went to visit a waterfall known locally as Paraiso (Paradise)
falls. It was a paradise and I went for a swim in the lagoon beneath. It was
stunning, the only problem was the mosquitoes… I can only say that I was bitten
to shit, I and my girlfriend looked a little like we had been to war with these
creatures and I am itching now as I write this.
Itching is an issue, but the major problem that my
girlfriend had underplayed just how allergic she was to these bites. To give
you an example of how aggressive these things are I felt one bite me and it
felt like a needle going into my arm and when I swatted it off, the wound
gushed with blood.
We returned to the house where we were staying and ate dinner. My girlfriend’s
bites were less, but now much larger than mine yet looked like nothing serious
at this point. We went to bed and I slept like a baby while she, however, did
not.
She woke me a few times complaining of feeling ill and
suffering from a fever, but when I touched her she felt normal. After an hour
or so at 4.30 she said to me “Help me, I’m dying” I touched her forehead and
she was burning up. We went to the living room and looked for a local hospital
(she has private medical care here in Brazil) but found that in the local areas
there were only public, free hospitals. With experience of the NHS I thought
that it couldn’t be that bad. There are two types of hospital in Brazil,
Private (UPS) and Public, much like the UK. We caught a taxi and she was admitted at 5 am
in the morning.
On arrival it looked like any standard hospital. She saw a
woman who looked like a nurse who took her blood pressure which was critically
low. (80/50!) My girlfriend was unresponsive and couldn’t speak or stand and
could only lie down as the allergic reaction took hold of her. She saw a doctor
(which later I found was a fucking miracle to actually be seen by a doctor) who
sent her round to back sounding like he was almost doing her a favour.
We went to a room with 6 chairs, 3 each side facing other, all filthy. My
girlfriend was sweating with fever while the rest of her body was freezing and
sat opposite a woman covered in her own vomit. The room stank of shit and vomit
and there was dry blood on one of the chairs. There were two women in the room who looked
like nurses, yet later I found out they were ‘technicians’ or orderlies as we
call them in the UK.
My girlfriend was whiter than a sheet of A4 paper, her lips
were white and her hand was freezing and couldn’t grip mine. I sat there
wanting to cry, I knew I had to be strong but seeing the person you love,
slipping further and further away into lifelessness. She later admitted she too
thought she was going to die. The orderly then took an IV and inserted it into
her arm, but too my horror she did not drain it and the long tube was full of
air. I have seen enough medical dramas to know that you shouldn’t put too much
air into the bloodstream and I shouted in Portuguese for her to drain it,
release the air, which the woman promptly did and got rid of most of the air
and then re-inserted the tube. She then started the first of three drips going
in to her arm and I watched in horror as some air bubbles entered her system. I
noticed it was only hydrocortisone to rehydrate her and she slipped further and
further. I even started praying at this point. The second drip started about 20
minutes later with no sign of improvement, now we were onto our 4th
new person in the room, all of the previous signing off and the girl opposite
had left 5 minutes before, yet her vomit bin still remained.
My girlfriend asked for some bread and I dutifully fetched
some from local kiosk and fed it to her piece by piece as she was too weak to
hold the bread or take bites. The second drip finished at 6.30 in the morning
and my girlfriend showed no sign of improvement. She then asked for a bin and
was given a new bin covered in blood. I think the food started to take effect
and did as much good as the drips had. She started her third drip and this had
some anti-allergy solution put into it (A second miracle). The room at this
point was full and stank of sweat and other bodily products. The old woman next
to my girlfriend turned to her and said “If you can go somewhere better, go,
because my son died here 15 days ago from being misdiagnosed”
My girlfriend started to look better, and started saying to
me she wanted to leave. Then to my horror the orderlies said something I have still
got a hard time believing “There are no doctors or nurses here, what are we
meant to do”. My girlfriend then heard them say they were preparing an
injection of something that would lower her blood pressure further. Now I am
not a doctor and neither were they, but to lower someone’s blood pressure which
is already critically low is not a good idea, right?
I picked her up and we walked out, escaping at 8 in the
morning, the vomit bucket still in the room, that had just been moved by
someone with no glove on.
I have never seen anything like that before…
So to summarise. I went to a hospital with:
· * barely any medicine
· * no doctors
· * no nurses
· * blood stained chairs and a high mortality rate.
· * 6 changes of staff in three hours and they only
passed on instructions verbally as they couldn’t write it down
· * No machines, not even the ability to do blood
tests
· * And no-one to check where I was taking a patient
So why do I write this… they tried to pass a law to make up
public servants use public hospitals… but the law wasn’t passed… when Dilma and
Lula had cancer.. where did they go? Private care, and who can blame them? They
wanted to live! I can’t blame the hospital or the staff, they were doing
their best with untrained staff and no equipment, so I must rest this one with
the government
So the World Cup… imagine this, a football fan has too much
to drink and collapses with dehydration… where do they go? Be very very fucking
careful….I fear the number of people being admitted to hospital along with the
numbers of those successfully treated.
So my advice:
11) Buy the very best travel insurance or health
care you can
22)
Always check there is a private hospital nearby
33)
Do not put yourself in any danger through your
own actions ie excessive drinking
44)
Never ever criticize the NHS… it might be a bit
ropey… but they have doctors.
Oh and to let you know… my girlfriend went the next day to a
private hospital and was given treatments galore and now looks to be on the
mend! If you're coming... good luck :)
