The First Eight Days Part Two
Posted on December 12, 2008 - Filed Under Guatemala, Kids, Personal | 4 Comments
While I had been in the hospital, Irving had talked to the doctors and they`d told him to take Dorian to the IGSS hospital. He was handed the baby, naked except for a diaper and told they could do no more. Poor Irving called his brother and his mom and his brother ran to buy a blanket to wrap the baby in. Then they argued with hospital officials until they were given an ambulance to take Dorian to the other hospital.
The IGSS hospital in Antigua is terrible. They don`t have good doctors and the facilities are severely lacking. And they couldn`t do a colostomy. But they did say that they would call the hospital in the capital. So Irving and his mother bullied the ambulance guys into taking them to the capital with the baby who was still naked and hadn`t had anything to eat or drink yet, since it could kill him.
In Guatemala, hospitals are better guarded than jails. Seriously. They have armed guards at the gate. Maybe to fend off revenge killings for incompetence? I`m not sure, but Irving got past these guys easily with the ambulance and then ran into a road block at the hospital entrance.
“This baby has no papers, we can`t accept him. Where was he born? How do we know he`s yours?” They demanded. Irving, running on no sleep and stressed beyond belief was at a loss. Did they go all the way back to Antigua to get the papers and then come back? The baby needed immediate medical attention, he was still wrapped in only a fleece blanket as they stood there in the cold (yes, it`s flipping cold here in December, down to 12º or so).
That`s when I`m glad I have a b*tch for a MIL. She got right in the doctor`s face and got after him. “This baby is going to die without a colostomy. Do you REALLY want to be responsible for that? Who cares if he`s got papers or not . . . he needs an operation and it`s YOUR JOB to provide medical care. We`ll give you the papers later, that`s not an issue. Just take this kid and fix him NOW!” And they listened!
Dorian was in surgery when Irving and Esperanza arrived the next morning and they couldn`t see him. She was marked down as his mother, since only the mother can visit the baby and she got to go in during the scheduled feeding hours to see him in intensive care. Irving could only go in for one hour at 3 pm to see his son, during general family member visiting hours.
to be cont. . . .
Read Part 1, Part 3, and Part 4.
Comments
4 Responses to “The First Eight Days Part Two”
Talk to Me, People!
WHAT DOES IGSS STAND FOR ?
That is so scary! I mean, I guess I can understand the need for security, but I’ve only had experiences with hospitals in two countries… the US (all over the place, I get called to go to the hospital too much…) and in Egypt. Staying in room, 24hrs a day, esp. for children, is acceptable and often expected. In both places, family was a part of the ‘nursing staff’. Caring, feeding, cleaning, taking patients to lab, helping with recovery room duties…. during a power outage at a Georgia hospital, when the people I brought in were already off to ICU and surgery, I was recruited to help in the ER. Assisting nurses with treatments, running lab samples, etc. I know I am not the only one who has been recruited to help with the care of loved ones in hospitals. It boggles my mind to hear of a health care system that locks out all this free help! I guess, if the help is generally ‘less than helpful’, well, maybe it makes sense, but it is hard to imagine.
Part 1 of your story, I sent you hugs, for this part, I send them to Irving and your MIL… wow!
Go your MIL!! (on this one). How far is Antigua from where you were first admitted?
This series are keeping me hooked onto you, as if I can’t be more hooked onto you already!
I have no idea what IGSS stands for, maybe something, Guatemala, Seguridad Social? Or something like that.
Connie, I never heard of people being recruited to help so much in a hospital! Cool. It makes sense to let parents stay with their kids . . . I mean, kids FREAK out in scary situations and without Mama? I blame the majority of my bad birth experience with Dorian on not having anyone there to be with me and talk me through it . . . they just yelled at me to shut up. The second time, with Dante, the doctors were really nice and it was a million times easier.
Gloria, Antigua is between my town (San Juan) and the hospital town (San Felipe) but the hospital is only about 20 min. from my house . . . 3 min. from Antigua. The hospital in the capital, where Dorian ended up, is an hour and a half away by car, far longer by bus.