Hospital Escuela

Yesterday, Jason and I went to Hospital Escuela to visit Xiomara. She is the lady in our church who gave birth less than a month ago. She has problems during pregnancy with blood clotting in her legs. She managed to advert it this pregnancy, but Tuesday evening we got a call saying she was in the hospital. She has a good sized blood clot in her leg and several small floating clots (not sure of the technical name) in her brain.

I talked to her on Wednesday night and she was pretty discouraged because of her baby. She is in the worst hospital in Tegucigalpa. It is the public hospital and proof that socialized medicine doesn't work. The 6th Floor is where all the adults with non-life threatening illnesses go. It is made up of many wards with 4 beds each in them. Each ward is made up of plywood walls that go 3/4 of the way to the ceiling. The floor is tile that is so broken you would cut your foot on it if you were brave enough to be walking without shoes on. The beds are old and to lower or lift them you must go and ask for the special tool to operate it. The sheets that cover the bed may be washed (who knows), but have blood stains and holes in them. There are no pillows, air conditionings, fans, tvs, or anything to do. You just have to lay there. The doctor comes once a day in the morning. After that there is nothing to keep you occupied. I wanted to take pictures, but I was afraid I would get kicked out. There was even a sign on the window that said, "Please take care of our hospital, don't throw trash out the windows."

Anyway, when I talked to Xiomara she was pretty discouraged about not being able to have her baby with her. This is her second baby, but her first one to nurse. She told me how much she was enjoying this time with her baby. Since she had been in the hospital (over 24 hours) she hadn't been able to see her baby. I decided to bring her a pump and some bottles so she wouldn't lose her supply before she went home.

We got to the hospital on Thursday morning and tried to get in to see her. We got as far as the elevators and a guard came running in trying to get me to go to labor and delivery. I know I look much bigger than most pregnant Honduran women, but this guy refused to believe that I was not in labor. I told him that I still had 10 weeks to go and finally he left me alone. He then told us that we had to use the stairs as the elevators were just for patients. You must understand that while the floor Xiomara was on is numbered the 6th floor, Hondurans have a funny way of numbering floors. You must first go up the lobby and lower level stairs before you get to the 1st floor. The man at the stairs stopped us and told us that we would have to get a pass. In the many times Jason has been in the hospital this is the first time we have ever had to get a pass. He told us the pass was from 2:00 pm on, but he would let us in at 11:30. It was 10:30 and I still had school to teach, but I was just relieved that he was going to let us in . We asked where do we go to get a pass. He told us to ask the guards at Porton 1 (Gate 1) and they would issue it for us.

Another problem is that while they may know where Porton 1 is; we, who don't come to this hospital have no clue. We tried following his directions and ended up at labor and delivery (I think these people don't believe me). We asked a nurse there where to go and she told us outside. We went outside and asked the guard and he told us in the back of the hospital. Needless to say, by the time we actually found Porton 1, I was about to go into labor from all of the walking. We were able to get our permission easily and went over to Dunkin Doughnuts to wait the extra 15 minutes we had. Normally this would be great, but there is nothing worse than a woman that can't have sugar sitting for 15 minutes in a doughnut shop. I did get a egg sandwich so the torture wasn't too bad, but Jason helped me out of my dilemma and ate two doughnuts just so I wouldn't feel bad. Sometimes his kindness amazes me (for those of you who don't know me that was pure sarcasm).

At 11:30 we got back to the hospital and were actually let in and allowed to ride the elevator. I was so thankful for that. We got to visit Xiomara and I showed her how to use the pump and by the time we left she was feeling much better about the prospect of nursing her baby again when she left the hospital.

Because of the much rain we have been having there have been many mud slides and many retaining walls have fallen. I took a couple of pictures of one that had fallen into a pharmacy the night before. It is a blessing that the heaviest rainfall has happened during the night and no one was in the building. We are supposed to get at least 5 more days of rain before this front is over. Most of the rivers and towns are underwater. Many say that this flooding and rain is worse than when Hurricane Mitch came through Honduras. The only difference now is that things are happening a bit more slowly as the rain has been falling all day, every day for almost two weeks now.

After today I am so thankful for the Honduras Medical Center and for a home that is not on the side of a cliff.