Laritza Diversent, Translator: William Fitzhugh
Foto: Yaremis Flores Yaremis Flores
Amparo awoke in the room while a tube scraped against her throat.
Endoscopy, a delicate and risky technique which they performed without
adequate anesthetic. This 55-year-old woman used to be Doctor Gonzalez.
Something's up and she knows it but her colleagues can't find what. She
is now the patient in bed 33, room 5B of National Hospital. The nurse on
the earlier shift thought that they would be able to "sell her a pig in
a poke" with the Rocephin. A third generation antibiotic very sought
after on the black market.
The modus operandi is to add water to the Rocephin solution with the aim
of saving the rest for business. Amparo as a doctor noticed this detail
in the end; the solution didn't look as yellow as it should. Now the
ingenious doctors added crushed Polivit to mask their scam.
There are lazy and irresponsible people who no longer debate between the
good and the bad. They don't think twice about profiting from the misery
of others. Patients and family members complain to the director of the
center, Doctor Armando Aguiar. But everything continues and nothing changes.
Doctors without gloves. Baths without water. Dirty tiles. Customary
insects. A small room with six beds. Medical students eager to
experiment with the suffering at hand. The doctors no longer say much
about the illness. They prefer to read their Clinical History.
The personnel of the infirmary receive the dose of the medicines to be
administered from the physicians. But poor are those who have not yet
settled on or been assigned their prescriptions. Nurses do not always
bring the pills at the time indicated. And it's wise to stay alert
because they confuse those prescriptions.
No-one can be sure if there really is a shortage of Tambutamide (for
diabetes) or Niphedipine (for hypertension). Outside the hospital, an
old man with blister packs of pills in hand, offers them for sale.
"In this country, it's better to not get sick, here I've seen things
that I never imagined" Noelia said, a diabetic patient of ninety in bed
no. 34 , Room 5 B. She was admitted last December the eighth for cardiac
weakness and fluid accumulation in her lungs. She's taking her medicine
for diabetes because she brought it from home.
The text of the Constitution establishes the right of all to medical
care and the duty of the state to guarantee it. Any person dissatisfied
with a delivered health service can complain to the Ministry of Health.
the Law of Public Health holds this ministry responsible for carrying
out measures designed to avoid violations, measures that include
disqualifying or barring doctors and nurses who fail to comply with
their professional obligations or ethics.
The paths of Amparo and Noelia have crossed in this place. The first was
never in the shoes of the patient. The second, her experience by
contrast, so different from the news shown on television. As if they had
been friends forever, they share their miseries and their joys, passing
up the hospital food. Both wish that this were just a bad dream.
Translate by W. Fitzhugh and others
February 27 2012
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