Time to write a bit about an experience I had last week with Salmonella and Buenos Aires public healthcare. From dehydration and sharting the bed to falling asleep on the toilet, it was a good one for sure. ( Please note this was my experience and I'm sure many will be thinking I just had a bad one, maybe but here it is) Just a bit of a rant that i had to get it out.
It started out a beautiful 40 degree BsAs day, thought i would meet up with some friends at the park who were long boarding around. When i arrived i saw that a man was renting skateboards and rollerblades for 15 pesos an hour(USD 3.25). I grabbed a board and joined my friends skateboarding around for about an hour. The 40 degree heat started getting to me so we stopped and had a roadside steak sandwich at a Parilla. Skated a bit afterwards until i was so drained i headed home. When i got home i was welcomed by a few friends going out to a big club in Puerto Madero. Ended up partying until 6 A.M. When i woke up the next morning i felt great, a little sore from the skateboarding which used a few muscles i haven't used in a while. About an hour passed by when i was sitting in the living room talking to my friends and i started to freeze! Im thinking shit how did i get a fever this bad in just seconds?! I told my friends i was obviously feel bad and stumbled to my room where i crawled up into a ball and tried to go back to sleep. As i was laying there i thought shit i didn't drink any water in the past 24 hours of heat and partying so i ran to the kitchen downing as much water as i could thinking i was going to collapse any second. Everyone is now worried checking up on me every 20 minutes or so , it was like having 20 mother's, quite comforting.
My fever finally resided and i went to sleep the next day same thing high low fever fluctuating with the hour. My stomach started to hurt like i had a little gremlin inside chewing on my insides. The bathroom followed shortly after. This happened about every 20 minutes. Two days passed until i found myself sitting on the stairs feeling better contemplating going to the hospital before the fever kicked back in. I told a friend and she said "Lets go!" ill go with you. Note it's 1A.M. and she had work i said no and she insisted. we stepped outside grabbed a taxi where my stomach started to hurt again.
"Hospidale Publico" she said and we were on our way.
As i jumped out of the taxi i realized this was going to be something else. About 40 homeless men were sprawled outside the hospital floors and to the entrance. I entered and the man asked me if i had any documents all i had was my NYS driver license. He took it wrote some info down and told me to wait in the other room. Man i thought i had a huge waiting line with about 30 people sleeping in the waiting area. 10 minutes passed and i was called. Homeless people! It reminded me of a bus station in Argentina more than a waiting room. I went into "Triage" where she asked me what was wrong and thats it. I went into the room with another older gentleman. So it starts the man is talking with the nurses when his makeshift examining table flips over and the old man falls. He gets back up shaken but not injured. I was watching everything like a hawk, the nurse had put on fresh gloves and then was touching the bottom of the guys sandal to comfort him. Not changing their gloves they proceed to stick three IV needles in his arm before getting it right. Now im getting nervous, telling my friend if they try to start sticking stuff in me i'm outa here! As they start filling their work station with goodies for me someone starts banging on the door to get in.
They walked slowly to the door thinking it was a mad patient or homeless person trying to get attention. As she creeped the door open there was a man having a seizure on the floor in the waiting room. i got up to leave the room so they can help him. I came back 10 minutes later and saw a puddle of blood on the floor in the waiting room where the man fell and thought o man he must have hit his head hard that's a lot of blood. They then kicked out my friend and stuck a thermometer in my armpit no plastic or anything. Then they start breaking two vials of something brown and pouring into a bag of saline. At this point i realized this was for me. I tell them no! and ask the nurse to change her gloves. She gave me a dirty look and did. Then i'm arguing with them to figure out what they were putting in my body. A doctor cam and said " He doesnt want help ok forget it and started walking away. I said sternly "No i just want to know what it is first"? oooooo he said and explained it's a substance to stop the vomiting and saline water. Once she changed the gloves i said ok and let them go to work. I sat there for 10 minutes before realizing they never let the pinch on the IV go so it was doing nothing. Not to mention she forgot her thermometer in my armpit. I mean i walk in a hospital and the IV is in before even knowing if i have a temperature?!
I let out the flow of the IV myself. When the IV was finished about 40 minutes later they came back to switch it with antibiotics. As she hooked up the antibiotics she dropped the bag without checking it or purging it she connects it. I noticed a small drip coming from the bag and realized that when she dropped it it split the bag so it was filled with air. Now my attention is at the top of the bag which was pouring Antibodies into me faster then hell because it had a hole in it. At the top it was bubbling like a shaken can of soda. The end comes along and all i see it air! Knowing it was more than my bloodstream could handle i grab the tube and pinch it. Called the nurse ten minutes later she comes by and sees me holding it and trying to take the bag down off the rack. She takes the IV out not even noticing if she changed her gloves and left the room. 15 minutes later she comes back in and says why are you still here. She never told me to leave!
She had left a prescription on the table that i didn't notice and just walked away. It's now been about an hour and a half since the man had the seizure. i open the door to leave and what do i see on the floor. The same puddle of blood sitting there with no clean up crew in sight. I walked outside grabbed a taxi and got home when my stomach started hurting more than ever. I proceeded to walk from my room to the bathroom about 20 times before finally residing on the toilet itself. Not knowing if this stomach ache was from the Anti vomiting medicine or what. I woke up on the toilet a few hours later and finally started feeling better walked to my room as the sun was coming up just starting to think about all the things that happened in a 2 hour hospital trip. Amazing.
Oh i'm fine now, and yes i will be eating the roadside parillas again. I can't help it!
My fever finally resided and i went to sleep the next day same thing high low fever fluctuating with the hour. My stomach started to hurt like i had a little gremlin inside chewing on my insides. The bathroom followed shortly after. This happened about every 20 minutes. Two days passed until i found myself sitting on the stairs feeling better contemplating going to the hospital before the fever kicked back in. I told a friend and she said "Lets go!" ill go with you. Note it's 1A.M. and she had work i said no and she insisted. we stepped outside grabbed a taxi where my stomach started to hurt again.
"Hospidale Publico" she said and we were on our way.
As i jumped out of the taxi i realized this was going to be something else. About 40 homeless men were sprawled outside the hospital floors and to the entrance. I entered and the man asked me if i had any documents all i had was my NYS driver license. He took it wrote some info down and told me to wait in the other room. Man i thought i had a huge waiting line with about 30 people sleeping in the waiting area. 10 minutes passed and i was called. Homeless people! It reminded me of a bus station in Argentina more than a waiting room. I went into "Triage" where she asked me what was wrong and thats it. I went into the room with another older gentleman. So it starts the man is talking with the nurses when his makeshift examining table flips over and the old man falls. He gets back up shaken but not injured. I was watching everything like a hawk, the nurse had put on fresh gloves and then was touching the bottom of the guys sandal to comfort him. Not changing their gloves they proceed to stick three IV needles in his arm before getting it right. Now im getting nervous, telling my friend if they try to start sticking stuff in me i'm outa here! As they start filling their work station with goodies for me someone starts banging on the door to get in.
They walked slowly to the door thinking it was a mad patient or homeless person trying to get attention. As she creeped the door open there was a man having a seizure on the floor in the waiting room. i got up to leave the room so they can help him. I came back 10 minutes later and saw a puddle of blood on the floor in the waiting room where the man fell and thought o man he must have hit his head hard that's a lot of blood. They then kicked out my friend and stuck a thermometer in my armpit no plastic or anything. Then they start breaking two vials of something brown and pouring into a bag of saline. At this point i realized this was for me. I tell them no! and ask the nurse to change her gloves. She gave me a dirty look and did. Then i'm arguing with them to figure out what they were putting in my body. A doctor cam and said " He doesnt want help ok forget it and started walking away. I said sternly "No i just want to know what it is first"? oooooo he said and explained it's a substance to stop the vomiting and saline water. Once she changed the gloves i said ok and let them go to work. I sat there for 10 minutes before realizing they never let the pinch on the IV go so it was doing nothing. Not to mention she forgot her thermometer in my armpit. I mean i walk in a hospital and the IV is in before even knowing if i have a temperature?!
I let out the flow of the IV myself. When the IV was finished about 40 minutes later they came back to switch it with antibiotics. As she hooked up the antibiotics she dropped the bag without checking it or purging it she connects it. I noticed a small drip coming from the bag and realized that when she dropped it it split the bag so it was filled with air. Now my attention is at the top of the bag which was pouring Antibodies into me faster then hell because it had a hole in it. At the top it was bubbling like a shaken can of soda. The end comes along and all i see it air! Knowing it was more than my bloodstream could handle i grab the tube and pinch it. Called the nurse ten minutes later she comes by and sees me holding it and trying to take the bag down off the rack. She takes the IV out not even noticing if she changed her gloves and left the room. 15 minutes later she comes back in and says why are you still here. She never told me to leave!
She had left a prescription on the table that i didn't notice and just walked away. It's now been about an hour and a half since the man had the seizure. i open the door to leave and what do i see on the floor. The same puddle of blood sitting there with no clean up crew in sight. I walked outside grabbed a taxi and got home when my stomach started hurting more than ever. I proceeded to walk from my room to the bathroom about 20 times before finally residing on the toilet itself. Not knowing if this stomach ache was from the Anti vomiting medicine or what. I woke up on the toilet a few hours later and finally started feeling better walked to my room as the sun was coming up just starting to think about all the things that happened in a 2 hour hospital trip. Amazing.
Oh i'm fine now, and yes i will be eating the roadside parillas again. I can't help it!
