hello
I write to you all today with my eyes very much opened by my most recent
experience. the bottom line is that ireland's healthcare system stinks - I
thought ours did, but not like this.
On tuesday I jammed my finger between a falling window and there was lots of
blood, pain, etc etc. I was at a pub in the middle of freaking nowhere,
staying at a hostel with some friends. The old man behind the bar put a
bandaid on it and told me to drink up. After 2 nights of no sleep and finally
back in the city, and an incredibly painful day back at work, I decided today,
being friday, to call in sick to go to the doctor, who sent me to the
emergency dept. I arrived at the hospital around midday and have just arrived
home, at 11pm. Hospital highlights include,
1.waiting for 2 hours.
2.having my name called to see a nurse, and being told to wait more, obviously
wasn't life threatening enough for quick service.
waiting for more hours.
3.getting called in to wait in another area, with lots of old people on
hospital beds against the corridor walls.
4.being taken into a room and my finger inspected.
5.sent off to wait for an xray.
6.getting said xray.
7.waiting for xray results. in wrong room, because noone told me where to go,
so waited about 1 hour unnecessarily.
8.back into the old-people-on-beds-area, to be given a catheter and squirted
with penicillin, which made me semi-pass out and hot and dizzy and want to
vomit.
9.then put on a drip with more antibiotics because the finger is all fez and
infected, prob with staph.
10.left to feel dizzy and sick for about 1 hour with drip in hand. crying all
over the place like a child, for no apparent reason, whilst the curtain is
left open for the whole fucking world to see.
11.being told to go have a cup of tea - having cup of hot water instead and
coming back promptly, to be told to sit and wait.
12.falling asleep on chair, all the time not being able to do much, what with
one hand all screwed and infected and the other with a giant needle sticking
out of it.
13. having a plastic surgen come and poke my finger and making me cry again,
all over the place, tears running fown the hallway.
14.getting a local anaesthetic and my nail being pulled back for me to see.
15.being told I was going to have to stay the night and then wait for another
5 hours tomorrow for a bed so I could then pay $100/60euro to get a bed and
have my nail removed, and that oh yes, the tip of my finger was broken but
they weren't going to do anything about it, it wasn't a big deal.
16.me telling the to go stick staying overnight elsewhere and riding my bike
home in the rain with a finger that's just starting to feel the effects of the
local ana. wearing off.
so, I'm heading back tomorrow at 8am to wait for another long day - taking to
whole day and night off work, which is rubbbish because it would have paid for
my expenses.
the thing was also that there was no privacy - I saw people walking past and
being wheeled along the corridor with blood and bits all over the shop -
people having things jabbed in eyes with the door ajar, and curtains not shut
when being inspected...I can't believe that it was such a shamble in that
place. I've heard stories of old people dying on beds in emergency because
they had to wait all night to see someone - I thought that ireland surely was
much more developed, but it seems sadly that it's not a prime concern to the
government, who, by the way, have just been re-elected. this is the government
that turns a blind eye to planes carrying prisoners of war through their
airports when they're breaking the neutrality law they are supposedly adhering
to...
I'm a sad little girl tonight, so thanks for listening.
Love
sophie
(who'll be much better tomorrow, with no fingernail on her right hand forth
finger)
