[Gocamino] abbreviated Camino and medical help...

[Rosina]

Hello you all,
Being accident-prone and generally careless health-wise, I've too often have had the opportunity to avail myself of medical care in Spain, and other European countries?and have found?it both admirable and?mind-boggling inexpensive.
Prior to going to the?closing of the Holy Door in 2004 I had been suffering from a very nasty bronchitis-like ailment that had been going on for?weeks. After seeing three doctors and having umpteen tests, at a cost of thousands of dollars to my insurance company, I was told that I was suffering from a peculiar bronchial infection that would take "a few weeks or months to clear up". I went to Santiago anyway and was so sick there, racked with coughing and downed with fever, that the people at the hotel insisted that I go to the "Urgencies" (emergency room) at a?city nearby clinic. This I was unwilling to do because of my horrid experiences waiting at the emergency room of my local, Saint Vincent's,?hospital in New York. At the Santiago clinic I had barely taken a seat when I was offered orange juice and coffee (espresso); in about 15 minutes I was seen and examined by two doctors, blood and x-rays were taken and I was given some?pills and liquid medicine; then I was taken to a room (with a TV) to lie down and wait for the results of the medication.?Three or so hours later I was told that I had an infection but that if I took the medications prescribed I would be all right in a couple of days.?Checking out I kept wondering how much I would have to pay, and concerned about the bill because I did not have international health insurance.? Believe it or not, the entire bill was 32 Euros.?I then went to the pharmacy to fill the prescription for five different things, thinking that they would cost me a mint because, one way or another, I would have to pay for the extraordinary treatment. All the five medicines cost about 25 Euros.
I took them as prescribed (they were mostly liquid and tasted god-awful) and, sure enough, in three days I was right as rain.
When I got back to New York I screamed and hollered at my brother who is a physician. He calmly begged me to remember that U.S.?doctors and drug producers have to make a living, and he asked me whether I had ever heard of "planned obsolescence".
It would seem that since doctors in Spain, and medical personnel, are paid by the government the less long-lasting and/or complicated illnesses that they must deal with, the better for them.
To be fair, my brother also keeps insisting that lawyers and lawsuits are largely responsible?for the high cost of medical care in the U.S.
?Oh, well!
At any rate, because of?my own personal experience and that of my occasional companions,?I must extol?the excellence of medical care in Spain, Austria, Germany and Italy.
And, yes, if the doctors or nurses do not speak English they send straight away for a translator.
Hugs!
Rosina??


-----Original Message-----
From: Tim <tim at errecaldia.com>
To: Wes & Rita <wesrita at comcast.net>; Gocamino at oakapple.net
Sent: Sat, 3 Jan 2009 12:12 pm
Subject: Re: [Gocamino] abbreviated Camino and medical help...



Hi,
    I missed your original post, I must have been busy over the festive 
season and then saw the names.  I thought to myself that must be the 
people who stayed with me in September, went back, checked your original 
post saw that it was and hence this mail which has two purposes.  
Firstly to say that I'm glad 'all's well that ends well' and that there 
were to nasty ongoing repercussions.  The second purpose is to assure 
all of you from outside Europe especially the US and to a degree Canada 
that you are not entering a medical wilderness when you visit us in 
France or Spain.  Far from it, France is reputed to have one of the best 
medical systems in the world if not in fact the best, and Spain does not 
lag far behind.  Many of the practitioners speak English, treatment is 
easy to come by, the standards are very high, and it is much cheaper 
than the US
    An American friend who lives two doors away from me in St Jean Pied 
de Port explained to me that most US citizens have been brainwashed by 
the American medical establishment into believing that so called 
'socialist' medicine is primitive and doesn't work.  Please accept my 
assurances that this is just not the case, the flight home for Wes ended 
safely the next time it might not be such a happy outcome.
    I hope that you can call by and see me when you make your return 
this year, and would like to wish all Gocamino contributors Bonne Annee.
Regards
Tim Proctor

   
Wes & Rita wrote:

>Thanks for all the responses to our update on our medical emergency on the 
Camino.  Why did we not seek help in Spain?  Sheer panic.  Not knowing much 
Spanish and not knowing what was going on, all we could think about was getting 
home and seeing our own, much trusted, physician who had previously treated Wes 
for high blood pressure (my assumption at the time being that it had something 
to do with that).  Surely we would never have made a transatlantic flight if we 
had dreamed it might be what it turned out to be -- a pulmonary embolism.  If we 
were to fa
ce another medical problem while on the Camino (oh please, no, not 
again!), and knowing now what good experiences folks had in seeking medical help 
in Spain, we would definitely seek help wherever we were.  
>
>And thanks for all the information about wintry conditions in the high country 
in April.  We are moving our starting date into May as a result.  We were trying 
to avoid the crowds but crossing the Pyrennees in deep snow does not appeal!  I 
am grateful for all of you perigrinos who have been so helpful and supportive!
>
>Rita and Wes
>_______________________________________________
>Gocamino mailing list
>Gocamino at oakapple.net
>http://mailman.oakapple.net/mailman/listinfo/gocamino
>
>  
>


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