Isn't Drew's bro so cute in his lab coat and steth?
Dr. Steviewonder, pretty soon we gonna be dialin you up with all our medical questyons, get ready.
Three years in Changsha, we've been into the doc just a handful of times:
baby cold rating: C- (misdiagnosed but earnest)
prenatal care rating: A (totally satisfied)
mono rating: F (misdiagnosed and poorly handled)
stitches rating: B+ (efficient, mostly sanitary)
immunizations rating: C (extremely inefficient but cheap)
Last week we got a little taste of Changsha's ER. Around 7:30pm at our friends' home, their 2 year-old girl pulled a shelf down on top of herself resulting in a long, deep cut on her forehead. Her Mom and Dad, Drew and the little girl rushed out, trying to control the bleeding. No taxi in sight, a shopkeeper's van delivered them to the nearest hospital, one of Changsha's best. They were turned away because there was no doctor who could handle her wound, "Try hospital number two." Unfortunately, there is no communication between the hospitals in Changsha, so it was a blind shot.
After cleaning up the blood, I went home with our boys and starting phoning hospitals to find a doctor.
Daddy, Mommy, Baby Girl and Drew scrambled around to four different hospitals that night, hailing cabs in between, searching for a capable physician. Remember our city is the size of Chicago and divided by a wide river, not convenient. To add tension, this family had a newborn 2-week old back home bottle-feeding for the first time with Grandma, while Mommy was out with the breastmilk!
Getting nowhere at the fourth hospital, I remembered that a woman in my Friday night study is a doctor there. (Amazing? Yes.) I contacted her, she called a colleague, notified Mommy, and they went upstairs to surgery. The power of relationships in this culture! Nothing was happening until we had a personal connection.
Drew ran out to buy clothes for the little girl, who was still only in undies. He withdrew a WAD of cash. (Daddy had hurried out without his wallet, they paid us back later.) Most procedures, even emergency care, must be paid upfront or you can't be treated.
Around midnight the parents passed their terrified daughter over a dividing wall, traumatic, into the doctor's hands. She received full anesthesia and layers of stitches. They did a great job! Mommy and Drew taxied back to their respective homes around 3am, Daddy stayed overnight in the hospital with his girl and returned home the next day, afternoon. Everybody's ok. We made the little girl a gold medal to represent her "shelf-diving" championship. Laughter!
counting the graces
thank you Father for
Stephen
connection at the fourth hospital that only you could have arranged!
we trust in you ultimately, and because of you, we're not scared to live in a place that sometimes has medical care below our expectations
letting us share this experience with our friends; we're closer now
I think this would be one of the things about living in another country that would be the hardest for me.
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