[dropcap]A[/dropcap]t the same time as the Saint Lucia Medical and Dental Association seems concentrated on ensuring better working conditions for doctors and nurses, and also protection from a privatized health system, my sister fell sick. Whatever was in her stomach churned and necessitated a visit to the Gros Islet Polyclinic where she was injected with something called gravol, administered three different oral medicines, and sent home. Two days later she had to be taken to Victoria Hospital.
By that time, she had been vomiting uncontrollably for five days, and had no food in her body. But despite her emergency status that required her transportation by ambulance, four hours limped by before she could see the doctor—who was rude, demeaning and evidently confused. She kept calling on other doctors for advice while attending to the patient, my sister. Then, having treated the symptoms intravenously and dismissing an earlier diagnosis, they decided my sister was actually suffering from a urinary tract infection (UTI).
Forgive me for what I’m about to say but it seems to me that even a layperson would not connect heavy vomiting with a UTI, certainly not without first doing an appropriate test. And if indeed it turned out a urinary infection was her problem, my sister would’ve had good reason to blame it on the hospital’s despicable hygiene. There were so many flies in the casualty waiting area that visitors breathed at their own risk.
My sister was again prescribed more oral medication although we told the doctor she could not hold anything down. She was sent home, regardless of her weak state.
That night my sister was sure she would die. A few hours later, after emptying our pockets at Tapion Hospital, she was diagnosed with food poisoning and “a bruised stomach”. The poison levels in her blood were “alarmingly high”. She was hospitalized for several days for special treatment while being observed.
Some may make morbid jokes when confronted with a Tapion Hospital bill: “Well, it’s cheaper than a funeral.” Or: “There’s no price tag on your health.” But it is no joking matter that ailing Victoria Hospital patients are unaware that some of the doctors and nurses work 16-hour shifts, with very little time for sleep. They are as vulnerable as anyone else to the consequences. Some who were, until recently, medical school students are required to do what far more experienced practitioners are doing.
It’s no easy pill to swallow, the fact that so many in Saint Lucia have no alternative but to share their sickbed with the flies that call Victoria Hospital home—to say nothing of treatment by grossly overworked doctors!
