Healthcare For All
(Saigon, Viet Nam) I laid sweating on the drab white sheeted gurney in the emergency room watching the ceiling fan slowly stirring the tepid morning air.
I was just another uninvolved person who suddenly became involved in the Vietnamese healthcare system. I couldn’t hear or see the 45 year old man who was only a few feet away and dying, but I heard his 3 young daughters pleading for him to live.
The four had traveled from Cambodia to Vietnam to attend a festival. There are many Vietnamese living on the other side of the border, much akin to many Latinos living in California. This farmer had a history of high blood pressure and suffered a massive brain hemorrhage.
Doctors Counsel Family Members
The daughters were pleading for his life and pleading with the doctors to operate or transfer him to another hospital in Saigon. The doctors explained to the grieving girls nothing could be done except to let him die peacefully and painlessly there in the emergency room.
There is no "confidentiality" or "privacy" in the Vietnamese general hospital in Tay Ninh, a border area witness to so much hostility during the French Indochina War and the American War in Viet Nam. Everyone in the emergency room becomes family, everyone becomes aware of the connectedness to another human and everyone helps each other--even the dying.
Comfort Is The Same In Every Language
The 18 year old girl who was attending her grandmother came to my bedside to comfort the foreigner who needed help. She offered a calm hand and a smile. We spoke in Vietnamese. I couldn’t help but smile with her. An older man with his aging mother also visited. He didn’t say much. He saw the sweat pouring out of my shirtless chest and used an old woven fan to cool me. He also smiled with me.
When there is a problem in the emergency room, it is easier for the doctors and nurses to quickly respond. No buttons to push, no waiting for someone to pass by a door. You are simply another involved human needing care, as it was for me.
The level of healthcare in Viet Nam’s rural area is sometimes considered primitive in comparison to the healthcare in the city. The striking difference is that healthcare, anywhere in Vietnam, is affordable. People are able to access a doctor for a few dollars and the doctors provide the best care they can.
People Helping People On Low-Cost Basis
Here, there is more of an emphasis on people helping each other. The wealthy help with fundraisers, overseas Vietnamese come to pledge assistance and everyone is involved in providing healthcare.
Healthcare is very affordable. Full time monitoring with a cardiologist, 3-day hospital stay, ambulance transfer from Tay Ninh to Saigon and all the IV’s and medications amounted to a mere $391. No mistake, it was three hundred ninety-one dollars.
How California Can Help It's Own Health
Californians can also help each other with the California Healthcare Insurance Reliability Act. This act will provide affordable and reliable healthcare for all Californians and much better yet, is it will provide for health-oriented healthcare, not "for profit" healthcare. Wouldn’t California be better served with a healthy workforce? It is the responsibility of all in California to pull together for better health conditions in the state.
I would urge everyone to support "Healthcare for All."
After my medical emergency, which the doctors agreed would have been fatal had I been nearer the Cambodian border, I became more interested in healthcare here. Following my return home from the half-week stay in the hospital, my neighbor had a medical emergency at home. I was summoned for help by the housekeeper. They had already called the doctor and while I was there, the doctor came literally running around the corner with his black bag in hand.
In the United States where profit drives healthcare this would never be seen. In Viet Nam where healthcare is patient oriented, it is a common site and affordable. Which is better? --Thom
I was just another uninvolved person who suddenly became involved in the Vietnamese healthcare system. I couldn’t hear or see the 45 year old man who was only a few feet away and dying, but I heard his 3 young daughters pleading for him to live.The four had traveled from Cambodia to Vietnam to attend a festival. There are many Vietnamese living on the other side of the border, much akin to many Latinos living in California. This farmer had a history of high blood pressure and suffered a massive brain hemorrhage.
Doctors Counsel Family Members
The daughters were pleading for his life and pleading with the doctors to operate or transfer him to another hospital in Saigon. The doctors explained to the grieving girls nothing could be done except to let him die peacefully and painlessly there in the emergency room.
There is no "confidentiality" or "privacy" in the Vietnamese general hospital in Tay Ninh, a border area witness to so much hostility during the French Indochina War and the American War in Viet Nam. Everyone in the emergency room becomes family, everyone becomes aware of the connectedness to another human and everyone helps each other--even the dying.
Comfort Is The Same In Every Language
The 18 year old girl who was attending her grandmother came to my bedside to comfort the foreigner who needed help. She offered a calm hand and a smile. We spoke in Vietnamese. I couldn’t help but smile with her. An older man with his aging mother also visited. He didn’t say much. He saw the sweat pouring out of my shirtless chest and used an old woven fan to cool me. He also smiled with me.
When there is a problem in the emergency room, it is easier for the doctors and nurses to quickly respond. No buttons to push, no waiting for someone to pass by a door. You are simply another involved human needing care, as it was for me.
The level of healthcare in Viet Nam’s rural area is sometimes considered primitive in comparison to the healthcare in the city. The striking difference is that healthcare, anywhere in Vietnam, is affordable. People are able to access a doctor for a few dollars and the doctors provide the best care they can.
People Helping People On Low-Cost Basis
Here, there is more of an emphasis on people helping each other. The wealthy help with fundraisers, overseas Vietnamese come to pledge assistance and everyone is involved in providing healthcare.
Healthcare is very affordable. Full time monitoring with a cardiologist, 3-day hospital stay, ambulance transfer from Tay Ninh to Saigon and all the IV’s and medications amounted to a mere $391. No mistake, it was three hundred ninety-one dollars.
How California Can Help It's Own Health
Californians can also help each other with the California Healthcare Insurance Reliability Act. This act will provide affordable and reliable healthcare for all Californians and much better yet, is it will provide for health-oriented healthcare, not "for profit" healthcare. Wouldn’t California be better served with a healthy workforce? It is the responsibility of all in California to pull together for better health conditions in the state.
I would urge everyone to support "Healthcare for All."
After my medical emergency, which the doctors agreed would have been fatal had I been nearer the Cambodian border, I became more interested in healthcare here. Following my return home from the half-week stay in the hospital, my neighbor had a medical emergency at home. I was summoned for help by the housekeeper. They had already called the doctor and while I was there, the doctor came literally running around the corner with his black bag in hand.
In the United States where profit drives healthcare this would never be seen. In Viet Nam where healthcare is patient oriented, it is a common site and affordable. Which is better? --Thom
posted by NewsstandGreg at 4:01 PM
1 Comments:
Great blog I hope we can work to build a better health care system as we are in a major crisis and health insurance is a major aspect to many.
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