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Is money the issue even in sickness? |
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Alaa Malhas - AlJazeeratalk - Beirut
 IT ALL happened on Thursday the 14th of August 2008 in Beirut-Lebanon, the night I decided to write about the irony that shocked me. My friend called me at about 10 pm asking me to take her to the hospital urgently with her voice almost fading. After 10 minutes of rushing to her house along the negotiations with the sarvees (taxi) drivers to give us a ride, we got to a hospital. Now the fun has not yet begun. Wait and see. Reaching there was at first perfect with their good service that was almost impeccable, but what happened inside and later on was all the disappointment and irony I witnessed.
At first a security guy seated us in the waiting area for the nurse to come and probably check and register my friend to the hospital, or maybe that should have been done.
But the opposite happened; the nurse came with an attitude and boredom accompanied her face, and started asking questions regarding my friend’s condition. Then the funny part came when she told my friend that there was a wait for almost an hour before a doctor could see her, because of the lane that was on the waiting list before her. So my friend was like “How can I wait if I’m in no position too!” Then the nurse answered careless, “Your condition is not that bad compared to others, so you wait.” After hearing this I approached and told her that “she barely made it to the hospital and you’re telling us there’s a wait.” Then she replied by saying that “there’s a wait and I can’t do anything for her right now.”
I was so aggravated by how a huge hospital, and a famous one too in Beirut didn’t have a room for normal sickness cases like my friend’s. I started thinking if that ought to happen in the U.S of A, then the nurse would get fired with the hospital shutting down, or my friend could sue her for such an unprofessional behavior.
Anyways, to continue the irony, we walked out of the hospital and headed towards another one that was on the other side. As soon as we stepped in, we were freaked out by the emptiness of it. We thought that ghosts or something haunted it.
Moving on, we headed to the reception of the ER to ask for some directions. My other friend seated her in the waiting area, while I entered her by paying $100 deposit for the emergency service. I wondered is money the issue even in sickness? I mean I just paid $100 even before her getting checked by the doctor or the nurse. How’s that possible in a hospital that has a good standard too?
Eighth minutes after the nurse checked her that the doctor came. He started checking up on her then told her that she had caught a virus and needed to stay in for a day or two for more medical check-ups. She was shocked by hearing this and decided to call her parents, who were by the way living in Kuwait while she was here studying at university.
Meanwhile, my friend went to the reception to check for the hotel, eh I mean the hospital prices for the stay in. Guess what, he came to us laughing and shocked by how the world had gone mad. Remember how I wrote “hotel” in the first line, well it was really a hotel with stars also. He told us that the prices range and differ between the third class, the second class, the first class, and the suite. It was a hotel indeed, a hotel with stars. We couldn’t believe our ears. And for the lowest, which was the third class, my friend had to pay a $500 deposit. Can you imagine? Well we couldn’t, so my friend just pulled herself up and went to the cashier and told the doctor that she wanted to go home, but it wasn’t as easily as getting in the hospital, because the doctor and the cashier tried their best to keep her, how to say it, “locked in” due to being a Kuwaiti Citizen, so she was an easy bait for “money” especially when the hospital was like a haunted mansion.
After getting into a fight with them, my friend at last left the building where it was almost after midnight and dragged herself home with no clue of what was happening with her, and wasn’t in a condition where she would go to a third hospital and get disappointed AGAIN.
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