Hospital Evangelico and an Update on Barbe

First of all, thanks to all of you for your concern, prayers and well wishes to Barbe. Special thanks to Julie Nelson for spending sooo much time here at hospital translating and caring for us. Also to everyone at SEBCAH for keeping the boys well fed (this info is for you, Mom) and cared for. Barbe is doing exceptionally well. She is walking around a bit and of course drinking plenty of fluids. One thing I forgot to mention is that along with the ovarian tumor she also has a kidney infection. Between the two things she was a very sick girl.

Barbe and I have both been very pleased with the care the nursing staff has given and the quality of the doctors. This has really turned out to be a blessing. As some of you know, we do not carry medical insurance in the States, however we did buy trip insurance with emergency hospitalization benefits. Unless I missed something in the fine print, this operation should be completely covered. The mass the doctors removed was quite large and it was only a matter of time until it needed to come out. A coincidence  that it happened here? I think not.

Hospital Evangelico, where we are, was founded in 1949 by CAM . In keeping with their philosophy, it passed into National hands as a non-profit organization in 1969.  It continues to have many out reaches beyond the actual facility. Their website, Hospital Evangelico , is well worth the look if you’re interested in that kind of thing.  

The hospital is in a beautiful setting atop a hill overlooking Siguat and the mountains beyond. Stepping into the hospital is like stepping back to 1960. The emergency room is small.  Glass fronted, wooden shelves line the walls. The green tiled corridors have screen doors at each end which allow warm breezes to blow through. To go from emergency to the wards you need to pass through an open air, but  covered patio.  At one end of the building is an open (non private) ward with some 20 or so beds in facing rows.  The other end has private rooms. We are in #7. The nurses wear white dresses, some with the classic nurse’s caps. The nurse’s aides (correction: student nurses from the training institute) wear smart blue dresses with white, pleated aprons. There are modern conveniences like Wi-Fi and cable TV in the rooms. The beds however, are cranked up and down by hand. Everything is spotlessly clean.  Although the hospital does have a CT scan, ultra sound and X-ray, the annoying beep, beep, beep that fills more modern hospitals is missing from the ward,  actually allowing the patient (and the patient's husband) to get a good night’s sleep. :>)

Emergency Room

There is a public hospital in town, but the stories that come from there are not good. I can say this, I am very glad that CAM had the vision 63 years ago to build a hospital here. It also makes me realize how hopeless some of these wonderful people who live far up in the mountains, without adequate transportation must feel when they fall ill or are injured badly. We truly have so much to be thankful for in America.