Patient Perspective- Guest Author

The following is the story told by a patient but has been typed by Lindsey:

" My Husband worked for the World Bank, so I traveled all over the world. I've had 6 kids and not all of them were born in a developed country, so I think I've probably had a lot more experience with different inpatient care than a lot of other people have. Some good experiences, some bad. My first three kids were born in the United States, and I was either knocked out for those or put into "twilight birth", which was when you were kind of there but not really and you didn't remember anything when it was over...All I do know is that the whole process was complicated and NOT exciting...so by the time I was having my fourth child around 1965, I still didn't really know anything about childbirth. I was having really bad cramps, which if I had known anything about childbirth, I would have known it was a bad sign. I started to hemorrhage as I waited for my husband to come home. I lost so much blood that I remember not being able to lift my head without feeling the world spinning 100 miles an hour!! Finally my husband came home (there weren't cell phones so I just had to wait for him to get home from his office) and took me to the hospital. Long story short--my baby only lived for two days after I gave birth. His lungs were not developed enough. It was the worst day of my life.

The day after my son died, my doctor came in my room, as I was still recovering, and asked me if I was nursing yet. I started at him and broke down crying! I told him that our baby had died and he said, "ohh...I..umm...forgot". What a jerk!! It would have taken him but two seconds to read my chart to know that, instead he added insult to injury. My own doctor had not even enough time to know the traumatic situation I was in. It was horrible.

I gave birth in the United States to the next two children and they also seemed very complicated and not as joyful as I thought they should be. The most joyful and easiest birth I gave was to my last child, in a third world country (1971). I was in Northern Africa (our family was traveling with my husband). The hospitals were DIRTY and filled with cats. The cats kept the rodent population down--so I always said I would rather have cats than rats!! Here the nurses were the "lowest" jobs for women. It was the women who were uneducated and poor and they hated their jobs! They couldn't read your chart and they were not happy to be around you. The saying always was that "surviving the surgery here isn't the problem, its dealing with the nurses that is thought to survive"! The hospital beds were like you see in old war movies, just many in a room, not comfortable, and dirty! Luckily, we found a clinic that didn't have cats (or a rodent problem)! This clinic was able to survive because this is where the President went, who kept it functioning (not that it was expensive at all, compared to the US). The physician there was trained in the US. I was nervous because they were not going to give me pain medication to give birth, instead I had to go through classes to learn how to breathe correctly and things like that for giving birth. My husband was helpful and in the room as I was in labor. He read a nursing book to me, explaining everything that was happening. At one point he began to hyperventilate and passed out on top of me AS I WAS GIVING BIRTH! There were only two ladies there helping me with the birthing process. Both of them were not more than 5 feet tall and skinny as a rail! My husband...6'2 and 290lbs was difficult for them to move. Meanwhile, my daughter was crowning. I told them to push him to the floor but for some reason the insisted on dragging him into the other room...leaving me to deal with giving birth on my own for a moment or two. Even after all of that, I still felt that the process was easier than the rest of my births and I look back at it and laugh! The doctor was so friendly. I later found out that my daughter had actually breached, which is a much more dangerous birthing process than normal--but I never felt like it was! Nevertheless, the conditions were almost scary and I couldn't wait to leave. I would not give birth there again.

However, the US is not the best inpatient healthcare I have ever received. I always tell people if they travel anywhere (and especially if they plan on being reckless) they should go to Thailand because the quality of care I received was way better (when I was treated in 1985) than anything I have ever experienced in the US (and I have had surgeries in multiple states and during multiple decades--including recently). In Thailand, which at the time most people considered a 'third world country', the hospitals were clean (no cats or rats!ha-ha!) and the people were so caring and patient with the healing process. In 1985, while in Thailand for the first time my husband, me, my youngest daughter (than 14), and both my parents were driving to go to a couple of vacation sites. Usually everyone takes the train because it is cheap and the roads are dangerous (because of bandits). Only truckers drive and because they are paid for how many trips there make, they were on all sorts of uppers and downers. My stubborn husband wanted to drive anyway, so we did. The truckers were playing games with him--speeding up and slowing down--so he tried to pass them...we were hit head on by a gas truck! The three of us in the back (me, and my parents) were the worst and all of us had head issues. The "ambulance" was a pick up truck with wired gates at the end, that they loaded us into (so that wasn't the good part of the care!). My left femor bone was completely shattered, but all I knew at that time was that it looked tangled. They took us to a rural hospital and because we had friend in Bangcok we got an ambulance to the hospital there. The physician from the rural hospital didn't think my dad would survive the trip so he came with--and kept him alive! Long story short, the quality of care there was amazing. My dad had to have brain surgery and it went very well. They even placed him in my room and didnt charge us for it because we didn't know if our insurance would cover it. When we found out it did, they still didn't charge us. They cared so much. I had reconstructive surgery on my leg and the rehabilitation I was given was beyond anything I have ever recieved in the US. When I got back to the states, I had pins and screws that were in my leg that needed to be taken out. Every doctor that looked at my leg told me that whoever fixed it did an amazing job and I was lucky. They also told me that they weren't going to mess with it. I don't think this was because I didn't have the insurance for it--but I thought most likely it was because they didn't want to be liable? I still don't know why. I returned to Thailand and that same doctor took them out for me. The physcian in Thailand went to school in the States but seemed to provide more care for me as an individual than many of the doctors I see in the United States. I have found a place I trust in the area and I like it there...but I would return to Thailand to be taken care of in a heartbeat.