The Hospital
20 June 2007 | Basseterre
Hideko
Today we are going to the doctor. The dock master told me that medical services at the hospital are free of charge. Saint Kitts has socialized medicine and medical services are fairly inexpensive throughout the country. I was going to take Randy to a doctor on call at the drug store but the doctors were there only at night. So the hospital it was.
We had Junie, the same taxi driver who took us on the tour, pick us up at the boat. Junie told us to go to the emergency room at the hospital for faster service. That saved us about two hours. We were still there five hours.
The doctor gave Randy an IV to hydrate him. Randy didn't really want an IV but was too tired to fight. The first nurse stabbed around for a few minutes trying to find the vein and then finally gave up and started over. Not pretty. Randy almost threw up during the process.
While I was waiting for Randy's tests to come back a medical school intern from India came to talk to me. She thought I was a Chinese girl that she knew. It was interesting to know that the Saint Kitts Medical School has many international students, mainly from India. It just so happened that the international students were having a tour of the hospital. The hospital was pretty crowded.
Junie came by a few times to see if we were ready to leave but IVs take a while to soak in. When the tests finally came back and the IV was done the prognosis was that Randy had the flu. We picked up some more vitamins and had Junie take us back home.
(This photo show the view from the British Fort north to Statia, aka. Saint Eustatia)