Hospital de Damas
30 April 2008 | Ponce,P.R.
Bill
Four and a half days in a Puerto Rican hospital. Let me say something right up front so you don't get the wrong idea. The Hospital de Damas in Ponce is wonderful. It is different from what you expect based on experiences in US hospitals but it is great! I would not hesitate to have any procedure done here. The professionalism and care provided are as good or better than any I have received state side.
First some observations. The building is old. The floor tiles are cracked, and some walls need paint. You are not provided with non-skid socks when you arrive, or ever. You walk out when you are discharged, no nurse powered wheelchair to the curb. Kind of sound like there aren't as many lawyers in Puerto Rico, doesn't it? There are no drafty hospital gowns either. It was shorts and a Hawaiian print shirt for four days for me. They provide a sheet but if the AC is a little cool for you, you better have a family member or friend bring a blanket for you, Oh!, and a pillow too. I was on the 9th floor and evidently the hot water doesn't make it up that far. Blood pressure is taken with analog units and sometimes the nurse doesn't use a stethoscope, just her fingers on your pulse. TV is available for $6 dollars a day. Yes, there are English speaking channels but lots of HOT soaps in Spanish. Hospital food is universal!
I decided I had put up with the stomach issues long enough so I asked the marina office where I could find a walk-in clinic. I was advised to go to the emergency room at the hospital because it would take days to get an appointment elsewhere. I walked in and told the lady behind the glass that I had a problem. I really did, she didn't speak English. It was communicated that I should wait and then enter and examination room, sort of triage. The nurse there did speak a little English and took blood pressure, temp. etc. and I filled out forms. I signed them all without recognizing a single word on any page. I then went back to the lady behind the glass. A young security guard spoke English well enough to help us get insurance and entrance forms completed. After a 20 minute wait I was called back to a large emergency ward. The only level 1 trauma center in P.R. is in San Juan so there is little blood and gore at the hospital in Ponce. By the way, it is a teaching hospital with a medical school across the street. The ER doctor was a very nice lady and she spoke English very well. It turns out virtually all Residents (students) are multilingual. After a few questions I ended up with an IV in my arm. By now Sue had arrived and I was whisked off for a sonogram. When I returned to the ER ward I met my primary doctor. Dr. Jennifer Vargas Santos is a graduate of the medical school here. She is very sharp and has a dynamite personality. Next I met my gastroenterologist. Dr. Willie Vazquez is also extremely smart and also has a great bed side manner. A surgeon also stopped by and he was most anxious to remove my gall bladder. Fortunately I never saw him again. One of the students was assigned to my case and she came by. Kelley is a third year med. student. She is a very attractive blonde from San Diego. California! Her English was pretty good. No accent. ? They decided I should stay overnight so I could get a CT scan the next day. I could do it as an out patient but it is a much surer thing is you are in the hospital. I was sent to room 906 where I met my roommate "Emelio". He is a truck driver and does speak some English. A lot more English than I speak Spanish. Sue left me that evening and I settled in for the night. The IV was set to run fluids through me and they did. I got a lot of exercise traveling between my bed and the bathroom (every 45 minutes to an hour). No breakfast for Billy because of the CT scan. When Sue asked Dr. Vazquez the day before when the CT scan was scheduled for he said "What time do you want it?" We decided on ten o'clock. Dr. Vargas came by and so did another med student. Lorraine is a cute young lady from Miami, Florida. After my CT and a chest x-ray came more requests for specimens and the day drug on. More bags of liquid were added to my IV and my trips to the bathroom increased. Sue left about 8pm and I started my second night in the hospital. Monday morning I finally I got food, sort of. Apple juice, Jello and coffee. I was so hungry I even drank the coffee. Monday they decided my problem was bad bacteria in my intestines. I had taken so many antibiotics in the weeks prior that I had killed off all the bacteria in my system and the bad guys got the jump on the good guys when they started back up. Dr. Vazquez also saw something on the CT scan he wanted to check out so I was scheduled for an endoscopy Tuesday. They also decided I should be sent to solitary confinement. Actually, an isolation room because of the bad bacteria. It turns out they are the scourge of hospitals. No roommate here. Most of my nurses did not speak English but we communicated OK. My Spanish, their English and a lot of pointing and charades. The endoscopy was good And I was started on several medications. Kelly and Lorraine visited fairly often and stayed some time. They said it was nice to use English because all their patients are Spanish speakers. Drs. Vargas and Vazquez came in regularly and also didn't seem to be in the rush to leave that you see in stateside doctors. They suggested I might want to avoid red meat, dairy, and acidic food for a while. Tuesday night I got my first real meal. Lasagna! Ground beef, cheese, and tomato sauce. I ate it any way. They let me out about 10am Wednesday morning (after eggs, toast, fruit and more coffee). Both my doctors and my med. students came by and talked for a long time. Dr. Vargas handed us one piece of paper and we walked out. No wheelchair, no trip through bookkeeping. We picked up out three prescriptions, lots of yogurt and Pedialite. As I mentioned at first, I have pointed out differences between my stay here and U.S. hospitals. My care, the professionalism, the atmosphere, everything here was first class. If it weren't for the airfare involved, I would be tempted to come back to Hospital de Damas any time I needed hospitalization. Thank you again to Dr. Vargas, Dr. Vazquez, soon to be Drs. Kelly and Lorraine and all the nurses on the ninth floor. I almost forgot Dr. Roderigas in ER.
Sue's Version: All Bill said above is true. I can assure you it was a little different from my side. I was totally unprepared for Bill to have to remain in the hospital, especially since I didn't speak Spanish. If it hadn't been for the wonderful people on the boat Gaberdash (Sharon and Gary) who traveled down from the Dominican Republic, I would have really been upset. Anyway, daily visits to the icy cold room were a must and being with Bill helped me get over a mild case of shock. Nights alone on the boat were not too bad because Sharon and Gary invited me to eat with them. What great friends. They had planned to leave two days after Bill was hospitalized, but they said they were going to stay to support me and to help Bill when he got out of the hospital. .
Thursday after Bill had been out of the hospital and feeling much better, he installed wonderful dingy davits. That will allow us to suspend the dingy out of the water behind the boat. This makes for a better access quicker to the dingy plus it will be necessary when we get further down the chain of islands...dingy theft and dingy motor theft are HUGE down there.
We plan to leave the Ponce Yacht Club on Saturday morning. I will be so glad to have anchorages in clear water where I can jump off the back of the boat and swim many times each day. I have been on "forced" stays out of the water because Luperon harbor water was nasty and you just don't swim in a huge Yacht Club because of fish cleaning, boat dumping etc. We will be so glad to be back on our schedule. We are about 6 weeks behind our planned schedule, but when we enter the Spanish Virgin Islands in 2 days, we could be only 4 days/nights of straight sailing down to Trinidad where the boat will be taken out of the water. However, we are NOT going to do that so we have almost 2 months to make the different islands before we must have the boat in Trinidad. Wheee. I am more than ready.