From the Diaspora…EVERYBODY WANTS TO GO TO HEAVEN

Mar 23, 2014 News

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By Ralph Seeram
I am writing this article from my hospital bed, and by the time you read it on Sunday, I hope to be home. At least that’s what my doctor told me a few minutes ago, that is, if my infection clears.
A little over a week ago I was enjoying great health. Then within 36 hours, I was within “heaven’s” door, even though some may argue it was probably nearer to hell. It’s a funny thing. You suddenly don’t want to go to heaven if you think you are dying; you want to live, get back to good health. Despite our complaints, life is still “sweet on earth”. We are never in a hurry to see the Good Lord.
We all take our health for granted, a mistake most of us make, until we get struck by serious illness. A week ago, Saturday, I started to experience hot and cold fever, then upset stomach, then weakness. So I am saying I can handle this; some tablets for the fever, ginger tea for the stomach, by Sunday it was coughing junks of mucus and problem breathing.
Still in denial, I opted to go to an emergency clinic instead of the emergency at the hospital. I was hoping that they give me a prescription and send me home. Instead after a few minutes with the nurse, she ordered me to the Hospital Emergency.
My son rushed me to the Hospital Emergency Department where they saw that I had difficulty breathing. Before you know it there were tubes and wires protruding from all parts of my body. They said that I had severe pneumonia and that I was being admitted.
Pneumonia! I am thinking I had the flu. Where in hell did I contract pneumonia? Pneumonia can wipe you out in 48 hours if untreated.
Speaking of heaven, the personnel at this institution try to make it as comfortable as can be for you. Medical care is very competitive business here in the U S, especially Florida. This institution, Florida Hospital South, is owned by the Seventh Day Adventists Church group, a nonprofit organization. It’s rated Number One in the state of Florida for Cardiac Care and other specialties’ and in the top ten National Hospitals.
I want to share some of my observations with readers especially those in Guyana. Most of the medical personnel are made up of foreign born or has foreign born parents, including doctors.
So my nurses are Guyanese, Jamaicans, Trinidadians, Pilipino, Africa and also from various Spanish speaking countries. Everyone is very pleasant, genuinely friendly, and try to respond to your every request. Even the most troublesome patient (and there are many) is met with a smile.
My next door neighbor rings for the nurses so often that even I get tired of it. I am sure they must be annoyed at the unnecessary calls, but they come with a smile. When you think you have heath problems this guy makes you look healthy. He has diabetics, high blood pressure, Crone disease, his bowels keep blocking up, pancreatic cancer, tumor in the brain, four heart attacks and four stents. Can it really get worse for any human?
He is always in excruciating pains, and gets high doses of pain killers. The guy is so depressed that I overheard him telling the nurses, he doesn’t mind “going to sleep and don’t wake up.” Before you know it counselors were at this bed to counsel him.  To top it off he said that he will be homeless when he is discharged.
How tough can life be? When you think you got problems, look over your shoulder.
I lie down and think of the service people receive at the hospitals in Guyana. You read of the horror stories, shortage of drugs, children dying because of no oxygen and the list goes on. When you think that former President Bharrat Jagdeo, chartered a plane to Florida for a simple illness like dengue fever, you can tell how much confidence he has in his health care system in Guyana.
I think of the time I went to the New Amsterdam Hospital a few years ago, and hear nurses and other staff berating patients and members of the public. These were real “long mouth pigs” in uniform, who carried an air of superiority about them. They forgot that they work for and were paid by the public and not the other way around.
One came to me with that attitude and I “put her in her place immediately “. I let her know exactly who she works for. Part of the problem is that the public feels that there is not much recourse, and journalists are lazy to do investigative journalism.
I live in Florida but I get first hand information on the irregularities and corruption at the New Amsterdam Hospital. I get it from nurses themselves.
You want to know what is ironic? Those same nurses if they working here in the States would have a completely different attitude because they would be fired. The hospitals strive to give the best service because they know that there are “ambulance chasing” lawyers waiting for them to make a mistake so they can sue them. That is a rarity in Guyana; there is no accountability.
You want to know the most touching part of my stay in the hospital? The first night I came in, and it’s was now 1.30 in the morning, a male nurse, a six footer was attending to me. In my pain he assured me, “Don’t worry pops, I will take care of you; you are like my father”. He was from Kenya. It can’t get any better than that.
Ralph Seeram can be reached at email [email protected].

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