When I say hospital you may be thinking of long hallways, clean floors, organization, waiting lines, and most important a patients privacy. Well to us the word hospital has changed into something completely different since coming to China! But after being here almost 4 years staying in a crowded emergency department overnight without a wink of rest or walking past someone with their hand bleeding rapidly as they carry their medicine, tests, and IV bags from one place to the next is not rare to see. Oh right the Chinese system here in hospitals is quite interesting. For instance, you have an emergency in the middle of the night, you rush to emerg only to realize the stressful trip there dodging all sorts of traffic was just the calm before the storm. You rush in with your injured family member and go to rent a bed. And yes, here you have to pay a 100 yuan deposit before you can use a bed. You rush over to the cashier to get a "number," without one you cannot see the doctor...It is sort of like their waiting line but in most cases is only important to get your medicine. In fact the number practically has no meaning, and it's more like first come first serve. After getting that you push the bed with the patient into a dingy room full of anxious people. Waiting lines are not heard of and if you want to see the doctor the same night must do as the Chinese and push your way to the front of everyone who is also doing the same. Once the doctor is talking with a patient everyone eagerly stands with no space in between listening to every word until that patient has been seen, then the crowd will frantically start talking to the doctor, hoping to be next. After the stressful consultation there is still more. If you need IV you first pay then go to the pharmacy window to get the medicine, and saline, needle, supplies and fluid bags yourself, then take them to the nurse on the other end of the emergency department. The same with any urine tests etc, you carry it where it needs to be, at the same time as pushing the heavy bed around yourself. To the Chinese this is normal, but to us it's just something we have had to get used to. It is also not uncommon to watch people carrying their IV bags over their heads while getting the injection as they go to and from the bathroom. It is a "do it yourself" world in hospitals here. We refer it alike unto the hospitals in the 1940's. Dirty, blood on the wall in the blood test room, or drops never cleaned up still on the floor. Sterilization is also not big, as they usually don't provide toilet paper or soap in the bathrooms. Being point blank if you don't have to go in after getting stitches for infection then the surgeon that stitched you up was really good! There have been many instances where we just couldn't believe some things for example, when we were in the resuscitation room once for a whole night for observation after Jennifer fainted we literally saw 4 people pass away in the beds next to us. Yes this is normal to see in the resuscitation room, but what was more difficult to see was how they had no respect for the dead or the family members as they treated the dead just like a parcel to be quickly removed from sight. This is just one of many difficult experiences we have had in hospitals here. When someone can't walk, they don't have wheelchairs or at least never available, so you often see people piggy backing full grown adults. We too have shared this experience as you will see in the pictures below. If a small child needs an IV, which are common here to treat sickness, they usually shave the top of the head and give the IV through the vains in the head which is not healthy or the safest way. There was one time we were at a city hospital and came across this poor Chinese young lady with a serious problem. The doctors didn't seem to be active in helping her as the crowds were even larger in the city. So she sat on the floor vomiting every few minutes! We asked to help right away.... Usually in China they do not accept help, especially from foreigners because of their pride, but in this case the mother very thankfully accepted any help we could give them. So we sat on the floor with them holding the bag for her when she vomited and comforted her and sang to her. She seemed to slowly relax mentally but her body continued to suffer. We ran in countless times to the doctor asking him to give her pain medicine and help her. After a few hours things calmed down a bit so we said our goodbyes swapped contact info and returned home. Later the next morning we found out the hospital wasn't helping her anymore so we invited the to our home to try stabilize her so she could return by train to her hometown. Close to arrival the young lady got worse so when they arrived we carried her inside and Jennifer took her blood pressure and a urine test, this showed she had something wrong with her kidney so after resting a short while we took them to our local hospital. They did tests and found a kidney stone, but the result was the same "Take her to the city hospitals." So we brought her back home and the next morning they left for their hometown to get treated. That was an experience we were truly grateful, and thank God for. Now the young lady has been getting treated in her hometown hospital and is doing much better. We connect once in a while and have had opportunities to share the gospel with them! Such a blessing. So as you have read, the hospitals here are really different, and a picture says all, so enjoy scrolling through these pictures of our local hospital, and a few of the city hospitals.
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AuthorHi, I'm Christina one of the Weaver children, and I will be posting updates on our lives and adventures here in China! Archives
October 2018
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