Shanghai'd

ER.

Unfortunately, our recent trip to Austin also included a trip to the ER. Tim fell off his bike - going 30 miles an hour downhill. He cracked his helmet and banged his shoulder pretty bad, so I met him in the ER for what turned out to be a 6 hour waiting period of x-rays, CT scans and listening to our roommate berate the doctor and demand more pain medication (while calling into his afternoon meetings). Fortunately, Tim walked out with a clear bill of head-health, some gauze on the roadrash and an arm sling for his shoulder injury. The mammoth bill is still in processing, and I hope most of that will be covered by insurance.

The whole situation caused us to recount our very different trip to the Chinese jízhěnshì almost a year ago:

An American colleague was visiting from Austin and ate something bad. This is not uncommon in China, we all get laduzi from the food every once in a while. But this was not a common case, and he needed to get to the hospital. Unfortunately, it was Sunday night at 9pm. In the taxi to pick him up, we tried calling to all the expat hospitals we knew and could only get the prospect of a bed if we paid $500 up front and no promise for drugs for to see a doctor at the nearby expat location. So we're flying through the streets in a red cab, stopping occasionally so the driver could ask directions of people on the side of the road and our patient could ask something of the bushes on the side of the road. We arrive at the local Chinese hospital and help get him checked in. Here's how the visit works:

1. Check in, telling them your ailments and get an equivalent of a hospital debit card and put 200RMB on it to handle the cost.
2. Pay to see the doctor.
3. See the doctor in the portable building out back and explain what is going on. Here is where the Chinese menu studying came in handy. Does your stomach hurt? Liver, Intestines, kidney? Tim and I were well-versed in the various organs. She orders blood tests.
4. Pay for the blood test.
5. Go to the window to get your blood drawn. Similar to a drive through, this lab has a little window to put your arm through. The patient puts his arm through the window, blood is drawn and we standby and wait 5 minutes for the result.
6. Back out to the portable, show the result to the doctor. She orders an IV (in China, most medicine is dispensed through IV. Its the fastest way to the blood stream). Anti-nausea meds and hydration.
7. Pay for the medicine.
8. Go to the pharmacy to pick up the meds.
9. Spend the next 2 hours in the open-air IV room, which is back out in the portable and has 20 chairs with overhead hooks.
10. Settle up the bill. In all, the experience cost ~120RMB, or $15. We spent about 2.5 hours there, 2 hours of which was doing the IV.

Quite a different experience.