The right of patients.

    I don't know how to else to describe a typical hospital here in Vietnam except that it felt like a filthy concentration camp. It was bad. It seriously was. I visited one for the first time yesterday to visit my grandfather from Bien Hoa who was getting a procedure done to his bladder. Paint peels and cotton swabs with blood on the ground were the first few things I've noticed upon walking into the waiting room. Hospital entrances are usually so crowded with vendors and xe om drivers that missing them would be impossible. Think market. Don't think hospital.

     I made my way up two flights of stairs passing families sprawled out on bamboo mats napping away and lifeless souls in old hospital pajamas that reminded me of the Holocaust wandered about like zombies in the humidity. Sometimes a breeze would blow by and rescue me from the heat exhaustion as I waited about among the hundreds and hundreds of other patrons. This hospital like all other hospitals here was crowded. So over capacity that patients sometimes have to share beds with strangers. I never noticed any hospital room with anything less than six patients all lying about on beds together. Cheap looking bottles recycled as IV drips and family members around the patient's bedside surrounded by other complete strangers. Nurses don't have the responsibility of care givers here. There's no such thing as a kinky nurse fetish here when the atmosphere emphasized death instead of sex. There was nothing sexy here. Nurses were angry and bitter. It's a stressful environment, but all the nurses I've encountered were impatient and rude. Family members are the ones who have to bath, feed, and nurture the patients after their surgery. An old wife emptied her husband's urine pouch into a toilet and then swiftly began to brush his mouth with her fingers. No wonder half of his teeth were missing- how can you ever clean your teeth with a finger and urine...

    When I came in my grandfather looked like a sunken corpse but he was still very alert. They sent him into a waiting room and despite donating to the nurses and doctors for a private room or at least something better than a communal room, our family's efforts fell short. The whole system here is seriously dangerous and unprofessional. Patients are forced to walk to the doctor's offices to get checked up- sometimes clear across the compound. Basic machines like heart scanners and MRIs are few and far in between so my grandfather had to go to a different hospital to get some other procedures done a few districts away. Hospitals here specializes in specific body parts, such as the eyes and the intestines.
       Eventually after so many hours of waiting around I went home and felt completely disgusted with the sights and sounds that I heard on that day. I was emotionally and physically drained. I sobbed a little and choked several times.  Doctors barely make anything here unless they have their own private practice. There's a lack of motivation here. It was really sad. I squirming at the idea of having to be in that room full of patients coughing away - spreading their sickness without concern for others. I'm appreciating America more than ever now. I'm going to be so much more careful because I definitely don't want to end up in a hospital here. Though... that hospital did have free wifi..