The hospital.

I don't know where to start! My harrowing life threatening ride from the hotel to the hospital or the state of health care here... both of these made for a VERY interesting day.
I have driven through times square during rush hour, that in NO WAY compare to traffic here. People are yelling, honking and fighting there way into any little space they see open. There are no stop lights, traffic signs or anything. On the rare occurrence there is a sign no one pays attention to it. I almost died several times during the ride today and that is with the SWAT teams ahead and behind us trying to get us through. When things got harrowing with traffic they'd use their SUV's as protection for us from oncoming traffic by cutting the oncoming cars off. More than once I heard people yelling out their windows about the Gringo's, probably a good thing I couldn't here what else they said about us. The guards really treat us as VIP's and are very serious about their job.
Now on to my actual mission, the reason I am here! Today we went to the hospital and meet the people we'll work with and provide the education to, we set up our work area's in the OR's and ICU's. I was literally DIGGING for my equipment, I'm missing important things and I'll be up late tonight trying to figure out how to pull things together. In the hospital the ICU is brand new, this is due to a fire on a previous Cardiostart trip caused by a ventilator fire. It's actually surprising no one died, the fire had blocked the exit to the ICU and was so hot it melted the metal of the ventilator. In the end it was a good thing because the new ICU is great! The rest of the hospital is run down, with cracked walls, old broken equipment, only one out of four elevators is functional and I even saw a guy so sick he couldn't make it up the stairs and people just kept walking past. Thats how it is. Also, people here are required to pay out of pocket for care. If you are going into surgery you are required to come prepared with all the drugs needed for surgery. The patients come to the hospital with sedation drugs, pain drugs, heart drugs, or whatever is needed. If you don't bring it, you don't get it. There are some drugs in the ICU and OR for unforeseen events, but IF they are given the drug they are required to pay for it. The hospital received money and built a new cancer center here a few months ago but are unable to open it because they can't afford to pay for the staff. Its a very humbling experience. Things I take for granted are impossible here. Now I understand why donations are so important to these places.

That was my day. After getting home we all broke open the wine, cheese and crackers to celebrate arriving alive and later went out to dinner. Once again, the food is well prepared, presented with style and WONDERFUL. Good night!