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22 September, 2009 10:54:05 | in health, medicine

Taking a Fall

By
Larry J. Pitman

It was early morning. The house was quiet. Rosa, the eighty-six year old mother of my wife, was doing what she loves, puttering in the kitchen.

Falcon, our Old English Sheepdog, was stretched out on the kitchen floor, enjoying his early morning nap. He is a big dog and takes up a lot of space.

Rosa, her mind on her tasks, turned, and forgetting about Falcon, tripped on his outstretched form. Falling, she turned her body and landed squarely on her left shoulder. She laid there for a bit, stunned. Then she tried to get up, but she couldn’t.

At that point she called out for help. People rushed to her. When they arrived, Falcon was licking her face, looking guilty. She insisted that she was ok.

It is obvious, however, that she was injured and needed medical attention.

That was when we called Alerta Medica. Within a few minutes an ambulance arrived. With it came a doctor, a nurse and a driver. They were calm (we were not), competent and ready to provide effective help.

They immediately attended to Rosa, asking her questions, assessing the situation. They realized that she needed to go to the hospital so they lifted her gently into a wheelchair, and the burly driver took her down the stairs to the waiting ambulance.

They asked which hospital, and we told them the Clinica Anglo-Americana, twenty minutes away. We have our health insurance there, and although Rosa is not covered on our policy, we know and trust the doctors there.

She arrived at the Clinic, was x-rayed and examined by the bone specialist in very short order. As we suspected, she had a bone broken in her shoulder. Before the morning was done, however, she was back at home calmly watching television.

Even under the best of conditions, accidents in the home are probably impossible to avoid. Therefore, it is very reassuring to know that when something happens, adequate care is immediately available. And that is what we have. In Lima, various programs like Alerta Medica are offered.

Certainly cost is a factor, too. In this case, we pay Alerta Medica $200 a year to cover illnesses and accidents that require treatment in the home. The coverage is for anyone who is in our house. So all the expenses were covered by our policy for the services Alerta Medica provided Rosa when she had her accident.

At the Clinica Anglo-Americana, the total cost for the treatment of the broken bone was $300.

Before we moved to Peru from the U.S., some questioned whether we would receive adequate health care here. They suggested that we might consider acquiring an insurance that would pay for an air evacuation to the United States in case of a medical emergency. Now, after living for a while in Peru, I am amazed such a possibility was ever suggested. In fact, I now wonder seriously whether we could ever receive the same quality service at an affordable price if we moved back to California.

What would have happened had we been living in California? Most likely, I would have put Rosa in the car and gone as quickly as possible to the emergency room at the hospital. Then we would have waited… waited… waited. When we did see a doctor, we would have then held our breath to see what the charges would be for the treatment.

For this reason, and many others, I am glad to be in Peru.

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4 Comments

# Rodney says :
22 September, 2009 [ 09:06 ]

Another great article Larry despite the circumstances. Thanks for providing this information to the readers. I will absolutely be looking into getting these insurances. My experience with health care in Peru has also been very positive.

# says :
23 September, 2009 [ 02:42 ]

I just wanted to mention that I am glad to hear that your mother-in law-is doing fine and got such a good treatment.
It is also good to hear that your experience with health care in Peru has been positive.
My regards to Mrs Rosa and hopefully she will recuperate very soon.

# says :
23 September, 2009 [ 03:20 ]

Thank you for sharing your personal experience with your readers.
You are really helping others around the world to get the right image of Peru.
Some people feel that because Peru is a third world country they will not be able to get good medical treatment even if they would pay the same amount of money like in the US or europe.
It is true that those services cost and unfortunately many peruvians who live in very poor conditions will never be able to get such an inmediate treatment like your mother in law did.
However if you can afford it, you can be sure that you will get a cheaper and a more humane, good and high level service like the places mentioned above.
Regards to Mrs Rosa and all the best for her!
from a fond reader of your articles

# Ysabel says :
23 September, 2009 [ 11:43 ]

Hi Larry, first of all a sweet hug to Rosita. Very interesting article, thanks for sharing with us. I am a Peruvian thinking in going back home to retire in Peru in a few years. Good to know which options I can get. I live in Vancouver, Canada, here the medical system is marvelous. I pay $96 dollars for two persons a month and we get full coverage! includes ambulances, hospitals, treatments, surgeries and you can named.! I used to live in California, my father had a hearth arrest, he just arrived at the hospital to die, the bill was of $12,000.00, the hospital did nothing for him.We waited and waited for a doctor to take care of him, they just come at the last second trying to resucitate him. To late : ( Good to know that we have good medical attention in Peru.

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