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Qinella
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Location: the crib
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 Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 4:59 am Post subject: worst hospital experience ever |
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Gotta piss and moan about this..
I just got back from spending FOUR hours at the 이대 (Idae) hospital, because of a sickness I contracted yesterday. Symptoms include:
- stuffy nose
- massive congestion
- reflexive dry cough if I breath in quickly
- body pain so bad I can hardly move
- headache
- dizziness
- fever
So, I go to the emergency room. The first thing they do is hand me a cup with a little piece of red stuff. They tell me to rub the red stuff on my urethra, then pee in the cup. Oookay.. didn't do that.
Then they took a blood sample and hooked me up to some silly saline IV that was to stay on for the rest of my time there. After that, they took an x-ray (finally something that made sense), without using a protective lead vest.
They stuck me and my girlfriend back in some room that looked like a 3rd world hospital -- 12 beds, no dividers, sick people lying around moaning. Actually, the whole place was dingy and ramshackle. It felt truly like I was in a developing nation.
Yada yada, turns out they have absolutely no idea what is wrong with me. As I said, I was there four hours, and my entire body was hurting (still is). When I breathe in, my stomach hurts, and it feels like the air is coarsing across sandpaper in my throat.
They would not prescribe antibiotics or penicillin. I asked for codeine cough syrup for my throat, which they refused, and I asked for some opiates (like vicodin) for the tremendous body pain. They refused, on the grounds that I might get addicted. The idiot nurse added that it's hard to get those things in Korea. WTF? Korea does not have medicine? She wanted to prescribe me ibuprofen, which of course does not require prescription. I told her I'd taken seven already and was still in pain. She couldn't understand it.
I'm really flabbergasted right now. I just can't believe it. Four hours, and they had no idea how to treat me. It's probably just a regular cold or flu. In the US, it's never once taken more than 10 minutes (aside from waiting time) for a doctor to assess my illness and prescribe me some godamn medicine. In Korea, I guess, they think a saline drip and ice balls will cure everything.
Times like this make me really pessimistic about Korea. What the hell kind of medical research are they doing? Why is it so damn hard to get medicine? Drugstore only? No codeine cough syrup? No opiate painkillers? 
So now I'm still in so much pain I can hardly move, my nose is dripping, my head is pounding, and I can hardly breathe. Happy freakin new year. |
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tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 5:02 am Post subject: |
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Sorry you are feeling so ill, hon.
Feel better soon.
Happy New Year (for when you feel better). |
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blaseblasphemener
Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Location: There's a voice, keeps on calling me, down the road, that's where I'll always be
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| Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 5:50 am Post subject: |
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You mean they didn't give you a needle in the butt? Or give you and IV drip of Kimchi?
Incompetent fools!! |
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OCOKA Dude
Joined: 04 Oct 2004
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 6:10 am Post subject: Re: worst hospital experience ever |
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| Qinella wrote: |
...back in some room that looked like a 3rd world hospital -- 12 beds, no dividers, sick people lying around moaning. Actually, the whole place was dingy and ramshackle. It felt truly like I was in a developing nation.
Yada yada, turns out they have absolutely no idea what is wrong with me. |
Have you ever wondered why Koreans hate foreigners? The moaning and goanings of the aforementioned poster is enought to make any Korean run for the hills. For what it's worth Qinella, if you're so disatisfied with the level of healthcare you've received thus far, I suggest going back to where you came from. At least there, you will most certainly receive better treatment there -- wherever there is -- than this "3rd world developing" country that you obviously despise so. |
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Qinella
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Location: the crib
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| Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 6:21 am Post subject: Re: worst hospital experience ever |
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| OCOKA Dude wrote: |
| Qinella wrote: |
...back in some room that looked like a 3rd world hospital -- 12 beds, no dividers, sick people lying around moaning. Actually, the whole place was dingy and ramshackle. It felt truly like I was in a developing nation.
Yada yada, turns out they have absolutely no idea what is wrong with me. |
Have you ever wondered why Koreans hate foreigners? The moaning and goanings of the aforementioned poster is enought to make any Korean run for the hills. For what it's worth Qinella, if you're so disatisfied with the level of healthcare you've received thus far, I suggest going back to where you came from. At least there, you will most certainly receive better treatment there -- wherever there is -- than this "3rd world developing" country that you obviously despise so. |
OCAKA dude - the angry gyopo. You know goja, if you hate it on Dave's ESL Cafe so much, you should just go to another web site. Don't ya think?
You like to defend Korea at all costs, but the hard fact that you have to accept is that to receive 'health care' in the US like I received today, you'd have to go to a ghetto. A slum. That's the hard truth that gets you all riled up, I know.
Anyway, thanks for the wellwishing, tzechuk. I took 84 ibuprofen when I got home so I'm feeling a little better. And Mr. Phemener, yeah, a shot in the but woulda been nice. ANY kind of treatment would've been nice, really. Incompetent fools is spot on. |
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Ilsanman
Joined: 15 Aug 2003
Location: Bucheon, Korea
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| Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 6:34 am Post subject: yes |
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I am pretty dissatisfied with the health care here too.
I am satisfied with these parts:
-the cost
-the amount of waiting
-the doctor's bedside manner
-when I had elbow surgery, I was happy with my doctors and nurses.
Dissatisfied with this:
-not listening to the patient ever
-overprescribing or wrongly prescribing medicine
-never answering direct questions
-telling me to eat kimchi and dog meat to get better.
I generally have to accept it. But there are some good doctors here. Most of the ones who were educated or practiced overseas are pretty good. |
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doggyji
Joined: 21 Feb 2006
Location: Toronto - Hamilton - Vineland - St. Catherines
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| Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 6:49 am Post subject: |
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 Hope you get well soon. Happy New Year.. anyway. |
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OCOKA Dude
Joined: 04 Oct 2004
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 6:51 am Post subject: Re: worst hospital experience ever |
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| Qinella wrote: |
| OCAKA dude - the angry gyopo. You know goja, if you hate it on Dave's ESL Cafe so much, you should just go to another web site. Don't ya think? |
Gee -- I wonder who this "OCAKA dude" that qinella speaks of is. For what it's worth, I am not that person. (Don't worry, qinella, I too, took high school Spanish, so I know you're trying to make an entirely different user ID out of mine using a similarly spelled Spanish expletive.)
And btw, qinella, I am not a "gyopo", and I am hardly "angry." I am, however, a very hard-ass-ed American and former G.I. that enjoys living in Korea -- warts and all. I come off as a hard-a-ss mostly because I do not suffer fools easily. So I'm sorry if I can't and won't indulge your foolishness, your intolerance, you inadaptability, and your lack of imagination. The best remedy if you can't hack this country, IMO, is to always return from whence you came.
| Qinella wrote: |
| You like to defend Korea at all costs, but the hard fact that you have to accept is that to receive 'health care' in the US like I received today, you'd have to go to a ghetto. A slum. That's the hard truth that gets you all riled up, I know. |
Then I have to question you again qinella, WHY ARE YOU HERE? You already described the treatment you received, ad nauseum, as akin to the treatment you'd get in a "ghetto" or "slum", and that your practitioners were "incompetent fools".
I've never even heard those kind of complaints before from people I know who've received indigent healthcare before.
For what you're getting through your Korean national health insurance -- which is very low-cost by any standard, btw -- you get what you paid for.
What did you expect, first-class, red-carpet medical treatment JUST because you're a foreigner?
You're dreaming qinella, and you've obviously let a lot of stuff get to your head since you've been here.
Grow up -- you have a lot to learn if you really want to make a go of it in this country.
Korea does not suffer fools easily, nor does it mollycoddle foreigners at each and every turn. If you want someone to hold your hand, your (insert other body part), and spoonfeed you, I would suggest any other country EXCEPT Korea. |
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The Hierophant
Joined: 13 Sep 2005
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| Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 7:00 am Post subject: |
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OCOKA Dude : I've never read any posts from Qinella saying he expects special treatment for being a foreigner. To me it sounds like he's very disappointed in the shoddy medical treatment he has received in a country that takes pride in its claims of being 'developed'.
That's the thing: Koreans take an enormous amount of pride in how supposedly developed their nation is, but in comparison to Western Nations they have a long way to go in many respects (this thread being a case in point).
But never criticise the Korean way, oh no! If you don't like it go home! You're not welcome if you don't love Korea unconditionally! Horrible foreigner!
The funny thing is that in order to 'make a go of it' in Korea as you say and be tolerated by Korean society at large, a foreigner must become as rabidly patriotic as Koreans themselves. In cases of long-term foreigners I've met they've been pressured to renounce their association with non-Korean values in order to find some degree of acceptance among Koreans (but in the end they will always be outsiders, no matter what they do).
PS: Hope you feel better soon Qinella . Whatever you've got it sounds nasty. Rest up.
Last edited by The Hierophant on Sun Dec 31, 2006 7:15 am; edited 1 time in total |
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hossenfeffer
Joined: 07 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 7:11 am Post subject: |
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Okako dude... were you born a jack-as-s or did you learn that special talent in the military? Drink some more of that Kool-aid they've been giving you at those "re-education" seminars you've been regularly attending here in Korea.
hoss |
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Qinella
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Location: the crib
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| Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 7:11 am Post subject: Re: worst hospital experience ever |
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Thanks Doggyji and Hierophant.  Feeling a bit better right now, since I loaded myself up on ibuprofen and sleeping pills. Trying to fall asleep..
| OCOKA Dude wrote: |
| Qinella wrote: |
| OCAKA dude - the angry gyopo. You know goja, if you hate it on Dave's ESL Cafe so much, you should just go to another web site. Don't ya think? |
Gee -- I wonder who this "OCAKA dude" that qinella speaks of is. For what it's worth, I am not that person. (Don't worry, qinella, I too, took high school Spanish, so I know you're trying to make an entirely different user ID out of mine using a similarly spelled Spanish expletive.)
And btw, qinella, I am not a "gyopo", and I am hardly "angry." I am, however, a very hard-ass-ed American and former G.I. that enjoys living in Korea -- warts and all. I come off as a hard-a-ss mostly because I do not suffer fools easily. So I'm sorry if I can't and won't indulge your foolishness, your intolerance, you inadaptability, and your lack of imagination. The best remedy if you can't hack this country, IMO, is to always return from whence you came. |
Alright, my mistake then. Thought I'd seen it before that you are a gyopo. As for the misspelling, I have no idea what you are talking about, cabron. Just a typo.
As for the rest of your bs..
Maybe you are a hardass, but you are also not very good at thinking. It's not like I never post on this forum. You should know by now my position about Korea and things Korean. It's generally a very positive position.
However, some things here just drive a person mad. I expect quality medical service from a country like Korea. If I were in Zimbabwe, I would be more understanding. But here? It's absurd that they couldn't diagnose my illness after four hours. You are going to deny this?
See what I mean about you being one lettuce leaf short of a Korean bbq? You're not all there, Mr. Dude, and it's not like I'm the only one that sees it.
| Quote: |
| Qinella wrote: |
| You like to defend Korea at all costs, but the hard fact that you have to accept is that to receive 'health care' in the US like I received today, you'd have to go to a ghetto. A slum. That's the hard truth that gets you all riled up, I know. |
Then I have to question you again qinella, WHY ARE YOU HERE? |
Uh.. I didn't choose to come BACK to Korea because of the medical services provided. Sheesh..
Why am I here? Mostly to escape America. If you think I have complaints about Korea, I can make a list as long as your loquacity about the US, pal.
See, the funny thing about you is the way you think that if a person has a horrible experience and wants to vent about it, that they obviously are not cut out to make it in Korea, like it's some kind of war zone (hilarious that you insinuate it's hard to live here, isn't it?? lol..) You are so extreme, and you cannot find any balance.
There are things I like about Korea, and things I do not like. Unlike you, I do not walk around with my head up my own arse, smiling and saying, "Oh Korea.. tut, tut.." when an ajumma shoves me out of the way to get on the elevator I'm exiting. I accept reality, unlike your hardass, hardhead self.
I'll suffer this babo a bit more, for one last amazingly stupid point you tried to make:
| Quote: |
You already described the treatment you received, ad nauseum, as akin to the treatment you'd get in a "ghetto" or "slum", and that your practitioners were "incompetent fools".
I've never even heard those kind of complaints before from people I know who've received indigent healthcare before.
For what you're getting through your Korean national health insurance -- which is very low-cost by any standard, btw -- you get what you paid for. |
A - I do not have the national health care.
B - It was low cost. It was also NOTHING. I got no treatment in four hours. Can your retarded brain comprehend that?
C - Because you've never heard of this kind of thing before, you think I'm making it up? Yeah.. I made it all up.
OCOKA Dude - long on words, short on brain power. Fwiw, I didn't read the rest of your post. If you post again, I probably won't bother reading it. |
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Wrench
Joined: 07 Apr 2005
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| Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 7:15 am Post subject: |
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| They are on the most incompetent bunch of fools in this country.. Seriously with the amount of cheating in Universities are you suprised you got such shity treatment? Go to a hospital that is close to an American base or former base they tend to see a lot of foreigners and the doctors are much different. |
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Qinella
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Location: the crib
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| Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 7:19 am Post subject: |
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| The Hierophant wrote: |
| OCOKA Dude : I've never read any posts from Qinella saying he expects special treatment for being a foreigner. |
No, it's true. I have posted prolifically here about how foreigners should have the red carpet rolled out. Haven't you noticed, all I do is complain about Korea, and how horrible it is here?
| Quote: |
To me it sounds like he's very disappointed in the shoddy medical treatment he has received in a country that takes pride in its claims of being a developed country.
That's the thing: Koreans take an enormous amount of pride in how supposedly developed their nation is, but in comparison to Western Nations they have a long way to go in many respects (this thread being a case in point). |
Indeed. It's something I just cannot understand. Why do they say it's hard to get opiates? Sure, Americans are over-drugged, and we rely too much on opiates and things, but I mean.. I'm sitting in the emergency room, people writhing and moaning in pain. Can't they give some medicine?
I asked six times for a painkiller to help my body pain. Just, anything -- ibuprofen, acetamenophine, whatever. I NEVER GOT ANYTHING. It's surreal, like I'm in some kind of psychotic Alfred Hitchcock movie.
| Quote: |
| The funny thing is that in order to 'make a go of it' in Korea as you say and be tolerated by Korean society at large, a foreigner must become as rabidly patriotic as Koreans themselves. In cases of long-term foreigners I've met they've been pressured to renounce their association with non-Korean values in order to find some degree of acceptance among Koreans (but in the end they will always be outsiders, no matter what they do). |
This is called assimilation. It's expected in a lot of countries, such as France. However, I've actually never noticed any expectation that I succumb to Korean values and traditions, EXCEPT by self-righteous foreigners. I've never had a Korean tell me to assimilate.
| Quote: |
| PS: Hope you feel better soon Qinella . Whatever you've got it sounds nasty. Rest up. |
Thanks. Yeah, it's not fun.. |
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Qinella
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Location: the crib
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| Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 7:19 am Post subject: |
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| Wrench wrote: |
| They are on the most incompetent bunch of fools in this country.. Seriously with the amount of cheating in Universities are you suprised you got such *beep* treatment? Go to a hospital that is close to an American base or former base they tend to see a lot of foreigners and the doctors are much different. |
Thanks Wrench. I might try that tomorrow. Do you know of any in particular? |
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The Hierophant
Joined: 13 Sep 2005
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| Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 7:35 am Post subject: |
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| Qinella wrote: |
| This is called assimilation. It's expected in a lot of countries, such as France. |
Ah yes, assimilation, fair enough.
| Quote: |
| However, I've actually never noticed any expectation that I succumb to Korean values and traditions, EXCEPT by self-righteous foreigners. I've never had a Korean tell me to assimilate. |
---Off-topic Aside---
Funny you should mention that. An old High School friend of mine came to Korea a year before I did. When I met up with him here he told me how much he had come to loathe 'foreigners' (I still hate that blanket term), how much he admires the Korean concept of 'deep love', how amazing and smart and dedicated the Korean people are etc... (I'm not saying I disagree with him regarding admirable Korean traits, but he was really gushing about it, like he was brainwashed, very different to the guy I knew in High School). Any time we'd meet up and eat dinner with Koreans he'd tell them so.
"I don't like foreigners. I didn't come to Korea to meet foreigners, I came here to meet Koreans. Foreigners are horrible and selfish and rude. Koreans are such wonderful people."
He'd always get smiles and nods of approval and pats on the back from the Koreans we were with for saying such things. I could have sworn he purred like a kitten whenever he received such praise... anyway... I've since stopped considering him a friend (for this reason and others), and havn't seen him in many months. Arse-kissers make me nauseous.
Last edited by The Hierophant on Sun Dec 31, 2006 8:06 am; edited 1 time in total |
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