How much is a trip to the Emergency Room in Brazil!?

Okay, one of the things about traveling around the world–especially as a fighter…is that you get a first hand experience of what World Health Care and social services look like.

While I’ve yet to travel to Scandinavia–which is largely regarded as the premier region for government services–I have done a fair job of racking up medical bills in the Good Ol’ US of A, and have had an opportunity to visit hospitals first hand in the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Kuwait, UAE, Cambodia, Mexico, and thanks to last nights trip to the Emergency room…Brazil.  

Estrada Da Graciosa

 Yesterday I went to Estrada Da Graciosa.  It was a fun day that included a drive down an old hand made cobble stone street–before stopping at a little hill side restaurant and walking down to the waterfall to play in the river.

Following a long day of site seeing I returned home feeling sick.  I went to lay down for awhile before noticing my body was running a fever.  With a temperature of 40C’ for over 2 hours, it was decided that I needed to go to the Emergency room.  Besides the temperature increase in my body, there was also a sizable lump under my arm.    

  —Heading to the Curitiba Late Night emergency room around 1am, the doctor listened to my symptoms.  I had been suffering from a sore throat for a couple of days, and just recently got a new tattoo made.  The doctor was unsure of the lump on my arm, and sent me to get an X-ray which came back negative for any fractures.  (Walking down to waterfall I took a decent size slip on the grass covered jungle) 

Xray came back negative!!

 —The Dr. said the tattoo did not look infected, and decided to run me for a blood test to see if there were any other infections to be detected.  One of the tests came back with a Lactic acid reading above 3000 which the doctor said proved that the swelling under my arm was from muscle strain.  The Dr. said that in all likelihood the temperature had come from a throat infection which was causing the discomfort.

All in all I had an extensive blood examination, took a chest X-ray, saw both an Xray specialist, and the original doctor in the emergency room–They also treated me onsite with an injection of penicillin, and I.V. with pain medication, and prescriptions for an antibiotic and anti-inflammatory.

The total cost of my late night visit to the hospital?

FREE…

Because I had a temperature and when I arrived it was considered an emergency.

Anyone without health care in the USA knows the X-ray alone would have been over 400$ with probably another 150$ going for the multiple tests on my blood—in addition to whatever physician fees I would have been charged for the DR to actually see me. 

the Dr was hlad to see a Gringo

The next couple of days will tell if was properly diagnosed (I have my reservations that the swollen arm is an infection, and not in fact a result of the fall)—-either way, I am impressed with the health care situation in a country like Brazil, where someone like me who isn’t even a citizen can been seen,and treated for free because a fever is deemed ‘an emergency’

…I’ll let everyone know if I’ve been properly diagnosed and treated in a couple of days—INSHALLAH!