| Case Study: |
| Emergency
Medical Aid in a Remote Coastal Area of Panama |
| by John Anderton |
| My crew
and I left Grand Marina in Alameda last October 9th, and cruised down
the coast of Baja about a week after the Ha-Ha 2000 fleet. Cruising is
about choices. Having grown up in hot, dry, and brown southern Idaho, I
chose to skip the Sea of Cortez after a visit to La Paz, and head south
where the anchorages are green and tropical. Ever since Mazatlan, I've
been cruising solo. Sometimes I stay in places for just a day, sometimes
I stay for a month or longer. A question that lingers in the minds of most
cruisers is what would happen if they had a serious medical emergency in
a remote area of the world. Well, I had one in a remote section of northwest
Panama. I had to put all my trust in the local population, and they couldn't
have treated me better. |
|
|
|
|
|
| While anchored
on the north side of Isla Parita - which is one of a group of islands on
the northwest side of Panama - I had some bleeding in my bladder. It clotted,
shutting down all operations. Thank goodness there were some cruisers nearby
to lend initial assistance. I had been buddyboating since Puerto Vallarta
with Charles Grassia of Sayula, another singlehander. He accompanied
me to a regional hospital in the city of David (pronounced 'Du-vi').
It wasn't an easy trip, as it required a three-hour night time panga dugout
ride to the fishing village of Boca Chica; a 12-mile ride down a narrow
dirt road to the Pan American Highway; then another hour drive to the hospital.
I was in a great deal of pain the entire time.
The hospital
experience was a bigger ordeal than it would have been had I been fluent
in Spanish, but the doctors had all been trained in the U.S., and the staff
of the 300-bed regional facility were excellent. I'll spare everyone the
details, but the total cost for my six days in the hospital - including
IVs, 12 x-rays, an exploratory look around my insides with a camera, the
surgery under anesthesia, and all medications - came to just US$390! Furthermore,
an emergency room nurse gave me a ride to the local Price Costco, so I
could use the ATM machine to get some money to pay the bill. It took me
two days to arrange for transportation back to my boat - which proved to
be another adventure. |
|
|
| I used the
two days to formally check into Panama, and stayed in a very nice and clean
hotel for US$16.50 a night.
On the second
day, the manager from Pedregal Marina drove me to the main bus terminal,
and gave instructions on where I needed to go to a ticket vendor. After
three hours, the vendor put me on the correct bus - and passed on further
directions for me to the busdriver. After a 20-mile ride on the Pan
American Highway, the bus driver flagged down a taxi, which drove me 12
miles down the single lane dirt road back to the fishing village at Boca
Chica.
Thanks to
the help of the taxi driver, I was able to get the attention of an English-speaking
young man, to ask how I might get back to the island and my boat. The
young man took me to the front yard of a house where a dozen men were doing
a number on four cases of beer. |
|
|
Offshore
Resources Gallery
|
|
|
| It was decided
that some of them would take me back to my boat - after they finished the
cases of beer, of course. So there I sat, with US$500 in my pocket, waiting
with a group of Spanish-speaking strangers - all of whom had machetes
– to finish their cases of beer. None of my friends or family knew where
I was. Everything worked out fine, however, as my medical ordeal had become
common knowledge in the community. As for the machetes, they were for snakes.
I now have my own machete. Finally, they weren't really waiting to finish
their beer to take me back to my boat, but waiting for the tide to change.
No problema, mon.
I returned
to Isla Paridita to find that my boat was the only one left in the anchorage.
All the other boats had moved on four days before. Nonetheless, my inflatable
was still on the foredeck, my outboard was still on the stern rail, and
nothing had been touched. I spent most of the next two weeks sitting on
the boat regaining my health. During that time I did some visiting with
the locals and a young ex-pat couple on a nearby island.
Twice I dined
with them in a setting of bamboo huts and dirt floors - the whole rural
Third World scene. Several other times the locals stopped by for a visit
in the cockpit of my boat. |
|
|
| With the help
of a Spanish dictionary, we exchanged the stories of our lives. I was happy
to be able to stay in touch with my cruising friends through the morning
radio nets, and they were happy to hear that things had worked out well
for me in the hospital.
I returned
to the hospital for a check-up, once again riding to the town of Pedregal
in a panga - but this time it was a delightful, pain free trip. After
a good check-up at the hospital, I joined the sailing vessels Poets Place
and Germania 2 to continue exploring this interesting region of Panama
for another two weeks. I finally left these two boats behind at Bahia Honda,
and sailed solo over to the Las Perlas Archipelago, which is to the northwest
of the Panama Canal. I'm currently at the funky little Pedro Miguel
Boat Club on Miraflores Lake inside the Panama Canal. I'll be leaving my
boat while I return to the Bay Area and then travel to Portland for my
daughter's wedding. The adventure continues! |
|
|
Offshore
Resources Gallery
|
Article
Index ~ Panama
Index ~ |
