I had a Skype conference with Topacio*. Topacio used to live in Holland and she’s been living in Spain
“I woke up one morning with abdominal pain and I was puking. I went to the “huisarts” (General Doctor) and he diagnosed Gastroenteritis so he gave me Paracetamol. After one day, I was not feeling better so I went to the Emergency Department at the hospital. They took a long time to see me and when they did, they examined me by touching my abdomen and they took a blood test. They did not take any ultrasound or any other kind of test.
They told me that I had some infection parameters and they let me go with antibiotics. What the antibiotics did was to disguise the symptoms. I was at home with abdominal pain. After three days I went back to work but I was not feeling much better. The pain persisted and I was not able to walk straight anymore. When I finished work, I was in the bus going backing home and this bus line has a stop next to one of the biggest hospitals in Amsterdam
WHAT? They were not going to operate you? That is the first thing that needs to be done! Where on Earth do they not operate you if there is Appendicitis?
“Well, in that hospital in Amsterdam Spain
Topacio said these last words with an ironic tone, frustrated and laughing at the same time. I just cannot imagine how you must feel on situations like this one.
“When my mom heard that I was getting morphine she booked immediately a flight to Amsterdam Spain
When they made the CT-scan, they found out that my abdomen was infected but they didn’t know what had been the cause of the infection. By abdomen I mean my intestines, ovaries, stomach, etc. As they didn’t know what had caused the infection, they were going to perform an Emergency surgery. My mother, who is normally a sweet person and who doesn’t say much, got really angry and started to shout in Spanish. She was angry on how I was being treated and why they hadn’t taken any action before. She said that she would only allow the operation on two conditions: That the head of the Surgery Department was the one to perform the surgery and that they had to make a pre-operation plan. Of course, I had to translate all this while I was weak and in pain. There was also a friend’s husband, who is Dutch, and he was also translating and talking to them in their language. I believe that helped a lot to get what my mother demanded”.
I was in shock to hear all this. How can that be possible? Was it because she was not Dutch that she had a different treatment or what?
“I had the surgery and it was a success. They realized that I had Peritonitis. The appendix had been perforated, and as a result I had infected fluid in my abdomen. Luckily, none of my organs had been infected. They left me with a horrible big scar. In the surgery they took a sample from the infected fluid and found out that I had some rests of E. Coli. They isolated me for ten more days after surgery because it could be contagious. In total I spent almost three weeks with antibiotics and I lost seven kilos. You know what they told me? That it was an atypical case of Appendicitis”.
Atypical case? All of these could have been avoided if they would have had performed the surgery on the first place! What’s atypical is NOT to perform surgery when a person has Appendicitis!
She laughs nervously and nostalgic. She dissimulates a little bit the irony from the teddy bears names.
“And guess what? I went afterwards to Spain
There was a question that was at my head when I was listening to this story and I needed to ask: Did you move to Spain
“Yes, part of it was that. I had enough from Holland Madrid
I would like to thank Topacio for sharing this story even tough she doesn’t live in the Netherlands anymore.
I also would like to thank Caterina for helping me to correct my so faulty English.
*Topacio is a fictitious name.
