Hospital ???

Just when I was ready to turn in... I heard the secret knock on the front door.
It was Jose Angel... covered in blood and with a ripped shirt and nail marks over his body.
What a shocking surprise to find on your doorstep late at night.

Jose Angel was selling bracelets in the Calzada street.
He had just sold one for $1.50 when a bunch of glue sniffers spotted him, and the money he was holding in his hand. Money that was meant to by supplies for him and his family back in Nindiri. Some of them were his best friends: Marvin, the boy whom showed him the ropes when Jose Angel first came here, Ernesto, Evin, Michael...


One of the pandilleros grabbed a large beer bottle, and broke it on the street stones. It was Anayeli, a young girl whom swung the beer bottle in his face, barely missing his left eye.. Marvin had handed her the bottle.
Some others tried to steal away the bracelets and stole the $1.50.
For less than $2, he almost lost an eye.

Wait... that wasn't the most shocking part.
Bleeding, and in a lot of pain, he walked over to the bomberos, the fire department, where they also have an ambulance service.
These guys did a great job by dropping him off in a minimum of time at the Japanese hospital Nicaragua.
Once there, he was told to go home and come back the next day!!!

Can you believe it! What kind of a hospital would send patients with a gaping wound walking!?
And walking he did, because the ambulance had already left.
Over an hour, back to the city, on his own...
He had to walk slowly as the gaping bleeding wound was thumping like "a nail being beaten in with a hammer".
The whole walk he was moaning in pain.
When he arrived here, I cleaned him up a little and took him to the private Hospital of Cocibolca.

Going back to the Japanese Hospital wouldn't make a difference.

I lost time and patience doing that before... several times.

Once with one of my workers whom almost lost his thumb when it was sucked into a sanding machine.

We waited for three hours there, only to find out that the "Doctors" were playing cards.

They felt like they weren't paid enough and therefore charged $25 for immediate attention, or a waiting time of several hours.

Anyway... The nurse on duty called in a Doctor, whom was at the Cocibolca hospital in a matter of 5 minutes.
He disinfected the area, gave an injection of anesthesia, and put 6 stitches in.
The bill was half a meter long...
Everything was there... even the soap used to wash his face, the rubber gloves, the stitches and the needle, ...
You name it.
But still  the whole factura was only $35.
Fast, clean and respectful service, only half a mile away from the other "hospital".
Jose Angel felt bad that he was causing "such a high bill".
He thought I was being ripped off, but I told him that in the States, it costs at least twice as much for the same attention in a private hospital!

The nurse told me that they have plenty of patients that don't get help at the Japanese hospital.
"only when your guts are hanging out of your belly, you will get attention there" he told me.

It's a disgrace, the name "Hospital" unworthy.
Thank you Staff of Cocibolca.
You showed us how it should be done!