I had just come home tired from a long meeting far away.
A 1 mm deep splinter had my wife worried this afternoon as she wanted to immediately seek western medical hospital help to remove it from under her foot.
I took her to the new hospital in Marikina beside the jehova’s witness church.
In the emergency room, she was the only patient.
Residents check her. Then tells her she needs a tetanus shot! Asks when she last had a tetanus shot. My wife says some 10 years ago. Resident tells my wife she needs a tetanus shot.
What the hell??? A tetanus shot for a simple splinter? No way! Absolutely no way!
Resident says my wife has to sign a waver form.
Sure thing. Give us the form.
Now my alarm bells rang. What a bunch of jerks. I told my wife I should just dunk her foot in hot water and put virgin coconut oil on the bottom of her feet and massage out the tiny splinter. But wife says, she’s here in the hospital now and might as well do this anyway.
I then told her a manicurist would know how to do that easily. Wife said maybe the doctor should do it since she is now in the hospital.
Waver form comes. Wife signs. Resident says the consultant doctor will be the one to attend.
Consultant female doctor arrives some mid 20ish. Says my wife needs a tetanus shot. But we both say we’ve signed the waver. Then consultant doctor says she needs anesthesia because she will have to cut. Wife says okay.
Wife thought anesthesia would be topical. Wife is dismayed to see a needle.
I watch. Anesthesia administered. A knife cuts some 2mm deep. Doctor pulls out the 1mm or less splinter. All in less than 1 minute.
Lots of bleeding. Seems like the cure is worse than the splinter problem.
Doctor says my wife needs to take antibiotics and a pain reliever drug. What the hell?
We get the Rx, we pay for the hospital bill amounting to some 1,200 pesos.
We go home pissed. Lesson learned. Rx thrown in the trash.
A stupid little 1mm splinter removal deserves a tetanus shot, antibiotics and mefanamic acid? What a bunch of deranged drug pushers this medical profession is.
Geeeezzzz… I was just so tired coming home my wife never discussed her problem to me before we left.
Next time I should sit down with the patient and see her problem for myself first before agreeing to any of this.
Good grief! And at first she wanted to go to the hospital alone! It could have been worse if I hadn’t been there!