Day 10: May 8 (Derek)

An unexpected introduction to Peruvian health care

The past two days have been very busy, in both good and not so good senses. This morning, Cristina woke up feeling awful and with signs of altitude sickness - tired, pallid, weak, short of breath, and her fingers were slightly blue, though this may have been partly due to the cold as the temperatures here in Cusco are close to freezing at night, and we have no heating (just lots of blankets, fleece jackets, etc). We were all hit with the altitude on our first day, but we expected that, so to have this happen on the third day was unexpected. Luckily, if you have money, health care in Peru is excellent. The manager of our apartment promptly called a private clinic for us, and they sent a doctor right away to do an examination. He said Cristina was going to be okay, but recommended bringing her in to have oxygen and rest for some time in the clinic. He told us it might be an hour or two. Cristina insisted that the girls and I stay back, and that she would be fine. However, when she got there, a more senior doctor thought it would be best to keep her longer for observation. He also prescribed some medication, in addition to the altitude sickness pills our travel doctor had given us back in Ottawa. So all in all, she didn´t get back home until around 5:30. The good news is that she is feeling much better, and just needed a lot of rest. The doctor said she should eat nothing for the rest of the day, but to take it easy, and drink lots of coca tea, which people here drink regularly and apparently helps with the altitude. Tomorrow, she is to eat only soup, but she can go out as long as she doesn't do anything strenuous.

I have no idea how much all this cost, because Cristina's health plan covered everything, no questions asked. On the one hand, I am glad that Peru has such excellent health care services available. Cristina had a private room, and was well cared for by several staff at the clinic. On the other, it is really sad that most Peruvians can't afford most of it, so that these clinics are mostly used by foreigners. I can definitely see the argument that many people in Canada make for private health care - when you are paying directly for the service, there is no waiting, you are served immediately, and treated extremely well, which I can see is desirable in comparison to waiting an hour or two in a clinic in Canada. However, all this just makes me more convinced that these services should be accessible to everyone, and that figuring out how to make that happen should be one of our top priorities.