Hospitals Part 3 (or is it 4...)

Recently, a friend was walking his dogs on open ground after dark when he was bitten in the foot by a snake. He managed to contact his wife who picked him up in their car and rushed him to Bangkok Pattaya Hospital. A blood sample was quickly taken and he was told the results would be ready in 30mins. Although my friend was not experiencing any obvious symptoms of having been bitten by a poisonous snake, no headaches, no vomiting, no bleeding where he was bitten, the hospital staff were insisting that he check in to a room. As my friend explained it, the only discomfort he was experiencing was pain caused by the excessive swelling in his foot. He was prepared to wait in Emergency for the results of the blood test before deciding on the need for an overnight stay in hospital. The closer it got to the 30mins deadline the more insistent the hospital staff got that he should take a room. Comments to the effect that he could have an heart attack or the poison could eat away the flesh on his foot was clearly upsetting my friends family so more for their benefit he relented and agreed to take a room. He was initially quoted a room rate in excess of 20,000baht per day but settled for a room rate of 4,000 Baht per day.

I could fill the blog with what happened next but I am going to give you the key points and leave you to decide if we are getting a fair shake when dealing with hospitals in the Pattaya area. The points are:

• My friend was told that the blood test results showed he had an excess white blood cells so they would have to put him on a course of plasma?
• He was given 9 bags of plasma, slowly administered so he kept having to extend his stay in the hospital for another day
• He was given a course of anti-venom priced @ 1,500 Baht a shot for 5 shots
• As he checked out of the hospital after 3 days a doctor advised him that the snake bite hadn't been poisonous.
• His hospital bill was over 50,000 Baht in total

When he got home my friend went on the Internet and found out that an increase in white blood cells is the body's natural reaction to an infection. He also found out that anti-venom can cause as many problems as it cures.

I know I'm stating the bleeding obvious but it's clearly a money before ethics attitude which is hard to stomach when you consider the victims are the sick and needy. Blood suckers by practice, blood suckers by nature should be their motto.

Sierra Tangos

• Saigon Women opens Oct 5 in Soi 6, (next to King Kong)

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We have now made our move to the Soi L.K. Metro area and would like to invite everyone to stop by and as always Secrets members get a 10% discount at Bob's. What's new at Bob's well we have more outdoor seating which is nice for people watching, we have a new menu with some new items and some reduced prices. We are still short on staff so please bear with us in the beginning but we will do our best to make your eating experience as good as we can. And if you have a problem please let me know, this is the only way I can improve things. We are open from about 9:30 am to 12:00 am Midnight seven days a week.

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  In your Firefox browser, select Tools>Options>Security and set a master password. Just don't forget it. You will be asked for the password every time you start Firefox but it's worth this minor inconvenience to protect your passwords

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