Going to the hospital in the 50's in 2015!

The process of getting a work permit in Vietnam is hell. Depending on how much support you have from you company or school determines that level of hell. On a Hell scale of 1 – 10 (10 being the worst), it was a 12. I won’t go into detail about the process except for the very end…the Vietnamese Health Check. I just finished and the sites, sounds and experience is still fresh and needs to be told.

I was told it was necessary to go to a government run hospital, which is a place few foreigners ever see. I was very lucky to have a Vietnamese friend escort me every step of the way. It would have been frightening otherwise.

As we entered the building I felt as if I stepped into 1950. It was old with dated equipment and sent a chill up my spine. My friend told me this one was good compared to others. Across the street where they keep patients overnight or longer looked like a scene out of a horror movie. The process and logistics seemed bizarre, inefficient and chaotic. I had absolutely everything done (blood, urine, x-ray, teeth check, skin, eyes and some things I am sure I forgot) We would sit down, stand up, asked to sit down again, stand up and never really understood what was happening next. Every step required a different office, a different doctor, different stamps, etc. etc. The x-ray equipment, instruments and really everything was a time capsule and being used on ME.

The highlight and lowlight was getting blood work and urine sample. As I was getting my blood drawn I was handed the most ridiculous flimsy little plastic cup and asked to put urine in it. I am sure they did not want me to do it in front of everyone, but you must understand little English is spoken here. I went into the bathroom and still had blood leaking out of my arm as I attempted to pee into this Dixie cup. My return was a fashion catwalk with my urine sample in front of everyone as I presented the prize. I already was an oddity at this place so every step, every detail was being analyzed by staff and patients.

Once again, we were asked to sit down in a different place, stand up, sit down and then move to another group of chairs and repeat the process. I was thinking it was some kind of Vietnamese Communist hospital aerobics. I never questioned anything. I was in a foreign world and did not want to delay the process.

Having my friend made it all better, like having your mom there when you are a child….comforting. I was also very, very lucky because my friend knew a nurse that moved us through this process quickly ahead of everyone else. I felt a little guilty for two seconds, but really wanted it finished. Most Vietnamese going to the hospital is an all day affair. You must deal with tons of paperwork, lots of waiting with very little comfort. This is one time I am very glad to be a foreigner and have connections.

Oh, the things we do to be legal. It makes you start to wonder why.