Costa Rica Medical- George Continues To Sacrifice His Body To Help You!

Thursday as I was riding down a steep, very rocky, road in Barbacoas; a dog ran right in front of my motorcycle. Instinctively, I hit both the front and back brakes. The bike weighs over 600 pounds, I weigh 215 pounds and there is only about 4 square inches of contact to the loose, sharp rocks.

The next thing I remember is sliding on my right side and feeling the rocks tearing flesh off of my leg and arm. I was screaming very bad words at the damn dog and wishing I could stop the sliding.

I finally stopped after about 10 feet with the 600 pound bike pinning my right leg under it. Some neighbors, one of whom owned the damn dog, ran to help me. They lifted the bike off me and I got up to cuss some more and look at all of the bleeding cuts full of dirt and small pieces of rock. It was not pretty and hurt a lot.

They said I should go to the SS Clinic here in Barbacoas. I was not aware we even had one because Barbacoas is so small. Anyway, one of the neighbors volunteered to take me the + mile to town and the Clinic.

I walked in, showed my health insuarnce card and was immediately led into the first aid room. A very nice nurse helped me get my shirt off and started to clean the wounds. The Doctor came in before I even got the shirt off and helped with the cleaning. She put on some antibacterial spray, pain killing solution and injected some shots of local anesthetic.

She was very skillful and I hardly felt the needle. They both worked for a while cleaning the wounds and then the Doctor told me I needed some stitches on the arm. We agreed she would practice her English and I could practice my Spanish as she sewed me back together. I never felt any of the stitches.

They put on antibacterial cream, bandaged the arm and leg, prescribed some painkillers and antibacterial cream and suggested I return the following day for further cleaning and to check the progress of the healing.

The neighbor with the car took me home, left and got the prescriptions filled and later returned my motorcycle to our house.

Friday morning one of our new friends here in Santiago volunteered to take me back to the Clinic and he took photos of the Doctor and Nurse working on me.

Of course, there were no out of pocket expenses for the medical services and medications because I have the SS Insurance which costs me US$23 per month

What a country!

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Written by our friend George Lundquist, who is the founder of Costa Rica Retire on Social Security. If you are thinking of retiring in Costa Rica, you might want to consider the tour that George offers, his goal is to share his experiences here with you to save you time and money!