Costa Rica Emergency Medical – Fast & Inexpensive

In my never-ending search to give you first hand experience about living in Costa Rica, I fell off a small cliff last Monday night at a small hotel near Santa Ana.

It was about 5 feet down to a sloping garden full of rocks and stakes. It was totally dark so I could not even brace for the landing. I landed on my right hand and knee and slid down a little before I stopped.

I shouted a lot of obscenities so anyone around would know I had a problem, but no one could hear me. I stood up and knew I had hurt myself quite badly.

I walked to the office and my guests, driver, and the hotel manager helped me wash the wounds and put ice on them to help keep the swelling down. After examining the damage we concluded I should get real medical treatment.

We went to the Red Cross station in Santa Ana. Four very friendly competent first aid people immediately started cleaning the wounds, took my blood pressure twice, took a blood sugar test, and dressed the wounds.

My middle finger on my right hand was bent sideways as if it was broken or dislocated, so they recommended I go to one of the social security hospitals or to one of the private hospitals for X rays.

I knew the service at the social security hospital would be free since I have my card, but I thought I would get faster service at one of the private hospitals AND I would be able to write this article so you would know how fast and inexpensive emergency treatment is at one of them. There was NO charge for the Red Cross treatment.

I arrived at Hospital CIMA just outside San Jose at about 9 PM. There was one person signing in at the Emergency admissions desk. It took about 5 minutes and then it was my turn. I had my Driver’s License and they got my name, address, and phone number. There were no questions of how I would pay.

I then went straight to an examining bed, where the Doctor and two nurses listened to my sad tale of woe, examined the wounds and asked me to go to X Ray with one of the nurses. I walked in and immediately the technician sat me down and positioned my hand for the two X Rays.

The nurse walked me back to the Emergency bed and I waited about 10 minutes for the Dr to return with the X Rays. The good news was, there were no broken bones or torn ligaments. He directed the Nurses on how to super clean the wounds and brace the finger.

They put a US made rubbery type of waterproof dressing called DuoDerm over the wounds. This is a product guaranteed sterile and stays flexible and waterproof so it keeps the wounds sterile. He prescribed a pain killer and antibiotic, gave me his card which includes his office, home, and cell phone numbers, and told me to call him day or night if I had any problems at all.

He asked me to return in 5 days to see how I am doing. All of this was in perfect English and in a very sincere manner.

The nurses finished with the dressings and brace and asked me to wait for the prescriptions. It took about 15 minutes for the prescriptions and I went to pay the bill.

• Dr. cost 32,000 Colones
• X Ray cost 12,096 Colones
• Dressing cost 25,558 Colones
• Equipment cost 1,350 Colones
• Emergency Room 8,810 Colones
• Finger brace 3,307 Colones
• Total cost 83,122
• In US Dollars? US$213

The total time from entry into Emergency Room to exit was one hour.

I met a British gentleman on Friday who was vacationing here with his wife and aunt. The aunt is 80+ years old and fell and broke her hipbone. His wife is an Registered Nurse in England and very picky about Medical services.

He stated they were both very impressed with the quality of the treatment the aunt received. He said they implanted the latest US technology hip replacement where the bone actually grows into the replacement.

He complemented all of the Doctors and Nurses and stated the cost was very reasonable. The care was way superior to the UK.

What a country!

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!

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.