What I learned from being in a coma for 10 days in the the hospital with covid

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Drperson

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Sep 19, 2008
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If that link is supposed to hint which hospital this was, I'm very confused...

We have had 4 people as patients there and none of them have any bad to say about the place... Last June, our 4 yo son was surgically operated there and again, I would go back there any time...

I'm was terrified after reading your story and I certainly don't doubt any of that but it just left me very confused...

Also the care from the nurses was top notch... We have absolutely nothing negative to say about HOMS; and we've been going there for the last 9 years... My father-in-law, my sister-in-law and as the latest, our small son spent there a few days due to the surgical operation...

If what you say above is correct, I'm very very sorry to hear about that, as our experiences of HOMS are 100 % contrary to that...

EDIT: My wife and my father-in-law ONLY go to HOMS for any checkups and anything else at all... My wife used to go to Centro Medico Bournigal in POP but goes to HOMS for years now...
I am sory for the confusion. I went to another hospital . For me I would want to go to Homs Hospital in Santiago as I hear it is very good.
https://homs.com.do/
 
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PICHARDO

One Dominican at a time, please!
May 15, 2003
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Great to know you’re on the mend and out of danger.
An ordeal nevertheless!
As far as billing at medical facilities and insurance goes, they would bill the max on each approved procedure or items provider. They only offer discounted rates on cash/self pay patients.
This is true for here and pretty much elsewhere medical insurance is non-gov provided and regulated.

Why bill less when they can bill top cap?

HOMS is by far a very top grade hospital, expensive as well.
Nurses are not professionals like in most other developed medical systems.
They have a long ways to go before being called RNs here.
More like home attendants if you will match skill levels or nurse assistants.

Your lungs will need a good time for healing.
Avoid secondhand smoke all the times possible.

Best wishes on your recovery road!
 

CristoRey

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When I had Covid/ Influenza at the beginning of Feb back in 2020, I had trouble breathing and was very weak so I went to my local pharmacy. A few 750mg Paracetamol and a hot bowl of chicken noodle soup later....

300,000 pesos?
A coma?
10 days?
WTF?
Sounds to me like they took you to the cleaners and you should thank god you didn't die as a result.
 
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aarhus

Long live King Frederik X
Jun 10, 2008
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When I had Covid/ Influenza at the beginning of Feb back in 2020, I had trouble breathing and was very weak so I went to my local pharmacy. A few 750mg Paracetamol and a hot bowl of chicken noodle soup later....

300,000 pesos?
A coma?
10 days?
WTF?
Sounds to me like they took you to the cleaners and you should thank god you didn't die as a result.
I don’t think you can assume that. Everybody is different and reacts differently. To any illness.
 

Drperson

Well-known member
Sep 19, 2008
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Great to know you’re on the mend and out of danger.
An ordeal nevertheless!
As far as billing at medical facilities and insurance goes, they would bill the max on each approved procedure or items provider. They only offer discounted rates on cash/self pay patients.
This is true for here and pretty much elsewhere medical insurance is non-gov provided and regulated.

Why bill less when they can bill top cap?

HOMS is by far a very top grade hospital, expensive as well.
Nurses are not professionals like in most other developed medical systems.
They have a long ways to go before being called RNs here.
More like home attendants if you will match skill levels or nurse assistants.

Your lungs will need a good time for healing.
Avoid secondhand smoke all the times possible.

Best wishes on your recovery road!
the funny thing was that I had copd before and it cleared up afterwards too as I quit smoking
I would be afraid to go into the hospital with a credit card. At least with the health insurance they are somewhat regulated and audited. What are you going to do if they overbill you on your credit card? Sue them? We hears that they kept a dead peson in the hospital for a month or just to get the billing. Can't say for sure if its true , however ....
 

caribmike

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Jul 9, 2009
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I am sory for the confusion. I went to another hospital . For me I would want to go to Homs Hospital in Santiago as I hear it is very good.
https://homs.com.do/
https://homs.com.do/ HOMS is the best you can get here. They saved our little one's life two months ago. One night in emergency, 3 days in ICU and a week in a private room. We paid only 17000 DOP. Our insurance is private with MAPFRE (formerly ARS PALIC).
 

josh2203

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Dec 5, 2013
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It's true I had surgery a few months ago at Central Medical Bournigal in Puerto Plata. Very clean there. My wife slept in my room.
The difference is that in Sanitago I was in intensive care. They wouldn't let her take her celllular as god forbid she might take a photo.

My sister in law's mother is in the same hospital in Santiago in intensive care . It has been 2 weeks for her daughter sleeping on Guantánamo Bay plastic chairs.
Thank you for clarifying this as well, yes, intensive care might be different... Sorry for any misunderstanding on my part...
 
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Tom0910

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Sep 28, 2015
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I went to HOMS for an MRI and will NEVER go back to that place. Dirty,overcrowded,nobody has a clue outside of the doctors. The guy running the only MRI machine was an absolute clown. They also screwed me out of 17,000 pesos.

I contracted Covid19 in Sosua. I tested positive at the testing facility in the Orange Plaza no surprise as I was sick as a dog.I took ivermectin and azithromycin at the suggestion of a well respected pharmacist. Two days after taking the Ivermectin cocktail I was on death's door and went to the testing lab at the airport thinking if they can give you a result in 15 minutes then maybe it is the least accurate of the tests and maybe,just maybe I would get a negative test and be able to fly back to the states,it was a total shot in the dark but I was desperate.
When I got to the POP airport it was empty I had been tested at the lab there before for a flight in August so I walked back there and they were getting ready to leave but they said that they would test me. Simple procedure,give the girl behind the desk your passport and 2000 pesos and wait for the girl to call you to get the swab then wait about 15 minutes for the result,they don't verbalize the result,they just put the paper in an envelope and call your name and you leave. I was swabbed and when the paper was printed the girl bahind the desk looked at it and her eyes got huge,I knew I was screwed. When I got up to get the envelope she gave me the Dominican stop sign with her hand and said to wait,strange. The swab girl came out front and they exchanged a few words but my spanish comprehensiopn isn't good enough to keep up. I waited 15 minutes longer the printer spit out another paper which the girl put in an envelope and handed it to me and told me to have a nice day. As soon as I got outside I opened the envelope and I was negative,how wonderfully corrupt.
I booked a flight the next day out of STI - BOS the next day,how I was able to get myself through that is beyond me. When I landed in BOS I took an Uber directly to my local hospital in Connecticut. By the time I got to the hospital I was too weak to walk,they came and pulled me out of the car put me in a wheelchair and into the hospital. I had x-rays, CT scan and blood work and given multiple bags of fluids via IV.
The doctor said if I had waited one more day to go to the hospital that he wasn't sure if I would have survived due to the fact that I had a very serious case of covid pneumonia. Those nurses in the hospital knew exactly what to do and never skipped a beat and saved my life. In retrospect the girl at the airport that pulled a negative test out of her culo was the first to save my life because without it I would not have been able to get on a plane.
I have no doubt there is no hospital in the DR that would have done the things that the ER in the U.S. did,no doubt in my mind. I first felt sick on September 13th,my first positive test was September 16th. At this time I still am coughing,have no sense of taste or smell and have headaches every day in addition to being very weak but I'm alive thanks to a real world hospital with real world nurses and doctors.
I have been spending winters in Sosua for ten years and lived there full time for three. As soon as I am healthy enough I will return to Sosua and sell all my belongings and move to Florida. I am heartbroken because I have so many friends in Sosua and love it there but I am 64 years old and my health comes first and know that I can not get the care that I need there.
My opinion on the Ivermectin is this and it is only my opinion. I have two other friends in Sosua that contracted covid and took the cocktail and recovered quickly,I took it and damn near died. The facts are that 90+% of people recover quickly without any therapeutics so how in the heck do we know if people that take the horse pills recovered quickly due to taking that stuff or just recovered quickly in spite of taking it??
 
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Drperson

Well-known member
Sep 19, 2008
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I went to HOMS for an MRI and will NEVER go back to that place. Dirty,overcrowded,nobody has a clue outside of the doctors. The guy running the only MRI machine was an absolute clown. They also screwed me out of 17,000 pesos.

I contracted Covid19 in Sosua. I tested positive at the testing facility in the Orange Plaza no surprise as I was sick as a dog.I took ivermectin and azithromycin at the suggestion of a well respected pharmacist. Two days after taking the Ivermectin cocktail I was on death's door and went to the testing lab at the airport thinking if they can give you a result in 15 minutes then maybe it is the least accurate of the tests and maybe,just maybe I would get a negative test and be able to fly back to the states,it was a total shot in the dark but I was desperate.
When I got to the POP airport it was empty I had been tested at the lab there before for a flight in August so I walked back there and they were getting ready to leave but they said that they would test me. Simple procedure,give the girl behind the desk your passport and 2000 pesos and wait for the girl to call you to get the swab then wait about 15 minutes for the result,they don't verbalize the result,they just put the paper in an envelope and call your name and you leave. I was swabbed and when the paper was printed the girl bahind the desk looked at it and her eyes got huge,I knew I was screwed. When I got up to get the envelope she gave me the Dominican stop sign with her hand and said to wait,strange. The swab girl came out front and they exchanged a few words but my spanish comprehensiopn isn't good enough to keep up. I waited 15 minutes longer the printer spit out another paper which the girl put in an envelope and handed it to me and told me to have a nice day. As soon as I got outside I opened the envelope and I was negative,how wonderfully corrupt.
I booked a flight the next day out of STI - BOS the next day,how I was able to get myself through that is beyond me. When I landed in BOS I took an Uber directly to my local hospital in Connecticut. By the time I got to the hospital I was too weak to walk,they came and pulled me out of the car put me in a wheelchair and into the hospital. I had x-rays, CT scan and blood work and given multiple bags of fluids via IV.
The doctor said if I had waited one more day to go to the hospital that he wasn't sure if I would have survived due to the fact that I had a very serious case of covid pneumonia. Those nurses in the hospital knew exactly what to do and never skipped a beat and saved my life. In retrospect the girl at the airport that pulled a negative test out of her culo was the first to save my life because without it I would not have been able to get on a plane.
I have no doubt there is no hospital in the DR that would have done the things that the ER in the U.S. did,no doubt in my mind. I first felt sick on September 13th,my first positive test was September 16th. At this time I still am coughing,have no sense of taste or smell and have headaches every day in addition to being very weak but I'm alive thanks to a real world hospital with real world nurses and doctors.
I have been spending winters in Sosua for ten years and lived there full time for three. As soon as I am healthy enough I will return to Sosua and sell all my belongings and move to Florida. I am heartbroken because I have so many friends in Sosua and love it there but I am 64 years old and my health comes first and know that I can not get the care that I need there.
My opinion on the Ivermectin is this and it is only my opinion. I have two other friends in Sosua that contracted covid and took the cocktail and recovered quickly,I took it and damn near died. The facts are that 90+% of people recover quickly without any therapeutics so how in the heck do we know if people that take the horse pills recovered quickly due to taking that stuff or just recovered quickly in spite of taking it??
wow what a story especially about the swab girl . I had the covid pneumonia too.
Interesting about your experience at HOMS. I've never been there. I look at hospitals for their cleanliness. Central Medical Bournigal in Puerto Plata is spotless.. Can't say the same for the others. I figure if they can clean the place well they can probably run it well too.
 

drstock

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Oct 29, 2010
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My opinion on the Ivermectin is this and it is only my opinion. I have two other friends in Sosua that contracted covid and took the cocktail and recovered quickly,I took it and damn near died. The facts are that 90+% of people recover quickly without any therapeutics so how in the heck do we know if people that take the horse pills recovered quickly due to taking that stuff or just recovered quickly in spite of taking it??
Well, the DR1 amateur pharmacists seem to know. Personally I would prefer to believe the real, qualified specialists who say there is little evidence that the horse pills work for Covid and can be dangerous.

Anyway, I'm sorry to hear about your experience at HOMS. My only experience at Bournegal in Puerto Plata was much better.
 

bob saunders

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Jan 1, 2002
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dr1.com
I went to HOMS for an MRI and will NEVER go back to that place. Dirty,overcrowded,nobody has a clue outside of the doctors. The guy running the only MRI machine was an absolute clown. They also screwed me out of 17,000 pesos.

I contracted Covid19 in Sosua. I tested positive at the testing facility in the Orange Plaza no surprise as I was sick as a dog.I took ivermectin and azithromycin at the suggestion of a well respected pharmacist. Two days after taking the Ivermectin cocktail I was on death's door and went to the testing lab at the airport thinking if they can give you a result in 15 minutes then maybe it is the least accurate of the tests and maybe,just maybe I would get a negative test and be able to fly back to the states,it was a total shot in the dark but I was desperate.
When I got to the POP airport it was empty I had been tested at the lab there before for a flight in August so I walked back there and they were getting ready to leave but they said that they would test me. Simple procedure,give the girl behind the desk your passport and 2000 pesos and wait for the girl to call you to get the swab then wait about 15 minutes for the result,they don't verbalize the result,they just put the paper in an envelope and call your name and you leave. I was swabbed and when the paper was printed the girl bahind the desk looked at it and her eyes got huge,I knew I was screwed. When I got up to get the envelope she gave me the Dominican stop sign with her hand and said to wait,strange. The swab girl came out front and they exchanged a few words but my spanish comprehensiopn isn't good enough to keep up. I waited 15 minutes longer the printer spit out another paper which the girl put in an envelope and handed it to me and told me to have a nice day. As soon as I got outside I opened the envelope and I was negative,how wonderfully corrupt.
I booked a flight the next day out of STI - BOS the next day,how I was able to get myself through that is beyond me. When I landed in BOS I took an Uber directly to my local hospital in Connecticut. By the time I got to the hospital I was too weak to walk,they came and pulled me out of the car put me in a wheelchair and into the hospital. I had x-rays, CT scan and blood work and given multiple bags of fluids via IV.
The doctor said if I had waited one more day to go to the hospital that he wasn't sure if I would have survived due to the fact that I had a very serious case of covid pneumonia. Those nurses in the hospital knew exactly what to do and never skipped a beat and saved my life. In retrospect the girl at the airport that pulled a negative test out of her culo was the first to save my life because without it I would not have been able to get on a plane.
I have no doubt there is no hospital in the DR that would have done the things that the ER in the U.S. did,no doubt in my mind. I first felt sick on September 13th,my first positive test was September 16th. At this time I still am coughing,have no sense of taste or smell and have headaches every day in addition to being very weak but I'm alive thanks to a real world hospital with real world nurses and doctors.
I have been spending winters in Sosua for ten years and lived there full time for three. As soon as I am healthy enough I will return to Sosua and sell all my belongings and move to Florida. I am heartbroken because I have so many friends in Sosua and love it there but I am 64 years old and my health comes first and know that I can not get the care that I need there.
My opinion on the Ivermectin is this and it is only my opinion. I have two other friends in Sosua that contracted covid and took the cocktail and recovered quickly,I took it and damn near died. The facts are that 90+% of people recover quickly without any therapeutics so how in the heck do we know if people that take the horse pills recovered quickly due to taking that stuff or just recovered quickly in spite of taking it??
First of all invermectin is not a horse pill, and second probably you were too infected by the time you went for medical help. The DR has about a quarter of deaths per 100,000 in comparison to the USA so good chance they are doing a lot of things medically correct in regards to covid. A friend of mine here in Jarabacoa , a 60 year old Dominican just rwcovered from Covid and he was given an antiviral medicine that cost 27,000 pesos, around 500 dollars. 3 days in the clinic and then home for recovery.
 
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bob saunders

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Well, the DR1 amateur pharmacists seem to know. Personally I would prefer to believe the real, qualified specialists who say there is little evidence that the horse pills work for Covid and can be dangerous.

Anyway, I'm sorry to hear about your experience at HOMS. My only experience at Bournegal in Puerto Plata was much better.
Not a horse pill and several long term studies in India have proven its worth.
 

JD Jones

Moderator:North Coast,Santo Domingo,SW Coast,Covid
Jan 7, 2016
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For what it's worth, I have been hospitalized in Clinica Abreu on many occasions.
Each time when I was discharged they would give me an itemized list of everything they used.
Things like syringes for 45 pesos, IV drip tubes ran about 30 pesos etc, etc. You get the idea.
They itemize EVERYTHING but hardly anything passed a hundred pesos or so.
I've had the same experience with my few times in CEDIMAT

I have a hard time believing they could charge so much.
 

Drperson

Well-known member
Sep 19, 2008
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For what it's worth, I have been hospitalized in Clinica Abreu on many occasions.
Each time when I was discharged they would give me an itemized list of everything they used.
Things like syringes for 45 pesos, IV drip tubes ran about 30 pesos etc, etc. You get the idea.
They itemize EVERYTHING but hardly anything passed a hundred pesos or so.
I've had the same experience with my few times in CEDIMAT

I have a hard time believing they could charge so much.
Your experience was very much different than mine.
 

CristoRey

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Apr 1, 2014
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Your experience was very much different than mine.
Since you have been very open with us about your situation, did you or do you have any comorbidities prior to your 10 day coma?
Highblood pressure?
Diabetes?
Over weight?
Chain smoker?
Alcoholism?
Drug abuse?
 

lifeisgreat

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May 7, 2016
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lifeisgreat

Enjoying Life
May 7, 2016
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For what it's worth, I have been hospitalized in Clinica Abreu on many occasions.
Each time when I was discharged they would give me an itemized list of everything they used.
Things like syringes for 45 pesos, IV drip tubes ran about 30 pesos etc, etc. You get the idea.
They itemize EVERYTHING but hardly anything passed a hundred pesos or so.
I've had the same experience with my few times in CEDIMAT

I have a hard time believing they could charge so much.
CMC does the same to my Canadian insurance rapes them, but they have comfy white leather couches in room to take the shock out.. usually takes my insurance 6 months to pay them and send me itemized bills for records and they proudly say we negotiated a 25% discount at bottom..
 
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