Hospitals in Leipzig
Thursday, July 10, 2008
One of the participants needed to go to the emergency room on Tuesday night for a twisted ankle, so she and I went off by taxi at 9:30 p.m.. Much of the emergency room was what you would expect in the United States -- the brightly lit entrance with signs (including English) and the same reception and waiting room. There were also the usual patients -- the twisted ankles, someone with breathing difficulties taking oxygen delivered by ambulance, and someone covered in blood from a fight. (The police came soon after to take his testimony.) And just as in the U.S., our wait for the relatively minor procedure/x-rays was several hours. We were home around 1 or so.
The building is three floors high, and it is one of 20 or so buildings in the hospital complex. On the top of the building there is a heliport, which buzzed with activity during the 4 hours or so that I wandered about while waiting for the participant. Three times the helicopter landed and took off -- and each time the sound was deafening as it bounced back off of all of the concrete buildings. As the engines turned off, the helicopter seemed silent, but the amplified sound continued to reverberate from the surroundings.
There were a few differences that I found interesting. First, the smaller ambulances were electric vehicles that were plugged in when in the garage. Second, there was a smoking pavilion outside for the staff/doctors to smoke in during their breaks. But the best part of all was that the phone at the reception desk rang throughout the night with a Bach ringtone!
Faculty: Drs. Hilde Binford and Diane Husic /
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