When I woke up this morning, I didn’t think that the day would go in the way that it did. To preface, as I took my shower the night before, I noticed an array of colors of mold on the ceiling of my bathroom. I know that mold is toxic, but I figured that I could wait a couple days until we left KUCC. However, I woke up in the morning feeling weird, and ultimately decided that the best idea for me was to get checked out at the KU clinic, which we had previously visited. After informing the KUCC staff of the mold, they decided they would change my room once I returned from the clinic (which I hoped had better wifi (edit: it does, and the room is larger with no visible mold!)
Dr. Breitwieser (we call her Dr. B) and I made our way to the clinic after breakfast, and I was seen fairly immediately. The clinician decided that ultimately it would be a good decision for me to get more scans and testing, which they were not able to do. Therefore, they referred me to Aga Kahn University Hospital, which is a top Nairobi hospital. An ambulance came to transport us, and we took off with the siren blaring. As opposed to ambulances in the United States, which are basically mobile hospitals, this vehicle was equipped with only basic medical equipment and seemed to be more for transportation than anything else. I wasn’t able to see, since I was laying on a gurney, but Dr. B informed me that for some of the ride, we were driving on the wrong side of the road (into oncoming traffic), and we were both being tossed around the back as our driver weaves through the hectic streets.
Aga Khan University Hospital was a fairly fancy hospital and was pretty similar to hospitals in the USA— a place for waiting. The lights occasionally flickered, but they seemed to have good power most of the time. After waiting for about three hours, the medical staff took me back for a CT scan. The scan was extremely quick, and they got me back to the room in no time. Dr. B, trying to curb my boredom, talked to me about her research: fetal development and ethical concerns when faced with women declared brain-dead while pregnant, which I found incredibly interesting.
As I waited (2 more hours), Dr. B decided to go try to finish giving my insurance information, but she was told that this hospital actually doesn’t take that insurance anymore. I kind of freaked out after that and tried everything I possibly could to get my visit somewhat covered, which unfortunately failed. When we asked if they could give us an estimate of how much it would cost, they said no, and that it would only show up after I was discharged.
After more waiting in triage, the doctor came back into my room and asked if I had gotten my scan yet. I told him I had, two hours prior. He informed me that when he spoke to radiology, they had not received my scan. I spent about another hour just waiting for the doctor to find my results. He eventually informed us that the system had glitched, and that it showed that I had gotten the scan, but the results weren’t showing. The decision was made to discharge me since I was in a stable condition, and they would call with my results in the morning when the physician came back on for his rotation.
Now, I won’t get into the hassle of paying for the services, but it was still extremely low out of pocket compared to USA prices. It came out to around 44,000 Kenyan shillings, which was around $285 USD. In the USA, to get the care I got while at Aga Kahn (an ER visit, an EKG, and a CT scan), it would have been more like $4,000 out of pocket, and that may have even been with insurance! I was lucky to get seen at this hospital, even if it was infuriating. Apparently, this hospital has shorter waiting times and better care than the other public hospitals in Nairobi. We were told if we had gone elsewhere, we may have waited two days to be seen.
With only small amounts of charge on our phones left, we caught a Bolt taxi (similar to Uber) back to KUCC, and joined the rest of the group for dinner. The KUCC staff helped me move my stuff from my prior room to my new room to avoid the mold, and it was nice to be able to relax after a long exhausting day.
A special thank you to Anne Muthoni (staff in Chemistry) and Mildred, who helped us navigate the Kenyan healthcare system and get us to and from the hospital!