Getting Sick in a Strange Place

One factor to consider in getting away is choice of destination, obviously. But there are a macro-choice, as it were, and a micro-choice.

We were in Florida a couple of weeks ago. Friends have a house there and invited us for the weekend. We had tickets for the Tampa Rays-Angels game. And sorry, I cannot use a geographic noun in reference to the Angels. When the franchise opened in 1962, they were called the Los Angeles Angels. They moved, ownership changed hands, and they became the California then Anaheim Angels. In order for the team to obtain a new ballpark and rip off Anaheim’s taxpayers in the process, the team agreed "Anaheim" always would be in the team name. People in marketing said "Los Angeles" would be more easily marketed. As a result the team now is called "The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim" or some such crap.

The game was well-pitched, but I had arrived at the ball park with an horrendous headache. By the eighth inning, I told everyone we had to leave. I was that sick. I ended up in an ER.

The ER was in the hospital of a really wealthy suburb of Sarasota-Bradenton. There were no signs on the highway to indicate travelers who were in the midst of an emergency could follow the blue "H" and soon arrive at a place for medical treatment. The facility was top-notch. I would have to say it was about the best hospital in which I ever have been. The facility was nice AND the personnel were knowledgeable and not condescending. The place was nice, but not as ostentatious as the yachts and Ferraris of the people in the community around it. Staff members were efficient, but not hurried, like, say, the staff of Wishard was at that moment on a Saturday evening. I was diagnosed with pneumonia, given drugs, and sent on my way.

My point is that, is you might get sick someplace strange, choose accommodations in a place next to a reallyReallyREALLY rich suburb. Scope out the community so you know where the hospital is located. You will be hard-pressed to find signs. If you get sick, the ER has to treat you. That is the law.

This is the state of our health care system today. The people in that community receive the type of care that should be standard everyplace in this country.