They Make House Calls Too
It was a dark and stormy night (we’ve always wanted to start a post like that!). The rain was coming down hard, a rare event in Manta, and our power had just gone out. In fact, looking out our 11th story apartment windows, it appeared that the power had gone out in much of the city. We decided to call it a night and started the usual preparations to get ready for bed. The screech from the generator powered intercom startled us around 8:45 PM and the security guard at the entrance to the property engaged us in a fractured dialogue involving our basic Spanglish with the attendant miscommunications. Finally, we came to understand that the physician we had seen twice to treat Enfermo’s bronchitis was at the entrance.
His daughter, Jema, a second-year medical student, came on the line and explained that she and her father were concerned about Enfermo’s health and were making a house call. After we shut our gaping mouths, we invited them up to the apartment and then hurriedly changed out of our sleeping attire and back into street clothes.
The back story is immaterial but through circuitous means the doctor had learned that the nebulizer he had loaned us for inhalation treatments was not working properly and they had come to investigate the possible causes of the problem. Upon deciding that yes, there was a problem with the machine, which of course didn’t work now because the power was out, the doctor and his daughter insisted that we get in their car and go to a pharmacy with power and test it there. So, with Jema driving, we set off into a black night and an entirely different view of Manta. In addition to the nonfunctioning street lights, many of the traffic lights were also unlit and we slipped and slid on wet, slick roads up and down the steep, winding city streets through a crazed checker board of darkness and illumination.
We found an open pharmacy and after turning on the device the doctor was able to ascertain that the compressor could not produce sufficient force to vaporize the medicine. This perplexed Dr. Cedeño, as it was a new machine, but he quickly thought up a solution. Once again, we set off through the rain-speckled, night streets in quest of another nebulizer at his office which was located in the teaching hospital at La Universidad Laica Eloy Alfaro de Manabi where he rounded daily. Upon our arrival at the university campus the doctor ran into his office only to discover that the equipment that he had envisioned loaning to us was no longer there. But, (Aha!) he had one other option, an older model in his office across town at the Clinica Americana where we had first met him.
Setting off on our quest once again, we talked about the improbability of this ever happening in the United States. A physician, with his medical-student daughter, making unsolicited house calls out of concern for the health of a patient. Both of them expressed incredulity at what we described and explained that it was quite common in Ecuador. Part of the physician’s job was to see the patient in the home, as necessary, and here the family would listen to the doctor and also be a part of assisting with patient care.
At last, with a serviceable machine in hand, we arrived safely at our apartment shortly before 11 PM and were deposited at the gates expressing our profuse, totally inadequate thanks for the care, concern and unbelievable efforts just bestowed upon us. Shaking our heads as we mumbled “incredible!” the thought dawned upon us that there had been no discussion of compensation. Only in Ecuador. Only in a land far away from where we once called home.
By Richard and Anita
No Particular Place To Go 
That’s great service! We were pet sitting in North Vancouver and the vet there does house calls!
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So many businesses stress customer care but the medical community seems to feel it isn’t a priority. Isn’t it terrific to be pleasantly surprised by patient care whether it be animal or human? !
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I am very impressed hat a doctor in Ecuador made a house call – how wonderful! I do LOVE how you began your post too 🙂
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We’ve always liked the “dark and stormy night” line so it was fun to be able to use it in a post. And, like anyone who lives in a “First World Country” it’s simply extraordinary for a doctor to stop by out of concern for the patient. There are so many things to love about Ecuador and this is one of them.
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Such an interesting story. Lucky you for crossing paths with such a dedicated doctor.
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We are getting the impression here in Ecuador that a doctor who cares about a patient’s health and welfare is more the rule than the exception. I had a consultation, lab work and a checkup last week and, not once, was I kept waiting over 5 minutes and all of my questions were answered with courtesy. Amazing isn’t it? Anita
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That love of customer service and care on the medical front is truly mind blowing. I hope you send them these posts so they see how unique they are in this day and age.
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We described our health care system to Dr. Cedeño and his daughter, Jema, who is following in her father’s footsteps and they were both incredulous. The thought of a patient coming behind the outstretched hand for an insurance card was difficult for them to understand and they brushed off our effusive thanks. However, we did offer to take them out to their favorite restaurant before we leave and I think they liked that idea!
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Fantastic story. Amazing to think this doctor would do this and spend so much time with you tracking down a working nebulizer. Not sure it would happen in Canada.
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Thanks, Donna. It’s really interesting that we’ve become accustomed to the idea of our doctors as cogs in the healthcare wheel and the basic lack of interaction between doctor and patient no longer seems to be important.
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Don’t think I have ever experienced a house call in any country. Maybe it happened when I was a little kid, but I don;t remember it. Great story.
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House calls are definitely a thing of the past and baby boomers will be the last generation who even remember the practice as well as what the phrase “bedside manner” really refers to!
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How impressive! The doctor sure showed a lot of compassion to stop by and make sure Richard was OK!!
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Your comment about compassion is true and it seems to be so lacking in our previous experiences with medical care in the US. What’s really sad is that we didn’t even know it was missing before now…
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What a fantastic doctor; such compassion to check to make sure Richard was OK! Very impressive!
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The doctor’s visit was totally unsolicited and unexpected and we still are amazed and grateful that we were the recipients of his generosity!
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Incredible – really! Many countries in the so-called civilized world could learn from this! I’ve seen some wealthy doctors in Latin America, but not once a filthy rich doctor (other than beauty surgeons). Comes to show that patient care should be the priority of any good doctor, not his bank account…
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Medical care has grown to be, not about the patient’s health but the patient’s money. Insurance companies direct medical professionals as to what procedures and medications are and aren’t covered and people get shunted aside… We are very impressed with the medical care we’ve received in the “less developed” countries where insurance has not been involved in our treatment!
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Wow! I remember house calls from our family doctor when we kids were felled by the mumps. Wonderful story and I can understand why you were just blown away.
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Richard can remember house calls from his family doctor but I don’t think I ever had the privilege. It makes us very nostalgic and wistful for the old-time courtesy and a caring bedside manner. Dr. Marcus Welby, where are you… ? Anita
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We love Ecuador! We spent over a month there with our two young kids in 2010, as part of our 4 1/2 years of adventure travel. I broke my arm while rappelling down a waterfall in the town on Banos, so I got to experience the Ecuador medical system and was quite impressed! I wrote about it in my book, A Life Without Borders. I am so happy you are out seeing the world!
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So interesting to read about your positive experience with the Ecuadoran medical system. We’re looking forward to our future travels (our list of places to go gets longer, not shorter!) and as long as we can stay healthy and reasonably active, we hope to continue our “lives without borders” indefinitely!
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Can you bring the doctor and his daughter back in your luggage?
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Ha Ha! Our experience in Manta really is amazing when we think about it and recount it to other friends from the US. Kind of sad to think that our health care system has forgotten the “care” factor!
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Incredible! Don’t you just love the health care system in Central and South America? They are truly people centered and caring people. I just love a happy ending. A great story!
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The whole evening left us laughing and shaking our heads because it’s a 360 degree turn-around from what health care has evolved to in the US where the patient is reduced to a 10 minute slot in the assembly line called health care and providers are overwhelmed and overworked.
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Love your blog – hope Enfermo is feeling much beter.
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Thanks for the follow and for your good wishes! Enfermo is almost 100% recovered and we’re having a terrific time exploring the area in and around Manta. Good luck with your preparations for your own travels!
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Lovely story of a generous and kind doctor in a gentle society. (I also recall visits from good ol’ Dr. Alderson,carrying his big, black bag into our home….often well past dinner time.)
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The world has certainly moved on since our childhood, Denise; much for the better. However, some of the human touch and contact has been lost in the transition and therein lies the rub. Dick
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This story sounds like a fairy tale from a Disney movie. Another incredible and memorable experience in a far awayland.
Keep well
Maida
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Sometimes we have a feeling of stepping backwards in time (like seeing the huge clunky boom boxes sold at a Radio Shack store in Granada, Nicaragua or a spit sink at the dentist’s office). A house call from a doctor was definitely a courtesy from small town “Americana” and the distant past when there was a doctor-patient relationship.
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Thanks again for continuing to take us on your incredibly interesting journeys! I look forward to receiving all of them.
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So glad you’re enjoying our travels and finding them interesting. There’s a great travel quote we like: “People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home.” – Dagobert D. Runes. It seems that kind of sums up some of our journey!
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Great post as always. Can’t imagin that happenining in the US. Enjoy Ecuador.
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Not anymore. US healthcare has become a business run, not in the interest of people it purportedly serves but as a means to make more money for the big insurance and pharmaceutical companies with patients and healthcare professionals at their mercy. Forgive us for our cynicism…
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Great story, guys! I am taking the incredibly intense TEFL in Léon…Piles of work…really great people! My back went out on the ride here, I think I pulled a muscle on my right side trying to get up safely….and pretty sure I have head lice…but ignoring that, as I don’t have time for any of this!
Joyce
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Joyce-ey! OMG did we laugh at your comment because we could picture you as you wrote it! You have our sympathy/empathy on the TEFL course because our own experience of taking the month long CELTA certification course in Playa del Carmen, MX, was a cross between Boot Camp and Hell week. Probably the only reason we didn’t quit the 2nd and 3rd week was because it would have been too humiliating to write our friends/family and explain our failure… Miss you! N & D
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