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Maribor, Slovenia.
Portoroz, Slovenia.
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Maribor Hospital: Like chaos physics, but without the physics.
My daughter recently had a tonsillectomy requiring her to stay overnight at Maribor’s hospital. Although I’m generally a fan of Slovenia’s healthcare system, the evening turned out to be a lousy and traumatic and changed my outlook significantly.
People here love bitching about the hospitals, but I have to say that the doctors I’ve encountered so far have been universally smart, competent and fantastic at what they do. The problems, as far as I can tell, are on an organizational level. Basically, there is no organization. It’s chaos. And it starts right from the beginning: To see a specialist, you first have to go to your physician, who will give you a paper authorizing you to get examined. Securing an appointment can take weeks, or even months, if you’re unlucky. And you can count on spending most of your appointment day in the waiting room.
If you want to see the worst place in Slovenia, go check out KrÅ¡ko a Slovenian hospital waiting room. To which I should add: I don’t mind waiting. In fact, I love waiting. I always have something to read. What I don’t like is being damned, and that’s what you are there. The way the system works is like this: You and a thousand people show up in the morning. You try to find the right door among hundreds of identical doors. Then you take out your almighty zdravstvena kartica (health card) and wait for the nurse to emerge. This is always the worst part because the nurses appear briefly and rarely, and the sooner they get your card the faster you get in. So, of course, a thousand people want to get their card in quickly. And so you stand in front of the door, sometimes for up to an hour, you learn to appreciate the notion of Hitchcockian suspense. You and everyone else know the door is going to burst open at any minute, but you don’t know when.
At any rate: back to my daughter’s overnight stay. The first thing that surprised me is that, despite there being a one-year waiting list for tonsillectomies, she was the only kid in the room. It was just her and nine, freshly made, empty beds. The nurses later explained that the backlog is caused by the fact that they can’t handle more than three kids at a time, so they did the obvious thing and set the maximum limit to three. Of course, that doesn’t explain why there were no kids the day before my daughter arrived, and just her when she did, but I think it all ties in together with what I said before about organizational deficiencies.
Either way, there is a nurse stationed in the room throughout the day.1 At around 10 p.m., the nurse leaves the room and a night nurse takes over. This one doesn’t come into the room itself, but stays down the hall and monitors the area.
And now the real pain begins. I was told that I could go home and sleep because: a) the kids are usually so drugged up that they sleep through the night anyway, and b) the night nurse was just down the hall and would hear if something was up. A little boy from Carinthia2 had come later that day and his mother cheerfully left him in overnight. I felt a bit silly staying and was seriously considering going home. I decided to first wait and get a sense of how the night nurse was and how my daughter was sleeping.
The first warning bell tinkled when the night nurse didn’t show up. I was guessing (hoping?) that she would make a quick appearance at the beginning of her shift. But she didn’t. She came in an hour later to tell me that they would now turn off the lights, and that I could freely go. I told her I would probably leave soon and just wanted to make sure things were okay. I then quietly sat in the dark and dozed a bit. Thirty minutes later I heard some whimpering noises — coming from the other bed in the room.
The little boy had woken up and seemed to be asking for the toilet. He called out a few times, but no one came. I was curious to see how fast the nurse would come in, so I made a mental note of the time. But she didn’t come. I considered helping him myself, but if something had happened to him (if he fell, for instance) I’d have unwillingly entered a world of pain.
After ten (10) minutes, I got up and went to get the nurse. I found her reclining on a chair in the lounge, reading VeÄ?er, and chatting with some other staff. I told her, very politely and in Slovene, that the “little boy was awake.”
She gave me a funny look, then turned to her friends and spat:
“This guy’s trying to tell me how to do my job.”
I couldn’t believe it. I really couldn’t. But she wasn’t done with me yet. As we walked back to the room together, she accused me of waking the boy up. Quoth the raven:
“This is what happens when you watch TV in there or have a light on. You wake up the kids.”
In other words, it was my fault the boy was awake. I was the careless, negligent one among us. I’ve always been worried that my Slovene would fail me in moments of anger, but praise be to Allah for keeping my tongue loose that night.3 I immediately shot back that I wasn’t watching TV, hadn’t turned on any lights, and that the boy probably had to use the toilet.
And of course I was right. Unfortunately, the boy had pissed all over himself in the meantime. I felt bad for not having gotten the nurse sooner, but in a way he was lucky I was there at all. If I had gone home he probably would have soaked in his own urine for many more minutes, if not hours. Needless to say, I resolved to stay in the hospital for the rest of the night. I sat down and closed my eyes, listening as the nurse cleaned the dirty sheets and changed the little boy’s clothes.
- This also surprised me. One nurse can only handle three bedridden kids, but a kindergarten teacher is expected to handle 15 fully active crazy kids? How is that possible? [back]
- For some reason Carinthian accents strike me as Croatian. I regularly mistake Carinthian Slovenes for Croatian-Slovenes. I don’t know why this is, but for most of the day I assumed he was part Croat. [back]
- I was especially relieved to hear myself using the double-negative correctly, i.e. nisem niÄ? gledal! which is literally “I didn’t nothing watch.” Getting my English brain to accept double negatives has been a huge challenge for me. [back]
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Our 2008 presidential campaign is beginning over here already. When they get to the debate about socialized medicine, we may need to send for you!
Hope your daughter is feeling better. I recommend lots of ice cream aid jello. Two of my favorite food groups!
Same here… I hope your daughter is ok now. Too bad they don’t check appropriate skills when signing to schools that require dealing with people. The night nurse would have never gotten that job if that was the case. Instead what matters is only grades.
Typical. Well, you went through one of those nightmare things of “free” healthcare.
Where I see the problem is that nurses don’t receive any people-skills training - they are usually low-paid, same-job-for-a-lifetime gals that get very careless over time. I know a couple of them in person and can’t believe their underperformance.
I personally do not have any hope for our healthcare system - at least not the public one.
Have to admit though, that I have had much better experience with hospital staff that work with children in Ljubljana.
Your outlook on our healthcare system is 100% correct. Waiting ad infinitum and then some.
But you should really help that little boy to the toilet yourself, you shouldn’t be so afraid of “but if something had happened to him (if he fell, for instance)” - this isn’t the US and we don’t sue everyone for anything (well, not yet, anyway).
Strangely, one of the things people cannot believe here is when I say that in Spain we got medical atention mostly for free, even if you didn’t ever work. (It has its issues, of course).
Here you have to pay twice, one to get the “basic” insurance, and other, the Premium, because the Basic one is worth nothing anyway. Even then u’ll have to pay half of doctors, cause they decided to get private. And, to top it all, they start sending you bills that you shouldn’t be paying… reading a bit more you see it’s a nice invitation to join the UltraMega insurance, with the bill for it kindly prepared.
Furthermore, you only get the premium coverage after paying it for 3 months. So, I was told to try to use the international coverage of my Spanish insurance, or “try not to get ill”.
Hope ur daughter is ok!
tomaZ… the obcina wanted to sue me for “searching for job on Internet” … since then I believe anything
I sometimes wonder how much time would be released if in every public building there would be a big board at the entrance saying: if you need to do this, go to the door No.xy, if you need to do that, go to door No.xz etc…
Michael, Slovene hospitals are a dog eat dog world. While I have a good opinion of the system, I’m shocked by the attitude of this nurse.
But a quick tip for future use: The sentence “I want to talk to your superior” almost always works. You might even tell her that you work on a radio and that you will go public with it. Or you could just start yelling, waking everybody.
When my sister had a surgery in the ovary-area my mother was told to sign a vaiwer saying that the surgeons could remove my sisters uterus if things got complicated. My parents flipped, my father went on the rampage flushing out the chief surgeon and gave him a talking-to while my mother wrote her own statement, forbidding any other surgical procedure.
While none of this would hold in a courtroom, it worked. Sometimes you just have to bitchslap somebody to get your point accross. Especially in a hospital, where everyone is convinced of their divine status.
I trust your daughter is ok?
Michael, I hope your daughter is fine. Like most of us I could sing a song about Slovenian hospitals (as a child, I was brought to Ljubljana all the way from M. Sobota and had to be left there in the hospital all alone…) but…
I would suggest that you search for or just check your ability to produce some typical stinging remarks - surely they will come in handy (things like Who do you think you are?!)…
Selective use of force - I’m a big fan of the approach…
I expirienced a lot of moments like this in Maribor’s hospital. It’s crazy. I would cut their pay checks by HALF at least. Nothing makes me more angry then MB hospital. Thank god Pivec (GM of the MB hospital) didn’t win for the mayor of MB.
My daughter is doing well — thanks to everyone for asking. Like I said, the doctors are quite good. Hers managed to get the job done very quickly and with very little bleeding. He even saw us in the city the other day and asked how she was doing, which I thought was quite nice.
2strani has a great, perfectly logical idea. And I’m sure that dozens more ideas like that could be put together to make the whole experience better without inflating costs very much.
tomaZ: I was really conflicted about my decision. But I just imagined a scenario where, say, he slips off the toilet, starts screaming, and the nurses run in to find me looming over a half-naked crying boy. And then me trying to explain everything in my odd-sounding Slovene. And Disablez’s comment has certainly reinforced my paranoia a bit.
alcessa and peng: I was really struggling to come up with the best strategy, and whether to employ the barrage of curse words I’ve collected over the years. Next time I’ll probably try the mushroom-cloud freak-out strategy. Interestingly, another friend of mine suggested speaking exclusively in English, since this automatically puts your counterpart on unsteady footing. (Even the best speakers of English here can get self-conscious around a “native”) But I’ve never liked doing that. It’s a bit too jerky. Then again, this nurse really needed a couple of cc’s of jerkitude.
Curse words would have helped in my opinion.
The Slovenian health care system is far superior to that currently on offer in the US. I am eternally thankful that my daughter was born here and not in the US, and that when she had a serious accident at the age of nine we were living here and not there.
I agree that the organization could be further improved, and remember well, if not at all fondly, the chaotic system where you and a million others (none with appointments, because they didn’t give them out back then) had to get to the doctor’s office at the crack of dawn, muscle your way to the door (which was usually handle-less, and had a sign saying “don’t knock!”), wait for the nurse to emerge briefly, and fling your health card at her. And as much as I also enjoy reading in waiting rooms, I couldn’t do it in these circumstances, since patients were expected to keep track themselves of the order in which they arrived, so you could never fully relax, let alone lose yourself in a book. It sucked. Though the care provided once you got in was usually quite competent, even if some of the personnel did need to work on their interpersonal skills.
But that seems to have been done away with–now doctors take appointments and my experience in the last few years has been quite positive. I rarely have to wait long and patients are called by name when it’s their turn instead of just “next!”
My daughter had a non-urgent hernia operation in Ljubljana when she was two (in 1993). As I recall we were given an appointment for surgery fairly quickly, and admission and the operation itself went quite smoothly. The floor was fairly full of patients (unlike your experience), and she was in a room with four or so other beds, all full, as were the ones in the adjacent rooms. From my point of view the most disappointing aspect was the lack of amenities for parents, even though the pedtriatic department claimed to support parents’ wishes/rights to be with their kids, including ovenight. But they didn’t have the physical facilities to make that a reality– space was cramped, there was just a hard upright chair for visitors (as opposed to an armchair or, even better, a couch to stretch out on). I stayed anyway, bedding down on the floor beside my daughter’s bed in the sleeping bag I had brought for the occasion. Although this was clearly unusual, the staff had no objections and pretty much let me be. The night nurses were active all night long, going up and down the halls and doing frequent checks on their charges–so much so that I closed the door since their footsteps and voices were keeping me awake. A nurse politely but firmly told me the door had to be kept open so that they would be able to hear the patients and respond promptly to their needs.
Sounds like this nurse you got really ought to be in a different line of work. Preferably one that doesn’t involve working with people.
From what I’ve experienced - doctors are great. It’s really the nurses that lack proper attitude. You wouldn’t believe how their behaviour changes once they realize some of the doctors are your pretty close friends
Michael: using English is probably also a great idea. Or try German - may I suggest saying Kruzifix!
I did that once in Germany, getting angry in Slovenian, and it was quite a success. But then, I had no choice.
On the whole I would say there really are people in this world who start functioning normally only after having been dressed down a bit. Some things are not that important (I don’t start screaming every time someone has done me wrong), but if it is your own children…
BTW: Did the nurse offer her apology, say thank you or at the very least perform an act of sexual submission?
KrÅ¡ko might very well be smelly, but it has a rather nice and modern medical clinic. Brežice is an older hospital, and Novo Mesto is a mix of old and new. While not perfect, in general my health system experiences in Dolenjska have been positive. You’d be hard pushed to fix a perfect system anywhere, unless you live somewhere like Sweden. Mostly staff are under-motivated and under-paid, unless you are a private consultant at the top of the food chain.
Michael, you are naive. You liked the free-for-all universal healthcare (which is not free, you just don’t see the money directly), until you had the firsthand experience with arrogant byproducts of such system. Where nobody sees the money and nobody has the financial motivation to fire the nurse who leaves a kid soaked in its own urine…
Jean, the system works for people who have low income and really get something “for free”. For people who have higher incomes it is just idiotic to wait months for simple procedure which can be bought for something like 70 EUR on the open market. Especially if they pay several times more each month for “insurance”.
I think Michael will be ready to move out of this country after a few more experiences like this one (-:
Although I live 30 minutes away from Maribor, my both kids were born in Postojna.
I did hear quite a number of complaints about Maribor hospital, and not many recommendations.
When our boy was one year old, he had to stay in Celje hospital for a few days. Luckily, I managed to get one of the hospital’s few private rooms, so our stay was quite alright.
The staff was more than alright as well.
abc: You misunderstood. I like, and still like, the system. And I’m under no illusions whatsoever that it is costly to me; the gap between my bruto and neto salary is fairly obvious.
That said, it should be noted that the profit-driven American model has resulted in more per-capita spending than the western average, and with poorer results in things like life expectancy, infant mortality, and childhood immunization. It’s also worth remembering that unpaid medical bills are the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the U.S. Family fortunes can be wiped out when someone gets sick.
So I think I’d prefer a jerk of a nurse every once in a while.
There’s a great summary article of all this here.
Michael, I won’t claim that I know USA better than you :). However. Costs in USA are also a consequence of expensive and experimental drugs, of many you can only dream in slovenia. People go bankrupt, because they can (as far as I know, there is no personal bankrupcy in slovenia, you end up owning all the debts untill you die, imagine this!). I don’t like the USA (or else I would go and live there), however, the slovenian healthcare is doomed, because too many people think it is “free”. Have you ever complained about something you got for free? I guess not. If you would pay at least a portion of a medical bill of your daughter I bet that there wold be a loud “krucifiks, saprabolt” scream in the middle of the night and the next day the nurse would get the boot by the hospital. Now, since you got it “for free”, all it is left to you is to complain in your weblog, which will change exactly nothing…
I had my own experience in Ljubljana (Petra Držaja), where without the wonderful nurses I would probably not be here any more because the ignorant doctors.
On my opinion the problem is that the doctors with no manager skills are in fact the hospitals managers.
Michael I suggest, you should speak English or at least German, maybe for somebody your slovenian accent sound like Bosnian, ….. -:)
Michael, I think you’ve had a first class experience with the importance of double negatives: nothing is more impressive than hurling two of those NO-words closely packed into one sentence at someone.
Well, maybe three or more would be even better… Ready? OK.
Nikomur nisem niÄ?esar storil!
(I haven’t done nothing to noone!)
Nikakor nisem nikomur niÄ?esar storil!
(No way I haven’t done nothing to noone!)
Right, consider yourself armed now.
Nikakor nisem nikoli nikjer nikomur niÄ?esar storil
Nikakor nisem nikoli nikjer nikomur nehote niÄ?esar storil
Please stop breaking my brain.
My experience with Slovenian hospitals, doctors, nurses, … is very positive. But I have always been more or less badly hurt on arrival. It’s not that I suggest to practice this but I am really thankful. I am only a bit scared of minister BruÄ?an …
I am glad your daughter is fine!
Since our daughter was born, me and Gaby spent many many hours in hospital, visiting pediatritan, rehabilitation and all sorts of other specialists, everything from neuro surgent, EEG, MRI, MRA, …, neurologist to orthopedist and today she has an appointment where her hearing and her eyes will be checked.
The experience with hospitals, doctors and nurses are mixed. It is like bingo, sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t. Nurses in MB hospital on the second floor were all the time nice and friendly. Then there were others, that were not so nice. All in all our daughter had an excellent care and I can’t thank all those people enough for the service they provided.
But.
My general opinion about our health care system is mostly not that good. Waiting lines? Ever tried to visit neurology in MB pediatric hospital? Don’t! When you call to find out about the waiting time, they happily tell you that there is no waiting time! WOOOOHOOO!
Then you get there, Thursdays, horrible. You get there around 11am since they start working at that time and you realize that you’re probably the last one to come, since the hallway is packed with kids and their parents. No ventialtion, very narrow hallway, too little chairs and you have to wait for three hours to get to see the doctor. Three hours with a month year old baby. You wait three hours to get a 15 minute exam and you get ‘work order’ to have a MRI of your daughters brain. Because you were at neurosurgeon a week before and he said that this would be a good thing to do. Then after MRI is complete, you have to wait about a month to get the results, you take them to neurosurgeon (then of to nerologist too, spend some more time in that claustrophobic hallway), who says evertyhing looks fine so far, but it would be wise to get MRI once more after six moths, just to be sure… and after that you’ll probably need another MRI in a year… So. Rinse and repeat.
MRI will take two days (luckily for 1.2.2007 I managed to convince them that our daughter doesn’t need to be in hospital overnight, just to ’starve’ for 12 hours, she can do that at home just as well), where patients are transported to Fontana center where MRI is actually performed.
Not that MB hospital doesn’t have MRI equipment, they have it, brand new, top of the line, they say it’s the best in this part of the world. But! They lack anesthetic equipment that has to be ‘non metal’ since metal likes to stick to the strong generators of magnetic fields. You’d be surprised that they didn’t think of that before.
And it is not me whining really. It just surprises me, that if you go there and tell them that you will pay, there are no waiting lines, no queues, … funny.
“If you want to see the worst place in Slovenia, go check out KrÅ¡ko a Slovenian hospital waiting room.”
Tnx god, after middle November06 we’ve lost a white smoke statue in KrÅ¡ko (as shown on your link). But who cares, we still have a potencial - NEK. Jupi ya
I’ve been staying over for few nights, to watch my two year old son, in the children hospital in Ljubljana. As I want to avoid that one bad experience (it is no doubt a bad one) of you is generalized over the whole system, I can compensate with saying that my nights were good, the nurses were friendly and alert. I think as all systems in all countries have rules (lot of rules), but in this particular hospital at least they were flexible. I don’t think I could spend the night on a military stretcher near my two year old in any of the dutch hospitals. But I don’t have much experience in dutch hospitals, I must admit.
Main Slovenian paediatric Clinic is in terrible state and staff is usually kind. But some of them really need communication skils training.
I should mention that medical training ANYWHERE is short on people skills, and part of the training process for nurses, nurses aids, even receptionists and people who do billing and coding is very rough, it’s academically rough and if you make mistakes there are frequent shaming rituals.That part of the problem is international.
Once Ivan the Terrible had a fall where his head was bumped so I took him to the county hospital where I was then living, he had to stay overnight for ‘observation’ This consisted of putting a little bag on his little appendage so they could measure his urine output, and they checked his eyes. They were fine with me staying, in fact I helped them observe him, and they told me what symptoms should alarm me and what was normal so I would know if or when to call them, there was one older boy who had a skateboard accident, he wasn’t visibly wounded, but he had nasty stuff going on, and I even kept a little eye on him. The nurses came in every four hours to check on the children and they did a good job, but it was a rigid every four hours, they had a LOT of kids to check on. My son was fine,we went home the next day.
That particular hospital was a county hospital and quite short of resources, all things considered they did a reasonable job.
I went with my significant other to his medical appointments when I was staying in Croatia, and found that you need to arrive as early as possible before the particular department you need opens. He generally knew where he had to be since his care was routine. The only problem we had was that the machine for doing stress test EKGs broke. It was an American made machine and it amused us both that I could read his entire results in English!
This was in Dubrovnik. The hospital there is decent. A bit crowded but I’m sure that Martin Sheen’s assorted donations have made it better.
P.S. glad to know your daughter is well, and on rereading realized I should state that Ivan the Terrible’s hospital experience was in the States, he has only been out of the U.S. ONCE, when as a little baby his father and I went to Mexico to go eat mangos.
Jean, you keep spreading these lies about America - why do you do this?
Please Slovenes, listen!
This Jean who posts here is a bizarre American anti-American liar.
This Jean has lied about the following:
1) He lied about how he was treated in Indiana with respect to religion taught in schools. There are very strict rules as to how religion gets taught in schools in Indiana. There are all sorts of people that he could have turned to if there were any sort of problem. For instance, there’s the ACLU. I contribute to the ACLU, and I’ve worked with them. An ACLU attorney would salivate at the fact pattern that he weaves in his blog. But there’s the problem that he didn’t resort to the ACLU or any other interest group that would have been interested in his story. He made it up, folks. I mean, he completely made up his story.
As I initially read his blog (and his post here), I was certainly struck by the fact that he would insert his child into a complete lie.
I was also disturbed that he sought out radio time to spin his lies. What a disturbing fuck, this guy. Really. He put his daughter in the middle of a lie and goes on Slovene radio and tells that lie. Is this not the most pathetic person?
2) He lied about whether or not his child would have better health care in the U.S. or the States. He wrote this, when telling a very irrelevant story about child (compared to the very relevant stories at this site):
“The Slovenian health care system is far superior to that currently on offer in the US. I am eternally thankful that my daughter was born here and not in the US, and that when she had a serious accident at the age of nine we were living here and not there.”
I’m fairly certain of two things:
(i) clearly, if you have a job and insurance in the States, you have far better health care, like 800% better, than anything in Slovenia. I can get into that further, and I’m certainly willing to do that with anyone.
(ii) ONCE AGAIN, THIS PATHETIC DISTURBINIG LYING FUCK WANTS TO INSERT HIS DAUGHTER INTO A POLITICAL DEBATE.
Really, look at the relevant postings that other people have made about their children. Could you not agree that this Jean is both (i) an opportunist and (ii) not all that much concerned about his child, other than to create a political issue?
Jean, you’re a hurtful, disturbing person that enjoys using your child for political purposes.
Everyone else, please leave a comment at Jean’s vanity site so he might get a visit from someone other than his mom.
It makes me wonder who’s REALLY a “pathetic disturbing lying fuck” here. Because it seems it’s definitely not Jean.
Sunshine,
Is that an argument? Other than you confirming the fact that there is a certain broad wide-eyed ignorant audience in Slovenia that will believe anything a random American says if it involves marginalizing Americans?
Look, Sunshine, there is a certain type of expat that should be shunned. It is Jean. He’s self-important, self-obsessed, and he makes shit up because he’s playing to an audience.
Jean needs to be challenged. If you actually think that his daughter’s biology class involved a discussion of creationism, and not STRICT science, then you’ve been manipulated.
You are simply manipulated, Sunshine. Because you REALLY REALLY want to be manipulated. You need an enemy, and America provides it. A liar like Jean serves to confirm your desire to feel that another population is to be derided.
60 years ago, when America was in its infancy, you would have been first to the furnaces in burning Jews.
Just because you need someone to hate.
And, back then, there were certainly singular Jews who would tell you things you wanted to hear.
Look, I’m pissed off. This liar Jean goes on Slovenian radio to tell lies about how the American educational system works - and now I gotta fucking deal with his lies whenever I go to Slovenia.
I’m going to hear the following, at random moments, in Ljubljana:
“Well, you know, I hear in American middle schools, that they teach creationism. I heard it from an American.”
PROVE TO ME IN ONE FUCKING INSTANCE WHERE, IN A PUBLIC SCHOOL IN AMERICA, THEY TEACH CREATIONISM!
FUCKING PROVE IT!
We’ve got 300 million people here. Prove to me to me that, of the 10 million or so that are in middle school in the United States, that ONE kid is being exposed to creationism.
Jean really should be challenged - Jean, I’m an attorney, living in Chicago. I’m not licensed to practice in Indiana (1 hour south). Anyway, there’s a certain amount that I can get done here. Please prove to me that your daughter’s teacher and the administration at her school were pushing creationism. You can just give me names, actually. There are all sorts of people here who would love to hear about it. I know CNN and other news organizations would love to hear about it. It’s called a flashpoint.
Look, as I’ve certainly learned from ten years of experience, I know that Slovenes unfortunately take what they think of America from fictional movies and TV - but, in that vein, see Donnie Darko. See how the teacher reacts when the student brings up religion. That’s how it works, folks.
But, what I just wrote is a joke because this Jean made up that pathetic, perversely self-serving story of his daughter being afflicted with creationism. It simply didn’t happen, and he’s decided to manipulate people in Slovenia because he has a favorable crowd. Again, there’s that certain type of expat.
And then this idiot Jean writes the following:
‘The Slovenian health care system is far superior to that currently on offer in the US. I am eternally thankful that my daughter was born here and not in the US, and that when she had a serious accident at the age of nine we were living here and not there.”
Amidst all of the meaningful postings about child health care in Slovenia that were made here, he has to make a political point.
This idiot throws his child into fictional stories. That’s sick.
But - this is just one individual.
What is most sick is all the Slovenes that I’m going to have to deal with for the rest of my life because they heard from someone, who heard from someone, who met an American, who said that creationism is taught in public schools in America and that, as bad as Slovenian health care is, the American health care is so much worse.
Yeah, I had all sorts of fun with the Slovene health care system. Granted, it was ten years ago. But, when a team of four doctors tells an American with swollen lymph nodes that he must have AIDS, that’s a big issue. Thereafter (um, no, it wasn’t AIDS, or the more relevant diagnosis (if anything) of HIV infection), when I had my lymph nodes tested, it was amazing to see how things worked at the oncology clinic. I sat there for six hours, thinking that I had cancer, wanting to, at a minimum, get a lymph test. Lo and behold, a friend of a friend (with connections) showed up and somehow pushed me to the front of the line and I got my nodes punctured. Got the results - I was fine. But not after a lot of seeing how cruel, pathetic and indecent people can be.
In the States, I never would have seen that inhumanity. Period.
Good luck, Slovenes, with this lying Jean. Hope you can see through his fat, lying mouth, which is dying to be on the radio.
I still challenge you, Jean. Let’s work on this situation in Indiana with fictional teachers and fictional administrators pushing creationism on your daughter. Really, seriously, give me names. This is objectionable both on the state level (the Attorney General) and the federal level (the Department of Justice). Also, the ACLU and all sorts of interest groups would love to hear about that - many would salivate.
Again, that’s a joke.
Jean serves to satisfy a very active imagination of America among Slovenes. He gets something out of it.
You make me laugh out loud.
Sunshine,
Once again a compelling argument on your side, the best you could come up with.
Well, anyway, for instance, in your bizarre, Byzantine health care system, you simply don’t treat severe allergies in children. It’s simply not worth the expense, as I’m told.
I had severe allergies as a child. I was cured. Simply cured. It was actually very low-tech (25 years ago), but they haven’t figured out how to deliver the same care in Slovenia that Americans were delivering 25 years ago.
Any middle class / lower class kid in America will never be saddled with allergies if his/her parents take the right (extremely affordable) steps.
Your move, you disturbing, manipulated idiot.
i’m rather proud to live in eu, where in most of the countries everybody has the right to be cure for free. even if he (or she) is an non-eu citizen. and even united state citizens!
here in italy also illegals immigrants has the right to be cure for free without telling it to the police. 5 years of berlusconi weren’t enought to destroy completely all civilization conquests…
ok, sometimes the system is poor, unorganized (but you can also have a heart surgery for free), but a free cure to everyone is better than no cure for 30% of the population… i think you agree