A break from writing about my time in Oaxaca (more
to come on that topic) and a bit about my real work here as priest and pastor
in Mexico City.
One of the ongoing (and invisible) ministries of
Christ Church is the ministry to the Hospital General. Some readers will remember a soap opera of
some years back entitled General Hospital
and that is the obvious translation of Hospital General. But the hospital of the same name in Mexico
City is no soap opera. It’s worse. Hospital General is in a rather run-down facility
in a not terribly safe neighborhood near the center of the city. It is, in fact, large enough to have a metro
stop named after it.
Hospital General is basically the place of last
resort for indigent who have no other alternatives, and no other
resources. Father Guillermo, who is Priest Associate and mostly
responsible for the ongoing pastoral care of the Spanish language congregation,
began about five years ago visiting the Emergency Room of the Hospital General to
minister there. When I went on Monday evening to participate in this ministry, I found a waiting room that was
dark, cramped, and crowded. There may
have been a television on the wall, but there were certainly no tables, and no
reading material available. Unlike a typical hospital in the US, the
Hospital General has no cafeteria or snack bar.
There was not even a vending machine that I could see. So those who had brought their family members
or friends to the Emergency Room and had to wait while they received treatment
would need to leave the hospital compound if they wanted anything to eat or
drink. Unless they had brought it from
home themselves. (Few, of course had.)
So the first aspect of Christ Church’s ministry at
the hospital is distributing food to those in the waiting room Sandwiches had been prepared by LuzMaria and her
parents – members of the Spanish-language congregation. As the sandwiches were distributed to the
forty or so people in the waiting room, Father Guillermo and LuzMaria asked if
anyone thought that their loved one in the emergency room would like a visit
and a prayer. Fr. Guillermo wrote down
the name of each person and the bed where they were located. Then he, LuzMaria, and I proceeded to the
Emergency Room.
Although I have been a priest for nearly 25 years, I was still unprepared for what I saw in the Emergency
Room. There were about twenty or more
people on gurneys in a huge room. There
were curtains between each bed that could have been pulled for privacy, but no
one had done so, so all patients—men and women, young and old – were out in the
open, exposed to all of the others in the emergency room. Fr. Guillermo and I did the most basic
sacramental and pastoral ministry – we offered prayers, laying-on-of-hands,
and anointing, A few were well enough to receive communion.
The saddest cases – one very elderly woman, shriveled
by malnutrition, twisted by arthritis, semi-conscious but suffering from
dementia, restrained by being tied to the bed. I don’t know if she really
understood who we were or what we were doing.
There was also one very young
man, certainly no older than 25 years old.
Although his eyes were open he was utterly unresponsive. He was breathing by means of a respirator
attached to a hole in his throat. While
Fr. Guillermo and I were praying for him, I realized that the monitor above his
bed was registering nothing – no pulse, no heartbeat, no respiration, no brain
activity. He was being kept alive by
machines. We read the Prayers at the time of death, (commonly
known as “Last Rites.”)
The three of us visited about ten or twelve patients
in total. Before we left, Fr. Guillermo
offered a prayer for the doctors and the nurses. Although the conditions in the
hospital were more than modest, even rudimentary, by US standards and expectations, I saw no
impatience or disrespect from any of the doctors, nurses, or staff towards any
of the patients They seemed to be truly
compassionate individuals.
On our return to the waiting area, Fr. Guillermo he
offered a prayer and blessing for all of those who were worried about their
family members. Then various family
members came to ask him about their husbands, wives, parents, spouses whom we
had just visited. And I realized that
they were asking those questions because the three of us were the ONLY
non-medical persons in the entire Emergency Room areas. There were no visiting hours and so many had
not seen their loved one since much earlier in the day when they were admitted,
and thus the three of us were the only source of information or point of
contact.
The second hospital was utterly different, and I had
the chance to visit it the next day, which was Tuesday. The ABC Hospital, American British Cowdray
Hospital, was formed many years ago through the merger of different hospitals
that served the English-speaking expatriate community in Mexico City. Although it is in a neighborhood similar in
socio-economic status to the area where the Hospital General is located, the
ABC Hospital is worlds away from the Hospital General.
In contrast to the Hospital General, the ABC hospital is a private hospital. It is immaculately well-kept, tightly run,
and with up-to-date equipment. Several of the members of Christ Church serve on
the Board of the hospital, help with fund raisers, or volunteer their time as ‘pink
ladies.’ To the great credit of The ABC
hospital, they run a clinic where residents of the neighborhood where they are
located can receive quality health care at low or no cost.
The ABC Hospital is not just an acute care facility,
it also contains a number of divisions, including a center for neurosurgery, a
children’s hospital, and a cancer treatment center. Plans are in the works for a medical
school. One of the great surprises to me
was that every patient room, no matter whether in medical, surgical, or
intensive care units, is a private (single) room but with facilities including a
fold-out sofa for visitors to nap or stay overnight.
I had been invited to attend the annual meeting of
the ABC Hospital. Attending the annual
meeting of a hospital was a first for me.
Attending such a meeting in Spanish was another first. I was pleased that I could understand most of
the content of the presentations, and also pleased at the positive, up-beat,
and enthusiastic tone of the proceedings.
I believe that it’s not a stretch
to claim that the ABC hospital is a world-class hospital.
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