The Wanderings of busman7

On the way back from my little Guatemalan excursion we stopped in the city at a notaries where we met the pastor of the church, that was looking at the bus, signed the papers for a tentative sale for government approval (churches are exempt from the import age rule providing the bus is “donated”.

Life then returned to normal for a week or so until mothers sugar level rose, for no apparent reason, to a level where it was a concern. The doctor came out on Friday, found her blood pressure was also high & adjusted her medications accordingly.

She stabilised, then on Sunday made the statement that she didn’t want to continue living like this (wheel chair bound & wearing depends) & was going to die. Spent the next 3 days sitting there listless, not caring about anything. Think she had a slight stroke Sunday night as her speech was a bit slurred the next day, however sugar levels, checked twice daily, were back to normal.

Wednesday morning she got up as normal then about 7:30 she spit up a bit & looked like she was trying to go back to sleep. Doctor was called but when he arrived 20 minutes later she was in a coma. He tested her sugar level & her an insulin injection, by this time the ambulance had arrived, less than 5 minutes after being called.

At this point it was apparent that she likely wasn’t going to come out of the coma & it was just a matter of time. Also factored in was a strike of clerical workers at the hospital so that when the body would be returned was in question & given the fact that she had signed a DNR, I went with the doctors suggestion that she be left in peace where she was.

The way it appears to me is that once the overprescribed drugs that the Ontario quacktaters had given her wore off & she was back to some where normal & had enough free will to end a life she never wanted, in a wheel chair, unable to even feed herself.

The ambulance was sent away & at 08:30 Central time death was pronounced!

Now of course that hour was just a tad hectic as the daytime nurse who was on her way in on her bike, was called for advise while awaiting the doctors arrival. Then when he got there we had to call a friend to interpret, as my Spanish is still pretty rudimentary & not up to that situation.

During all this the night-time caregiver + the caretakers wife & her sister, the alternate night person reacted extremely well, the daytime nurse was very professional, the doctor amazing & the ambulance crew were there in no time giving what assistance was necessary.

A person in Canadian nursing home would have to be extremely fortunate to receive the quality attention she did. At home in the country, NO WAY!!!

Apparently some religions like to keep the bodies around for quite a while before burial & since embalming isn’t widely practiced the government passed a law that burial must take place within a day so arrangements have to be made quickly.

This amazing doctor who is overworked at the free clinic in La Libertad took the time to get cremation prices as per her wishes however the $3000 quote put the kybosh on that idea! He then went back to his office & made the arrangements with the funeral home & ordered the casket.

In the meantime my real-estate lady, a Salvadorian who married to a Canadian, lived in Canada for 30 years then retired back here looked after getting, my pigheaded maintained man (more on him later) to arrange for the grave to be dug that day, not the next as he wanted, in the cemetery a couple miles up the road in Hacienda San Diego. Then picked me up to go to the town hall for the burial permit.

We arrived back at the casa at the same time as the funeral homes pickup with the casket, as it would still be a couple hours before the grave was ready they sealed the casket & would return at 5:00 pm for the trip to the cemetery.

All mothers care givers, their families attended the burial along with a couple people from the local X-pat community & the doctor. Not a bad send off for a lady that didn’t want to bother any one when she went.

Now the doctor (who must remain nameless on a public forum) took a house call at 07:30 in the morning, did what he could to ease the passing of a patient, paid the ambulance crew out of his own pocket, went above & beyond any reasonable call of duty in making the burial arrangements, closed the clinic early to attend the burial.

Then absolutely refused to accept ant payment for his services. Try to find a doctor like that in Canada. On top of all that he is an excellent doctor!!

Unfortunately I couldn’t fulfill her wish of cremation & her ashes buried in Perth ON but I figure the quality of the last couple months of her life more than made up for that.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 23rd, 2011 at 23:08 and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.