On the outskirts of the Magdalena de las Salinas Hospital, Juan sleeps deeply in his car; tiredness, anguish and sleeplessness have taken over. defeated after spending a long, cold night outside the hospital.
For the man, moving from the site is not an option because his mother is reported to be in critical condition, due to a blow to the head that suffered from slipping on the wet floor in his house.
Although during this six-year term the federal government promised that the health system would become like in Denmark, not only do patients suffer from their illness and often from the lack of supplies in public hospitals, but their relatives also wait for news of their loved ones in undignified conditions.
At 10:00 p.m., Alejandro Espinoza He arrives aboard his truck at General Hospital of Mexicolocated in the Doctores neighborhood, to distribute cakes and coffee to the dozens of people who have a family member hospitalized, who wait in the street for news of their patients, at the expense of hunger and cold.
For Alejandro, a resident of Iztapalapa, giving away food is part of a mandate he made after the death of his daughter, who lost her life due to kidney failure.
“We made a promise to give a little bit of providence to the people we see in need, not financially, but a little bit, we give support because we know what it is like to be outside of hospitals,” he said.
“It’s an inexplicable feeling,” said Hermenegildo de los Santos, a native of the Puebla municipality of Tehuacán, who received a cake from Alejandro. The man has “tied up his stomach” to eat in the coming days, since his wife suffers from cervical cancer and is hospitalized due to the disease.
“The cold is bearable, I wish they would give us a roof and some benches to make it better. I know it is not the place, but we need shelter from the rain,” said the man, before sleeping on the street for the fourth consecutive day.
José Miguel, who along with his wife and son, originally from Veracruz and with no relatives in the capital, find themselves in the need to spend the night outside the hospital, because his little one receives chemotherapy: “We are coming here on the street, because every month they are giving chemotherapy to my son, who was operated on for a tumor in the pancreas.”
On the other side of the city, on the median strip in front of the National Institute of Cardiology, where Periférico, Tlalpan y Viaduct, Under the trees there are tents, which are not occupied by homeless people or migrants, but by relatives of patients. These are people who come from far away, even from the interior of the country, seeking care for their children, brothers, husbands, uncles, grandparents, whose cases, being complicated, were referred to the capital: “the doctor sent us here”:
The complaint is not about the hospital service, which they even consider to be good and of quality in this institution… But about the way in which they have to wait for news from their patients.
This is the case of a family that comes from Tantoyuca, Veracruz, a community located almost eight hours away by public transport.
Grandparents and grandchildren spend the day and night in a family tent, just a few meters from the entrance to Cardiology, waiting to hear about a baby who was born sick.
Meanwhile, Cristian Fabián and his wife, who are sitting on the floor, are eating a cake and waiting to find out the health status of their little one.
“We came from Silao, Guanajuato. I have my baby here inside (the hospital), who has heart problems, they are going to operate on him. Here we sleep, we eat, we only bring two blankets.”
Friends and family in the disease: expert
“Friends and family are known through illness,” is the idea held by the Mexican population, which is why relatives of those hospitalized tend to spend the night outside the hospitals, said Felipe Gaytán, an academic at La Salle University.
In an interview with 24 HOURS, The sociology expert explained that the fact that a family member stays outside the hospital is an act of solidarity, given the time and hunger that they have to endure. In addition, on many occasions there is a rotation of family members who are in charge of the patient.
As to why this action is customary in Mexico, Gaytán indicated that it is a way of facing the tragedy as a group, unlike European, Germanic and Scandinavian culture, where the family nucleus faces the situation without involving other relatives, as is the case in Latin America.
“Although the disease is suffered individually, it is faced as a group, as a means of containment to avoid the breakdown of solidarity, and this is accentuated in the case of parents or grandparents who are the family nuclei,” he explained.
Vulnerability
Another story is that of Cristian, who regretted that there are no better conditions for those who come from the interior of the Republic and explained that two days before he spent 300 pesos to rent a room, where he could sleep and bathe. “We entered at 8 at night, and left at 11 in the morning, there are small rooms, and it is very full,” he explained.
And so, despite everything, they wait patiently and hopefully for their relative to be discharged. From time to time, a good “Samaritan” appears to support them, whether with bread, coffee or traditional sweets “to make the moment easier for them.”
In Magdalena de las Salinas, dozens of people are spending the night outside the hospital, waiting for information from their relatives, without being able to return home.
María Esther Galindo, who comes from the Iztacalco municipality, said that her sister was hospitalized due to a rib fracture caused by a car accident, and although her relative’s condition is favorable, the woman regretted that in the face of the need for an emergency, people “make a killing.”
“One comes with Jesus in his mouth, and still to spend!”, he expressed with annoyance, because in just two days he has invested nearly 800 pesos between food, bathroom and parking to keep an eye on her hospitalized sister.
“They charge us 35 pesos for three hours to park here, and if you don’t pay for the other hours, the same people here do bad things to you, then seven pesos for the bathroom, sometimes we go more than once, and then 20 pesos for the rent of the bench, plus 300 pesos for food these days,” he said.
Elena Josefina, from the municipality of San Vicente Chicoloapan in the State of Mexico, told this newspaper that she has spent two nights sleeping outside the Magdalena de las Salinas Hospital, where she stacked some stones to sit on and make the wait more pleasant.
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2024-08-18 16:36:43