His Dad Died In A Venezuelan Hospital. What He Saw In The Morgue Still Haunts Him
Editor's note: This story contains graphic descriptions of conditions in a hospital morgue.
In the bowels of a Venezuelan hospital, I took my toughest walk ever.
It was just after dawn on October 17. The corpse of my 81-year-old father lay on a gurney, covered in thick orange sheets. He had just died of a heart attack in his hospital room, on the fifth floor. He was lying in bed next to my stepmother, his companion for the last 20 years. It was four days after doctors performed a major emergency surgery to repair his large intestine.
My father's care during his hospitalization was acceptable despite the deterioration in health care services during the current economic crisis. (The staff was quite good but we had to bring our own water and medications, and there were flies constantly flying around the room.)
After he died, it was another story. I saw firsthand how
