A simple cat bite...

While visiting my mother, one of her less socialized cats bit me, and wasn't fooling about it. Despite instant first aid care and cleansing of the wounds, my hand blew up like a balloon within an hour. So, at my mother's behest, we went to 'her' hospital to get it treated. It was only after three hours of waiting in pain, that some clerk informed her that they could not treat me because I wasn't covered for care in their hospital. Never mind that I had medical coverage through my employer as well as through the Quebec government. Even though my mother offered to pay cash, they turned me out into the cold.
So, off we went to another hospital where we waited another couple of hours before a doctor finally tended to my four-times-normal-sized hand. He berated me for waiting so long to seek treatment!!

It would have been faster for me to catch a Greyhound to Montreal and go to any hospital emergency room here than to have stayed in NYC for the rest of my vacation! I have no idea how much my cat bitten hand cost my mother; she never told me. I do know that it cost me two weeks off work - paid weeks in addition to my vacation - simply because there were so many hours of delay before antibiotics were administered. I shudder to think what would happen if we were ever involved in a serious traffic accident on the wrong side of the border!

And people ask me why I don't return stateside, now that I'm retired!? I'd be a utter idiot to do so with health care in the muddle it is. The Canadian/Quebec systems may have problems, but they are far better than what can be had even in such a metropolis as New York City.

JJ. M.I.

formerly:Jamaica, New York; currently: Montreal, Canada