Hospital Thriller
The main children’s hospital in Abkhazia is in a critical condition. It turns out that it has not been repaired since its founding in the 1970’s during Soviet times. The plaster on the walls crumble every time someone passes by, and patient rooms and halls are in a devastating condition. There is no new medical equipment in the hospital, nor is there any talk of purchasing it in the near future.
Meanwhile, there are already a number of well-furnished hospitals in Abkhazia, which even has some new equipment. But the issue of repairing the children’s hospital has not been discussed yet.
The hospital’s first floor. The consulting room:
On can get to the second floor via this elevator, though before entering it, one may accidentally fall into the elevator shaft because of a huge hole:
If you are lucky enough to get to the hospital’s second floor, you will find a laboratory:
This is the cabinet where ‘clean’ test tubes are stored:
And here – the lab offices’ bathroom, where these test tubes are actually washed and disinfected. No comments:
Rotten pipes are tied up with rags to prevent water from dripping directly onto the heads of the medical staff:
An old autoclave (unit for disinfecting instruments), which needs to be disinfected itself:
Third floor, Paediatrics Department. In reality, all the hospital halls look like this. Because of the leaking pipes, the walls will simply crumble and risk falling down soon:
However, there is a brand new air conditioner in the hallway:
Children’s rooms. They are more suitable for a thriller movie set:
Beds are old and uncomfortable. They cannot freely accommodate a mother and a child, and there is no second bed. A modern bed costs RUB 15,000 [about USD 250]. This hospital needs about 200 beds. But there is a simple solution – one can for instance give up two official cars and buy beds instead.
A bathroom where older children bathe. No hot water; it should be heated by patients themselves. There is no bath either. Neither is there any water in toilets for flushing:
On this floor, they have decided to patch the leaking pipes with foam instead of rags:
Here, one of the parents has arranged a mobile kitchen in the hallway; children need to get warm food, don’t they? And there is no kitchen in the hospital:
We go upstairs where it’s all the same:
The situation is generally the same on each floor. By the way, there are two patient rooms here that are considered to be ‘in normal condition’. They are intended for newborn babies only. Here is one of them:
This is the only new ‘couveus’ (an incubator for nursing newborns) available in the entire hospital:
In the other room which is also considered to be ‘in a normal condition’, there is a bathroom. Keep in mind that that this is a neonatal room:
The windows are old. There is also a draft in the winter and no heating, but the scenery from the window is beautiful:
There is a reassuring announcement on the wall:
Here one may argue – according to the babies’ parents, that they have to buy their own medication, since there are usually not enough in the hospital.
I couldn’t take pictures of the hospital’s medical equipment though, because there is no medical equipment here.
Also, there is a new stand with an evacuation plan for emergency situations right in the hallway:
However, in this hospital, one had better start the evacuation right away.
