What is your biggest fear? Realistic fear? A day to day fear? I never thought that this would be a fear of mine. I fear that one day something will happen to me and I'd have to be rushed OUT of the country to get proper treatment. I never really had this fear untill recently.
How did it start? Well it didn't exactly start here.
My brother is currently in China for work. Living abroad for sometime, he has realized that the best way to truly get a feel of the country you need to play basketball pick up games. Yea it seems kinda strange, but it works. He's made so many friends. Being Chinese, Japanese,Italian, Saudi, Bahrani, Kuwaiti, Emirati's, Columbian,Americans, etc.
One night at a pickup game, he fell on his knee. He tore his ACL. Its incredibly painful and if not performed properly can be quite dangerous. He calls me, asking to find the best hospital in the UAE so he can do surgery on his knee. I look into it, asking family friends who are doctors and asking my Emiraity friends.
Their first response: NEVER DO SUCH A SERIOUS SURGERY IN THE UAE.
Second response: Whenever we need proper treatment we leave the UAE.
I'm sure you can feel my shock. Come again? Don't do it here? But you would think they would have the facilities, I mean come on this is UAE.
So now we have to find a really good international hospital. My brother can't travel long distances because of his knee. My friends tell me about this awesome hospital in Thailand. They said that they have gone there before and its certainly the best.
Thailand? Are you sure?
wow. Thailand.
I tell my brother about this hospital. To my suprise, he's actually heard of it. He saw a documentary on it, on 60 Minutes. He even said my sister recommended it to him. She said that its noted as one of the best international hospitals. (My sister works in hospital mangement).
Thailand it is.
I'm just incredibly disappointed that there are no such facilities here. I mean they seem to be avid in building the tallest skyscrappers in the world, the biggest malls in the world, and the best hotels but completly neglect what is actually important.
I can only hope that one day, when I actually need proper healthcare treatment, i won't have to fly to Thailand for it.
How did it start? Well it didn't exactly start here.
My brother is currently in China for work. Living abroad for sometime, he has realized that the best way to truly get a feel of the country you need to play basketball pick up games. Yea it seems kinda strange, but it works. He's made so many friends. Being Chinese, Japanese,Italian, Saudi, Bahrani, Kuwaiti, Emirati's, Columbian,Americans, etc.
One night at a pickup game, he fell on his knee. He tore his ACL. Its incredibly painful and if not performed properly can be quite dangerous. He calls me, asking to find the best hospital in the UAE so he can do surgery on his knee. I look into it, asking family friends who are doctors and asking my Emiraity friends.
Their first response: NEVER DO SUCH A SERIOUS SURGERY IN THE UAE.
Second response: Whenever we need proper treatment we leave the UAE.
I'm sure you can feel my shock. Come again? Don't do it here? But you would think they would have the facilities, I mean come on this is UAE.
So now we have to find a really good international hospital. My brother can't travel long distances because of his knee. My friends tell me about this awesome hospital in Thailand. They said that they have gone there before and its certainly the best.
Thailand? Are you sure?
wow. Thailand.
I tell my brother about this hospital. To my suprise, he's actually heard of it. He saw a documentary on it, on 60 Minutes. He even said my sister recommended it to him. She said that its noted as one of the best international hospitals. (My sister works in hospital mangement).
Thailand it is.
I'm just incredibly disappointed that there are no such facilities here. I mean they seem to be avid in building the tallest skyscrappers in the world, the biggest malls in the world, and the best hotels but completly neglect what is actually important.
I can only hope that one day, when I actually need proper healthcare treatment, i won't have to fly to Thailand for it.
posted by Arabized at
1:22 PM
16 Comments:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4384512.stm
Would love to hear your reactions to the opinions posted here.
:-)
subhanallah (glory be to Allah) i recently gave a mini-lecture on the status of women in islam.
I read the article and all opinions posted. Its intresting and typical that they chose Spain for the conference.
It was pretty intriguing reading all the vast opinions posted.
It seemed to be a redundant theory that the women in the middle east are not that educated.
:/ Thats a popular misconception.
Women are actually highly educated. The percentages of women attending university in the middle east are a lot higher than those of the west. In Islam, acquiring knowledge is a form of worship.
In my family for example my aunts are doctors, engineers, mathematicians,etc. My own mother is a chemist and a physcist and also went for a degree in child psychology.
****The issue here, (i get annoyed with the term "islamic feminists') it is not islam that is holding them back, its the culture of some of the arab/muslim countries.
Another question is why do they feel the need to have such a conference in europe? We have conferences all the time about women's issues and so forth.(i.e Women in engineering and technology sponspered by Top GCC companies) We never use the term MUSLIM WOMEN'S rights. We know as muslim women what are rights are, and we should be grateful for them. If they don't know their rights, then they need to go learn them. Its typical to say the women are uneducated about their rights. How many american's know all their rights. Not that many.
sorry for rambling on and on.
Let me just post this note from a popular islamic book :
" The status of woman in Islam constitutes no problem. The attitude of the Qur'an and the early Muslims bear witness to the fact that woman is, at least, as vital to life as man himself, and that she is not inferior to him nor is she one of the lower species"
"The distinction between equality and sameness is of paramount importance. Equality is desirable, just, fair; but sameness is not. People are not created identical but they are created equals."
-Islam in Focus
I'm guessing my opinion would be welcome because Biz sent me this in an email and here is what I replied:
Since Muslims are guided by the Quran and the Hadith, the rights of women are stated in both so clearly and unmistakably in both; a woman's right as a child, wife, mother, her right economically and politically, etc.
That said I can't deny that women in many countries all over the world have problems that must be solved, I know there is a need that something is done about how some women are treated in the Middle East and Africa - Third World countries (I won't say Islam because it's not an Islamic behavior!) This just gives the wrong impression, people should know that one of the ways of solving these problems is to study Islam and learn from it!
Thank you come again. :P
salamato akhooki.. hope he gets the op done ASAP and gets back to normal...
in the 1980s and early 1990s i think it was common in the UAE to send people abroad for complicated surgery, but things have changed and now we got good quality healthcare... i've personally tried Welcare Hospital in Dubai (but just for minor stuff, and dentistry) and it's very good in my opinion. I also hear that the American Hospital in Dubai is good and to a lesser extent the Khalifa hospital in AD.
I have to say that my info is a bit sketchy, but I think that we should have enough specialists in the UAE for a knee surgery... dunno,, might be wrong.
Thanks, his surgery is next week inshallah. Then he's staying with us for a whole month for recovery and my sister (with my most adorable nephew!!) is coming also.
Its going to be insanely crazy. :)
yea i found a specialist or 2, but a collective response from my parents peers said it wasn't a good idea.
i.e *doctors who are here
*emiraty friends with
experience
*doctors in america who use to
work here (i'll post something
about that one day)
*and from of course family(who
are doctors and in health care
management)
*Another note, even if you found a competent specialist he will cheat you insanely. The surgery in america with one of the best doctors wont go higher than $8,000, the usual being from $5,000-$7,000 (varying from state to state)
hah here, they'll charge you $10,000 and an arm and a leg. :p
Salamat to your brother - but i have to agree with your friends, being a victim of dubai-based healthcare malpractice myself... not only that, i had to pay thousands for it as well..
Health care in the UAE is still in its adolescent stage when you compare it to there GCCs like Saudi or Kuwait.
Every morning, I listen to a program on the radio called El Bath El Mubasher (البث المباشر) - on Sawt Al Asala (fm 93.3). You should hear the horror stories coming out of UAE hospitals - especially the private clinics... very very sad.
Kuwait does have excellent hospitals after Lebanon, the best hospitals in the Arab world.
Thanks Moryarti and i'm sorry you were a victim of bad health care treatment. :/
yea recently people have been telling us of a number of horrific stories. very sad indeed.
Kuwait and Lebanon have the best hospitals in the middle east? intresting, nobody bothered to mentioned them before.
Best wishes for your brother.
Yes good thing you didn't bring him here. I am a victim as well and am in the process of a court case against a health care dept.
My daughter has been unwell for a while and there are no specialists available here for her particular problem. This is the 2nd kind of specialist she has needed in her short life that the UAE have neglected to recruit. SO off to London we will go.
CG- salamat to your daughter. Inshallah she will be well soon.
I'm sorry you have to deal with that.
Salamat your daughter CG.
Good thing that you are taking her to London. My family had many stories to the point that they go to Europe or Thailand for any simple thing. Mom once got sick and needed to have an urgent operation, few months later she had to do it again. (there never was time to go somewhere else so she had to do it in Tawam hospital) Third time, she flew to London and it never happened again. AlhamdulAllah.
Am I the only person here that uses UAE Government hospitals?!
that hospital in thailand is opening a branch in dubai soon, but they said it probably wont have the same great service they provide their.
keefieboy, i've used the uae government hospital only once, just because i had to for the university physical. They wouldn't let me get it done at the private hospital i usually attend to.
Important note: I can only reccomend a handful of surgeons but I do know some DAMN good ones here especially for sport injuries (msn me or contact me from my blog).The overall best "collection" of surgeons would have to be at welcare hospital in Dubai.
Another important note: dont go to a doctor, especially ones in unknown clinics, that u do not have complete trust in, I did that last week with a british doctor and had to have surgery as payback (looong story)...btw proper doctor dont cheat u out of money because of ethics, those that do are not proper.... hope ur brother is healing well!
Thanks 3lo g.
My brother, hamdullah is doing well. He's staying with us here while he recovers and is being well taken care of, my cousin from the states is a doctor that is specialized in physcial therapy. She's flying in to check on him and the physical therapy he recieves here. Hamdullah we see improvements, so thats good.
You say: "wow. Thailand."
Made me laugh - I think the same.
There will soon be good healthcare in the UAE, I hope. It's being worked on.
I suppose there is malpractice everywhere, only that perhaps it is more publicised in other countries? I do agree with you though. I also experienced grave malpractice here and needless to say I learned my lesson - but it's a shame when someone doesn't know of any good clinics to go to, the likelihood of malpractice is high! It's the law of probability, I guess...but..things will slowly change for the better.
Hope your brother's better.
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