Everyone is fine!

I’ve titled this post “Everyone is fine” because it’s about German hospitals.  I can’t seem to stay away from them – visited one myself while I was living in Tübingen, and got to spend this past weekend at one with Becca, after a scary bout of stomach pain and collapsing (note: not at all drinking related). She’s doing well now, and we’re entering the phase where we can laugh about what a ridiculous experience it was.

It starts in Duisburg, aka, about three hours away from home.  We were there for another assistant’s birthday party, had a good time hanging out with everyone, went to a club for a bit, and then headed back to the dorm where a bunch of them live.  Fast forward to around three am, and one ambulance ride later we’re in the most ridiculous hospital in the world.

No one in the hospital seemed to wear gloves, except when they were clearing the food trays (that makes sense, right..?), and there were no biohazard waste containers everywhere.  There was also definitely blood spattered on the floor in a few places. It was pretty nasty.  They also let me carry vials of blood down to Becca’s room to pass off to a new nurse…the casualness of this place was laughable at the time, and a bit scary in retrospect. 

Becca also had the most ridiculous roommate who was simultaneously quite lovely. She spent a lot of time walking round the room muttering “Scheiße, scheiße!” under her breath, but also took really good care of us – I didn’t feel too terrible leaving Becca there overnight, as I was pretty sure the woman would keep an eye on her!

After about 30 hours at this hospital, they cleared us to leave and we got on a train back to Detmold – I don’t think we’d ever been so happy to be home.  The most laughable part of the whole experience? We went to the party, which was HBO-show-characters-themed, dressed as vampires, so Becca arrived at the hospital with a very decent amount of fake blood dripping down her face and neck.  It gave us all a good laugh through the madness!