My Experience in a Polish Hospital

Sunday Morning

I woke up a little bit tired after Saturdays’s night, I went out of bed and I went to prepare a big cup of coffee to wake up. I started to prepare my things to go for my football match, when I received a call from my friend:

“Hey David, What are you doing? Hey listen I need your help I need you to come to the airport to help me with something..”

Before I said something I was like omg something serious happened, I told him: “What’s up dude, everything all right?”

My friend started to explain me his situation and I decided to go to the airport right away, but inside my head I was thinking shit I need to be on time on my football match.

Then my friend told me: “You have exactly 20 minutes to come here or I’m totally fu**ed..”

I hang up the phone and I was thinking “damn David, you have exactly 40 minutes to go to the airport help my friend and then go to the pitch and play for my team. It’s insane..”. I took the key’s car and the journey started (After few days I realized that this was a signal of not going to the match because something would happen to me :P )

How it Happened

After the most intense 40 minutes while driving around Warsaw I finally arrived to the pitch, my team was already there (surprisingly on time :P ) and I was ready to play the sport I love the most.

The match started, it was a good game but my team received 2 goals in the first minutes, the first half was over and we were ready to start the second half.

After 5 minutes I made a substitution and I entered to the pitch, a couple of minutes later I have an opportunity to shoot the ball, I kicked the ball and I heard a sound inside my body.

I fell to the ground and after few seconds I realized that I couldn’t move my body. Suddenly I started to shout like crazy because I was feeling the worst pain of my life in my left knee, I looked at it and I noticed that it was not in its place anymore.

Longest Journey Ever

My teammates thought at the beginning that I was faking (like any pro football player nowadays) but then they noticed it was something really serious. Someone called an ambulance (you need to dial 999 in case you didn’t know), and they were on their way.

After 40 minutes, no kidding, the paramedics arrived, they looked at me like poor guy, and they asked for my ID and to do some paperwork! I was thinking like sure: I’m just waiting here patiently with by broken knee take your time dude, no problem at all.  I couldn’t believe it honestly.

Anyway, after they assured that I had insurance they took me to the stretcher and then to the ambulance. During all that process my friends started to take pictures and videos of me.. of course! I would do the same too :P

Inside the ambulance one of the paramedics started asking me some questions and he was trying to be friendly with me. He started to talk to me in Polish and he was curious to know where I was from. When I told him I was from Mexico we started talking and laughing during the journey to the hospital. It was the longest journey ever, we were in the ambulance for about 30 minutes the adrenaline was disappearing from my body and the pain was becoming stronger and stronger.

By the way, a friend of mine works for a company – Col Du Marine – that sells collagen. It is a protein that ensures integrity and strength of body tissues – like bones and ligaments. I take it now to prevent future injuries. If you are interested you can get a 10% discount in the Polish site with my code CHIDO. It is worth checking out!

The Eastern European Hospital

I was just lying there int he ambulance and I was just waiting to arrive to the hospital. We finally arrived and my destination was the Centralny Szpital Kliniczny MSW: Szpitalny Oddział Ratunkowy Zespoły Wyjazdowe. They took me out of the ambulance, we entered to the building and they left me there.

A couple of minutes later a nurse came to me and started asking me some medical questions in Polish, I was there and I told her: “excuse me, I speak a little Polish I have no idea what you are saying about those medical questions…”. She laughed a little bit and she started asking me in English.

My girlfriend and my Mexican friend were waiting in the hospital, and the nurses finally moved me. We entered to a room and a young doctor asked me if I would prefer Polish or English. I was like please English I want to be 100% sure of what you will tell me. The doctor saw me started touching my knee and he was like: “dude you will need an operation, let’s do some X-rays just to confirm it”.

When I heard that I wanted to cry, I’ve never had an operation on my life! The only time I went to a hospital it was to donate blood because my cousin lost part of his finger because it was bitten by his tiny dog ? (true story).

I started to think in so many things at once, but my main concern was if it would not be able to play football again! Who will teach my sons to play football..? not me for sure!

Also, I was concerned about the ‘conditions’ of the hospital, you know the public health service in Mexico has a bad reputation in general, there have been so many cases were they operate the leg that was not supposed to have any problem, or that people was just waiting there for hours in the common room literally dying. I thought that in Eastern Europe (no offense) this would be exactly the same!

Whatever, after the X-rays and some medical checks and I was taken to my room. I was sharing room with 3 other older men, which I really hope that are feeling better now, I was there waiting to spend my first night at a hospital ever! I was so scared, all those thoughts about horror movies in hospitals made me crazy.

Before going to sleep the nurse told me: “You can’t eat or drink anything because you will have a Operacja na czczo (fasting operation)”.  I was so hungry and thirsty, but I followed her rules.

Operation Time

Next day, a nurse woke me up and she told me: “Ready? You will have the operation now”. I was like wtf is happening, wait wait I need to inform someone in case I die… She took me to the operating theater.

When we arrived there, some nurses started to ask me some medical questions that I can barely answer in Spanish, I had no idea about what they were saying to me in Polish.

Then a doctor came in and started to explained me everything in English, I was more relaxed then. She was the anesthesiologist, and she told me: “Listen kid we are going to operate you, but I need to put an injection on your back to sleep your lower body part”. She put the injection, it hurt a lot! And after 10 minutes I couldn’t feel anything below my belly, literally anything!

Many doctors entered to the room, they put a cover between  my face and the rest of my body so I couldn’t see a thing. They started to have a normal conversation while they were operating. The feeling I had was horrible because I could listen all the things they were doing to me and I couldn’t see or feel a thing. I was thinking what if they cut my leg!

After 1 hour, the doctor told me it’s done you can go back to your room. I said in Polish thank you very much to all the doctors!

The nurse took me to my room, and she told me: “You are forbidden to drink or eat something until you pee, that’s the signal”. I was like for real..? So after almost 48 hours of not drinking or eating anything I had the feeling of peeing finally! I have to be honest on this, to pee while you are in bed is not comfortable at all! It was a challenge! I had to pee in a thing called a ‘duck’, check picture below.

After I accomplished that challenge,  I called the nurse and they gave me a piece of bread, ham, and that’s it! It was the best sandwich of my life! The food was not the best, but it was not that bad. Actually I was lucky, my meals included a cup of tea, a sandwich, pickles, meat, hot soup and cereal. Not that bad right..?

The Priest Visit

During the evening, some of my friends went to visit me which was awesome, one Mexican friend borrowed me some medical equipment to help to recover :)

Then when one Mexican friend was with me, a priest entered to the room, he looked at me and asked me: “Are you the guy..?” I was like “No no no no….”. Then the priest looked an old man that was in front of me and he asked him the same. The old man was more scared than me, and he told him “No no no”, after this the priest left the room and he told us “Sorry, wrong room..”. My friend and I were like wtf just happened!

Going Home

Anyway, next day I was allowed to leave the hospital! My girlfriend and friend went to pick me up and I was out of there finally. Those were the 3 longest days of my entire life.

When I arrived home I was not able to walk (obviously), and then I had to go to the toilet. Did you ever try to go to the toilet with only one functional leg…? Damn, it is impossible!

Now at home I had 4 nemesis: stairs, toilet, take a shower, and a dog.

I want to finish this long post by saying a big Thank you to:

• The nurses, paramedics, and doctors at the Centralny Szpital Kliniczny MSW: Szpitalny Oddział Ratunkowy Zespoły Wyjazdowe
• My sexy nurse (girlfriend) that took care of me doing the impossible to make me feel better
• To the family of my girlfriend that allowed me to stay at their home to take care of me
• To all the people that wrote to me with good wishes! I love you all!