Monday, February 23, 2015

Emergency Rooms in Korea

Jasper had jaundice and was having trouble eating and was acting less active than earlier in the day so Joseph and I took him to the ER.
We have never been to the ER in Korea before this time.

There is only 1 ER for children in Daejeon for the middle of the night/after hours. It is Chungnam National University Hospital in Munwhadong near Say Department Store.
We arrive in the ER and need to register. The man says an ER visit can be really expensive and we ask how much: 100usd. That's it? No problem.
They take Jasper and Joseph back and I get him registered. Since I am the mom everything for the baby is done through the mothers information.
They take me back to the children section to meet up with Joseph and Jasper.
There are 6 beds in the kid section and we are together laying and sitting in one of them.
We meet with a doctor right away and Joseph explains what has been going on. They come back maybe 20m later and we ask them to check his blood levels again (that morning they were 14.5 and him becoming increasingly listless made us think they were rising).
They did not have the materials to check for him in the ER so a woman came with a wheelchair to take us to the NICU. Since Joseph was holding Jasper he got a wheelchair ride.
The NICU doctors were lovely. Polite and ready to help us. They tested his blood levels and in fact they had dropped to 12.8. We also had his numbers fully explained to us and when to worry and what to watch out for.  It was nice to be able to communicate fully. The doctor at the other hospital that morning did not offer us a tenth of the same information.
We were taken back to the ER and then discharged about 10m later with a follow up appointment with the pediatrician the next day. Total ER cost including NICU visit and blood test: 46usd.
Total time spent in the ER: about 2.5 hours.
Best ER experience of our lives. 

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