Home Medical Care in Panama

Panama is an amazing country with so many wonderful things to tell you about. I’d like to share a personal experience that happened recently to highlight yet another wonderful thing about living in Panama.

My Mom, Melany lives here in Panama. She’s pretty well known in the expat community and has recently started helping our friend Blayne at the Super Gourmet in Casco Viejo.

She enjoys taking walks and it was a beautiful day in Casco Viejo. While lost in soaking up the beauty of the area, she didn’t happen to notice one of so many holes in the sidewalk. These holes are left by thieves who steal the metal covers of various types of meters and access to piping to sell. As her foot fell, she stepped into the hole and the photo to the left is what happened.

Casco Viejo is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Recently, the government was warned by UNESCO that they weren’t doing a good enough job maintaining the area. This is a perfect example of why, but there are so many more. The Public Works Ministry is awful about fixing the holes that are left by these thefts. The manhole covers in the roads throughout the country being stolen create an even bigger risk to vehicles whose small tires fall in and cause very serious accidents. There are so many solutions to fix this problem, but they’ve still been unable to convince themselves to spend the extra money for covers that can’t be stolen.

I work from home and when the phone rang, was having a relatively slow day because it was my birthday. When I answered, Mom started by saying, “Honey, no need to worry, I’m ok.” (I immediately started worrying) She continued, “I stepped into a hole and have cut my shin down to the bone, about 2 inches long. Should I go to the hospital? Should I come home? I really think it needs stitches, and I’ll need a tetanus shot and some antibiotics for sure.”

My mind ran through the options. In a series of strange coincidences, I didn’t have health insurance in Panama for my Mom. This left me with considering paying to take her to either the private Punta Pacifica Hospital or if I was feeling cheap and lucky, St. Thomas public hospital. As I had no desire to pay $500+ for a few stitches, or to brave the emergency room at St. Thomas, another option came to mind.

I have a friend named Dr. Javier Bernard. He’s a Panamanian Internist who went to medical school in both Costa Rica and El Salvador. He speaks perfect English, is a genuinely warm person, is a very dedicated Doctor and does house calls. His 6 year career has left him with a specialty in anti-aging medicine, he’s a certified flight physician, ATLS (Advanced Trauma Life Support), ACLS (Advanced Cardiopulmonary Life Support) and NRP (Neonatal Resuscitation Provider) certified. Now that’s the kind of guy who should stitch up my Mom.

After a quick call to Dr. Bernard’s cellular phone, he was on his way. He advised us that the stitches could be put in any time within the first 6 hours without concern. He said that he’d need to pick up some special supplies and medicines, but would see us soon. Mom got set up in bed with her leg raised, a little sugar in the wound to control the bleeding and a good book. What could be better than medical care in your own bed, at home? An hour and a half later, Dr. Bernard arrived and we began.

First, a good cleaning and some local anesthetic to kill the pain.

Then he got started closing it up.

Almost there…

And we’re done.

The Panamanian medical system is excellent. I have several friends that are Doctors in Panama. They all agree that in most cases, they would rather be in Panama than the US even if it were themselves or their families that were ill.

I don’t know how this could’ve been any easier or better. Dr. Bernard was thoroughly professional, organized, had his supplies handy, wrote all of the follow-up prescriptions and then called 3 times over the next week to check up on my Mom. He even came back to take the stitches out. You couldn’t ask for a better experience or a better example of why living in Panama is wonderful and Panamanians are some of the best people on earth.

If you’d like to have Dr. Bernard and his team of fellow physicians on call, you can call him on 6539-5959. Their website will be found at www.DrHousecallPanama.com. Dr. Bernard and his team serve all of Panama City and the Panama Gold Coast area from Chame to Penonome. If you’re staying at any of the area hotels and resorts like Coronado, Playa Blanca, Nikki Beach, Bijao, Breezes or the Bristol Buenaventura, this is your doctor for house calls in Panama.

When I was considering moving to Panama, I believed that Panama offers a higher quality of living for a lower cost of living. I still believe that to be true, 4 years later. This experience will continue to be a prime example of why.

Doctors don’t come to your house in the US unless you’re fantastically rich or to take you to the morgue. Even in the rare circumstance that you can get a Doctor to come to your home, it will be extravagantly expensive, forget calling his cell phone and prescriptions will cost even more.  Follow ups? Ha. As is so commonly said here, “Welcome to Panama.”

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