Despite the sporadic electricity, lack of sidewalks, and occasional collapsing buildings, it’s sometimes easy to forget that Guyana is a developing country. Then an event will occur that you can’t ignore, that makes you realize the lack of infrastructure, technology, and in some cases, knowledge that means people interact, get hurt, and die in ways they wouldn’t elsewhere.
One such incident occurred when myself and other volunteers were travelling back from Kaieteur Falls. The plan was that we would take a small plane from Kaieteur (3 actually to fit all of us), stop in Mahdia, and then take another plane back to Georgetown. One group had left by plane already, and another volunteer and I were to take the next plane. When it landed, we were told the plane was already transporting a patient to the hospital in Mahdia. In one of the plane’s small seats sat a man, his eyes vacant and staring out the window. He clutched a young boy on his lap. The boy’s eyes were glazed with what looked like pain or shock.
We came to find out that the boy and his father were from a very remote village, and the boy had fallen out of a tree on the Friday and was paralyzed from the neck down. Because Friday was a holiday, there was no doctor available for him until Saturday. We encountered the family on the plane on Sunday, where he had already endured two days and two take-off and landings before reaching a hospital. Even then, it was well known that the Mahdia hospital did not have the facilities and equipment to even evaluate the injury, and he would need to be flown again to Georgetown. In addition, it took another pilot at the airport in Mahdia to insist on a backboard for the injured boy, and to convince a taxi driver to transport the boy and his father to the hospital when the ambulance would have required another hour’s wait.
Georgetown hospitals also do not have the capacity to deal with a broken back from what I’ve heard from other Guyanese. A fix would require another flight to Trinidad for surgery, and even then only if the boy’s family is able to raise enough money to cover the cost.
Sometimes you can forget that you live in a developing country, and sometimes it’s all you can think of.
Travelling for Travel's Sake 