Reverse Sticker Shock

I have of course heard of the rise in medical tourism, wherein people who are seeking medical treatment travel outside of their home country to recieve said treatment, most often because of the high cost within the home country. India is a very popular destination of medical tourists, and after our experience yesterday, I understand why.



Eric had been complaining for a day or so that his little finger on his right hand was hurting him. It was a bit swollen and a bit red so we applied a topical antibiotic to the cut and covered it with a Band-Aid. This continued until yesterday around noon when he called from work and asked if my friend Mamta, a M.D., might be able to look at it. I thought that he was being a little bit of a drama queen since it looked okay when we left for work just a couple of hours earlier, but I thought that Mamta and I would humor him. When we met up, it was obvious that something was really wrong because his finger had swollen to a huge and disgusting size and looked like a sausage about to pop its casing. We decided that we should go immediately to the hospital to get this looked at because it was so gross and Eric was in alot of pain. We set of to the nicest looking hospital that we could think of since none of us had ever really been in a hospital in Bangalore (Mamta has only been in Bangalore for 10 months or so). We knew that this hospital would be much more expensive than the typical hospital, but we didn't want to mess around just trying to save a few bucks. Little did we know that we had nothing to worry about.



When we arrived at the hospital we promptly filled out a brief registration form; name, birthdate, address, the typical stuff. It was so nice to not have to sit for forever filling out all of the insurance paperwork and all of the other crap that has to be done at US hospitals. We waited maybe five to ten minutes before we saw that surgeon who diagnosed the problem, and then waited maybe another five minutes before the procedure was started (they numbed his finger with a local anestetic and then made an incision to drain the fluid, and dressed it). He was done in about another ten minutes. We then took the prescriptions and the paperwork to the cashier to pay. I was hoping that it would be under 8000 rupees, which is about $200. I am not sure what the equivalent procedure would cost in the US, but when I dislocated my shoulder I am positive that we ended up paying at least a couple hundred bucks, and that was in addition to the pleasure of having been made to sit in a freezing ER for two hours with a shoulder out of socket before actually receiving any treatment. I was absolutely shocked when the total cost was 1772 Rs ($43.59). This price INCLUDES the cost of the prescriptions (a one week course of antibiotics and three days worth of pain killers). And also remember, NO INSURANCE. That is the actual cost, no strings attached. My god, my jaw just about hit the floor. I am still in a state of shock. And the other factor that makes the cost even more shocking is that the hospital that we were at is actually NICER than any hospital that I have ever been to in the US, so imagine what the cost would have been at a more typical Indian hospital; probably $30 tops. I thought that I would just include that price breakdown that was included on our bill for those that are interested.



Registration Fee-100 Rs ($2.46)


Antibiotic-806.74 Rs ($19.84)


Pain Killer-71.65 Rs ($1.76)


Surgical Blade-3.26 Rs ($0.08)


10CC Syringe-7 Rs ($0.17)


Sterile Gloves-33 Rs ($0.81)


Consultation Charge-250 Rs ($6.15)


Doctor Charges-500 Rs ($12.30)



So if any of you are needing any medical procedure and are looking for a bargain, please consider visiting us in India. We were so pleased with our experience, we are looking forward to our next injury.

Working Girl

Well, I have an update concerning the ban on women in the workplace after 8 PM in Karnataka. After many demonstrations and vociferous protests by women's groups, the government saw the light and decided to withdraw the ban. I suspect that my sarcasm-laden post on this issue was brought to the attention of the Labour Minister and greatly influenced the decision. Okay, maybe not, but I am grateful that the people here made a stand and demanded fair treatment. With all of the apathy here concerning the people's ability to affect any sort of change, I feel that this is a very positive result. You go girls!!!

The Best Day Ever!!!

Well, I think that it is safe to say that yesterday was definitely the best day that I have had yet here in India, and probably ranks about in the top five of my best days ever. Before coming to India I had applied for two different fellowships in the US to support my work in India. There are two reasons why I did this. First, I knew that my salary in India would be pretty terrible, just around $450 USD a month. This was a little demoralizing because even though I would have my PhD, I would be earning a fraction of my graduate student salary. If I were awarded the fellowship, however, my salary would be on par with an American salary, which would be very nice to have in a country with low costs like India. The second reason is that being awarded a fellowship is very prestigious, and a great thing to put on a CV. So, while I was writing my dissertation, in my spare time, I also wrote a couple of fellowship proposals (har har har). One was submitted to a private foundation that is interested in finding a cure for Huntington's Disease (which is what I study) while the other was sent to the National Science Foundation (NSF), one of the two major federally funded research funding agencies. The fellowship that I applied for with the NSF is called the International Research Fellowship Program (IRFP) and is meant for American scientists who would like to do their research abroad, and as an NSF fellowship, is very competitive. I learned in February that while my proposal to the private foundation had made the cut to the top 10 proposals, it was not funded. Huge Bummer... Anyway, I have patiently been waiting since early October to hear back from the NSF, and yesterday morning I got the news that my proposal was chosen to be funded!!! I was ecstatic. I had hoped to get it, but I never expected to so it was a wonderful surprise when I received the e-mail. The downside: now I have to deal with the bureaucracy of a huge American funding agency, but the upside is that I know that my (and your) tax dollars are hard at work!



I thought that my day couldn't possibly get any better, but I was wrong. Eric and I were sitting at home later that afternoon when a guy from the post office knocked and said that we had a package and we could come and pick it up in a few minutes. When it comes to packages, I never know what to expect, who sent us goodies this time? Last month some friends of mine from Northwestern (Barbara, Janice, and Lisa) had surprised me with a package of food so I had no idea what to expect this time. My parents had put a package in the mail in early JANUARY that hadn't arrived, but we all had pretty much given up hope of that box ever arriving. Well, it was my lucky day because the package was from my parents, and stuffed full of so much yummy goodness that we just don't know what to do with ourselves. Oreo cookies, M&Ms, candy hearts (remember, the box was sent in JANUARY), granola bars, and the list goes on and on and on... I think I'll go have a snack to celebrate MY BEST DAY EVER!!!

But it's for your own good....

I was stunned to read on Friday that Karnataka’s Minister for Labour had announced that the government had decided to ban women from working past eight in the evening throughout the entire state. The reasoning behind this action is that in order to combat a recent increase in crimes against women, the best solution is, of course, to keep women off the streets after sun-down. It would be ridiculous to suggest that any effort be made to prevent such crimes by boosting the police presence, by catching, prosecuting and punishing the offenders, or by educating males that violence to women is immoral. It is much easier to just keep the women at home, preferably barefoot and pregnant.



In a stroke of brilliance though, the Minister made it clear that the ban excludes women employees in information technology (IT) and Biotechnology or women employed in hospitals and other essential service sectors. Because, as everyone knows, women in these sectors are given at graduation a protective force-field which prevents them from being robbed, raped, murdered, etc. So I guess that the government is interested in protecting women, though not all women, and not at the expense of India's standing as the call-center capital of the world. Still, it's good to know they care.



I have a great idea in case this doesn't work. Maybe the next measure should be to require all women to stop wearing revealing clothes. Oh, wait, the women here don't wear revealing clothes. Well, maybe they should stop wearing make-up. Oops, most women don't wear make-up. Okay, I guess the only remaining solution is to wear a full burqa, and if that doesn't work perhaps never leaving home at all or when leaving home is absolutely required, taking a male escort everywhere is best. Hey it worked for Saudi Arabia and just look what a peaceful and balanced society they have. After all, it's for our own good...

Wild Elephants in Wayanad

I again had the opportunity to get out of the city for a few days, so some of my friends and I made our way to Wayanad, which is the northern district of Kerala, the state that borders Karnataka to the south. Wayanad is home to an amazing wildlife sanctuary located within a remote rainforest reserve, and also to lots of coffee, tea, and other spice plantations. Like Coorg, it is a beautiful and tranquil place to visit where you have ample opportunity to reacquaint yourself with nature.



Unfortunately the planning and organization of the outing was not so tranquil (suffice it to say that anything that could go wrong did go wrong), but all of the stress and confusion was washed away once we set off driving through the mountains. We spent only a full day there, but we had the chance to visit a really nice waterfall, go on a wild goose-chase ending at an ancient temple, and enjoy a couple of nice long drives through the mountains. The highlight of the trip though was the drive back. As we were leaving, what I assume to be the daily afternoon downpour came, and with it came a drop in the temperatures from the high 90s to the mid to low 80s, making for a very nice cool down. As a result of the comfortable
afternoon temperatures, the wild animals in the sanctuary became active, and we were treated to many sightings on the trip back, including around a dozen elephants (including a couple of fuzzy babies)! It was too cool, they were just lumbering around in the forest eating, paying all of us absolutely no attention. It sometimes really strikes me how different this place is, down to the crops and animals that one sees when out and about. I think that the only thing that is the same is the cows (although they have some varieties here that I have never seen before). Here is a short list of the crops that I saw being grown here (for the farmers out there reading this blog, yep Dad, this is for you): rice paddy, coconuts, palms, mangoes, tea (the first two pics are of a tea plantation), coffee (the third pic is of coffee flowers), pepper (the vine growing up the foremost tree in the first pic is a pepper plant), betel nut, and bananas. The wildlife included elephants, monkeys, wild pigs, deer (though a different species that we are accustomed to hitting with our cars), and the ubiquitous cow.



We had good fun, but either Neha or Gayatri is in charge of planning the next!

There's No Place Like Home

Well, after long last (and a lot of procrastinating) we have finalized our arrangements to come home. We plan on leaving Bangalore on the morning of Tuesday, June 5th and we should arrive in Chicago that same evening. Our return ticket is for Thursday, June 21st departing from Chicago and arriving into New Delhi (where it happens to be around 117 degrees right now, by June it should be a little hotter, not that one would notice at that extreme). We are so excited to be coming home, and can't wait to see everyone. We are initially planning on spending the first half of our visit in the Chicago-land area to visit with Eric's family and our friends, and then drive out to the country to visit with my family and attend my brother's wedding (ie, the generation of yet another Ziegenhorn, just what the world needs. If you hadn't noticed, we multiply like Gremlins). We hope that we get a chance to visit with all of you, so let us know if you will be out of town during part of our visit so that we can make arrangements to get together. See you all soon!!!