Sickness and Death in the Philippines
Posted: August 24th, 2015, 7:02 pm
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I read a great piece (can't find it now) that said that in the West our attitude toward death, which is one of fear and procrastination (don't pull the plug on Grandma) is partly based on the fact that we no longer grow up experiencing death. Someone born in the 19th century in a rural area or someone living now in provincial Philippines, grew up experiencing the life and death cycle by observing animals.MarcosZeitola wrote:It's strange how some people are utterly broken and done for at fifty-five, and others make it to a hundred healthy as a clam. In the Philippines, this is very much reality. My wife's great-grandmother is still with us today, having lived long enough to see some of her grandchildren become grandparents themselves. Whereas several of her children have been dead for many years now.
You can't really predict death anywhere, even less so in the Philippines where in many places health care is far from perfect, or hard to reach. If someone in the wife of my wife has a heart attack, they'll bring him to the local clinic too. The nearest hospital is almost two hours by car. When my grandfather in Europe had a heart attack in his fifties, he recovered well, got medical help quickly and ended up living another twenty-plus years (and counting!), whereas in the Philippines that heart attack would have been the end of him.
Maybe for this reason, attitudes surrounding death are different too. It is understood to be a regular part of life, and as virtually everyone is Catholic, a Filipino dies in the knowledge he'll meet his loved ones again. So the relaxed manana, manana lifestyle prevails in all aspects of life, and death.
Very true! My daughter grows up surrounded by chickens, pigs, dogs, cats and goats. She's already familiar with the concept of death, though she's barely a year and a half, because a few weeks ago when my father-in-law was about to kill a chicken, she started crying and tried to stop him... as he turns out, she thought it was HER chicken (we gave her a chicken as a present and she's been feeding it herself). When we showed her her own chicken was fine, she stopped crying.davewe wrote:I read a great piece (can't find it now) that said that in the West our attitude toward death, which is one of fear and procrastination (don't pull the plug on Grandma) is partly based on the fact that we no longer grow up experiencing death. Someone born in the 19th century in a rural area or someone living now in provincial Philippines, grew up experiencing the life and death cycle by observing animals.
I'm probably too young to say something sensible about this, but I suppose if I was older and fear a heart attack, I'd take my chances if being further away from the hospital meant I got to live in a beautiful, sunny place. I'd rather die with a cold beer in my hand under a palm tree at 75 then die a vegetable at 95 in a concrete jungle which happens to be close to the hospital.davewe wrote:How to live is a decision we all have to make, particularly as we get older. Personally I don't want to worry about dying and feel like I have to live next door to a hospital, but OTOH, don't want to be many hours away. Outside of Dumaguete's looking better and better to me.
I basically agree but having the Uncle just die when he might have survived if he'd gotten to a real hospital gives me pause.MarcosZeitola wrote:
I'm probably too young to say something sensible about this, but I suppose if I was older and fear a heart attack, I'd take my chances if being further away from the hospital meant I got to live in a beautiful, sunny place. I'd rather die with a cold beer in my hand under a palm tree at 75 then die a vegetable at 95 in a concrete jungle which happens to be close to the hospital.
The percentage of people who say this is high, but goes down markedly when they actually get to 75.......MarcosZeitola wrote:I'd rather die with a cold beer in my hand under a palm tree at 75 then die a vegetable at 95 in a concrete jungle which happens to be close to the hospital.
Not sure what you're asking or what it has to do with the original post.mentor wrote:What about air pollution in Manila and surrounding areas?
I've basically always lived very close to a hospital, not out of fear of death but rather pain. If something happens which causes intense ongoing pain, believe me, you don't wanna be too far from a decent hospital.MarcosZeitola wrote:Very true! My daughter grows up surrounded by chickens, pigs, dogs, cats and goats. She's already familiar with the concept of death, though she's barely a year and a half, because a few weeks ago when my father-in-law was about to kill a chicken, she started crying and tried to stop him... as he turns out, she thought it was HER chicken (we gave her a chicken as a present and she's been feeding it herself). When we showed her her own chicken was fine, she stopped crying.davewe wrote:I read a great piece (can't find it now) that said that in the West our attitude toward death, which is one of fear and procrastination (don't pull the plug on Grandma) is partly based on the fact that we no longer grow up experiencing death. Someone born in the 19th century in a rural area or someone living now in provincial Philippines, grew up experiencing the life and death cycle by observing animals.
I'm probably too young to say something sensible about this, but I suppose if I was older and fear a heart attack, I'd take my chances if being further away from the hospital meant I got to live in a beautiful, sunny place. I'd rather die with a cold beer in my hand under a palm tree at 75 then die a vegetable at 95 in a concrete jungle which happens to be close to the hospital.davewe wrote:How to live is a decision we all have to make, particularly as we get older. Personally I don't want to worry about dying and feel like I have to live next door to a hospital, but OTOH, don't want to be many hours away. Outside of Dumaguete's looking better and better to me.
It is about lung diseases around there.davewe wrote:Not sure what you're asking or what it has to do with the original post.mentor wrote:What about air pollution in Manila and surrounding areas?
I think that pain is a reasonable concern, particularly when you have experienced episodes of it before. But while hospitals/clinics in smaller cities and towns are considered poor compared to major metro areas for sophisticated treatments and technology (for good reason), the one thing they can do is give you drugs. Hell, you can be in a small town in the Philippines and get drugs without ever going to a hospital or seeing a doctorRock wrote: I've basically always lived very close to a hospital, not out of fear of death but rather pain. If something happens which causes intense ongoing pain, believe me, you don't wanna be too far from a decent hospital.
I've had bouts of serious food poisoning several times in Taipei and Bangkok. The pain in some of those cases was so bad I begged the ER docs to tranquilize me to sleep. Instead, they gave me very powerful pain killers and started me on IV drip to get me cleaned out. Within an hour pain subsided and by next day, I was as good as new.
When it comes to powerful drugs, NE/SE Asia including Philippines is very conservative. It's virtually impossible to get any kind of narcotic pain killer here. Even the ER in Taiwan would usually treat me with tramadol IV drip even though I put my pain at 9 out of 10 and begged for a powerful shot of morphine.davewe wrote:I think that pain is a reasonable concern, particularly when you have experienced episodes of it before. But while hospitals/clinics in smaller cities and towns are considered poor compared to major metro areas for sophisticated treatments and technology (for good reason), the one thing they can do is give you drugs. Hell, you can be in a small town in the Philippines and get drugs without ever going to a hospital or seeing a doctorRock wrote: I've basically always lived very close to a hospital, not out of fear of death but rather pain. If something happens which causes intense ongoing pain, believe me, you don't wanna be too far from a decent hospital.
I've had bouts of serious food poisoning several times in Taipei and Bangkok. The pain in some of those cases was so bad I begged the ER docs to tranquilize me to sleep. Instead, they gave me very powerful pain killers and started me on IV drip to get me cleaned out. Within an hour pain subsided and by next day, I was as good as new.
It's a tough choice and I can see several sides of the coin. One of the problems is that most of us have lived in the doctor TV show generation where all you had to do is make it to the ER and you were saved. The reality is far different. Check out the statistics on survival rates when receiving CPR. Again, TV makes it look like a miracle, but reality is that the survival rate is very low.Mr Natural wrote:The percentage of people who say this is high, but goes down markedly when they actually get to 75.......MarcosZeitola wrote:I'd rather die with a cold beer in my hand under a palm tree at 75 then die a vegetable at 95 in a concrete jungle which happens to be close to the hospital.