Picture: Playground in the Children's Hospital in Riga
When Charles kept complaining about the bad headache for the third day, we went to see the Ear-Nose-Throat expert in Bauska Health-Care center. I must admit that on our way there, I had some doubt what the attitude will be when the times are so harsh - the hospitals are being closed one by one, the medical staff fired, the salaries reduced by more than a half compared with the previous year.Nevertheless, the attitude we met there was fantastic. The doctors and nurses were as kind as can be giving the child the proper time and attention.
When it was established that the child needs hospitalization, Dr. Zilite, the ENT - took an immediate decision to send the boy to the Children's Hospital in Riga. She was really unsure as to how we might be received there knowing the shortness of the resources allocated for the hospitals and healthcare at large. "May God be with you, and with me too," said she taking the farewell and instructing us to go to Riga directly so to catch a doctor there before the end of the working day.
The attitude in the Riga Hospital was surprisingly warm and caring. We did not meet a single person of the staff there who would hesitate to walk an extra corridor length to show us the right direction or help some other way when we asked for.
Seeing in action those Professionals with the big capital P, I understood why foreign countries go for the tough competition to hire the Latvian doctors and nurses. Britain, for example, offers them to earn their monthly Latvia salary in just 1.5 days!!! A big poster inviting the healthcare professionals to sign up for even as short a term as only 1 day is there on the message board of the Bauska Healthcare Center.
Our most heartfelt gratitude to the doctors and nurses who are still here in Latvia working for the miserable salaries, struggling to get the ends meet while saving the lives of our children.
Picture: The face building of the Children's Hospital in Riga
By coincidence, the next day after we had placed Charles in the hospital, we were invited to hear a concert of the choir of that hospital where the doctors, nurses and the administartive staff members sing. The concert took place in Vecumnieki Culture House. The conductor of the choir is the well-known Vecumnieki Music School teacher Cheslav Batnya. The accompanist is the managing director, a well-known children surgeon Doc. Dr.med. Dzintars Mozgis. He is also the soloist and even the composer of a few songs sung by the choir.
While listening the concert, I marveled at the strength of those people. No one of them can be sure how long their jobs will exist, and whether the next month they will have any food for their own families. Yet no one of them looked depressed. They sang cheerfully radiating their faith and joy of singing towards the audience.After the concert, the head teacher of Vecumnieki Music and Art School Mrs. Iveta Lavrinovica thanked the choir and said that a hospital, where the hearts of the top leadership are filled with music, cannot go wrong. I agree with her completely.
Our nation is not great in numbers, its values are not always the ones you want to follow. But when you hear people singing like this, you feel pretty assured that this country will live on.
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