Miriam Chmiel out of the Hospital

Thank you so much to all of you who wrote to us after you received our November prayer update. It means a lot to us to know that so many of you care. THANK YOU!!!

After the hard month of November, we somehow thought that December would be a little easier. We were slowly starting to get better and we were actually starting to look forward to Christmas. Little did we know that this year’s trials were not yet to be over. Yes, we got to experience something we had always said we would never do—we got to spend a week in a Ukrainian hospital!

In the past (especially after we saw a Ukrainian hospital when pani Maria was there), we always said that if we ever needed to go to a hospital, we would go to Poland or another EU country. But last Saturday it all happened so quickly that there was not time for going anywhere else. Miriam started having severe abdominal pain and when we went to a private clinic to see what was wrong, they said we had to go to a hospital immediately. They told us which hospital to go to, so we did. We really did not know what else to do. It was a “regional hospital” and it seemed like it was a hospital that was free for Ukrainians and could not refuse anyone.

When we got there, it was obvious that this hospital would be very different from what we know from the States or the Czech Republic. But most of the doctors and nurses were nice and friendly even though they had to work in really hard conditions. God blessed us with a doctor who was pretty patient with our questions and concerns. In Ukraine, most doctors are not used to explaining things to their patients. They are doctors, they know everything and who are you to ask… But we were not willing to let the doctors do anything without us understanding what exactly was happening. So it was a little bit of a cross-cultural experience for both sides.

We were able to get a small private room where Tomasz could sleep on the floor. It was comforting to Miriam to know that she did not have to go through all this alone. Otherwise the whole experience was pretty scary—Miriam was in a lot of pain, she did not know how much of the doctors’ medical judgment she could trust, everyone spoke a language she did not 100% understand, they were giving her shots and running tests without telling her what they were doing…

It is hard to describe the whole experience in a way that would help you picture what it was like. There were some things that we could not believe at first but then we realized that indeed that was the reality. There was no hot water anywhere in the hospital so it was impossible for the patients to shower or to even really wash. (We did not really want to know where the doctors and nurses washed their hands…) There was no water at all from about 10pm till 5am so if you got sick at night, well… tough luck… Some days there was no water even during the day and when we mentioned something about how hard it was, our doctor was trying to be sympathetic but at the same time it was obvious that not being able to shower was really a minor detail compared to the doctors’ not knowing how many more surgeries they had water for. There was no ultrasound at the gynecology ward and many other things were… let’s say “different”.

In Ukrainian hospitals, you buy your own medication, syringes, needles and everything else. Your doctor tells you what to get, you go to a pharmacy, get what you need, bring it back and then they give you your shots, IVs or whatever you need. Tomasz made quite a few trips to the hospital pharmacy this past week .

One thing we did not really get to experience was hospital food. Thanks to our friends and fellow missionaries, Josh and Kelsie, we had a homemade meal every day. Well, Tomasz did… :) Miriam was not able to eat much for the first three or four days but then she too was thankful for Kelsie’s cooking. Also when Josh and Kelsie heard that we needed to go to the hospital last Saturday, Josh came right away to help us with any language problems we might have (his Ukrainian is great!!!). What a blessing to have friends like that!

Even though the hospital was definitely not up to the US or EU standards, we still expected to be charged for the week-long stay, all the medical attention, our private room, a lot of blood tests etc… Tomasz went to the ATM machine to be ready to pay our hospital bill when the doctor came and told us that we owed $7! We thought we did not understand her correctly, but we did. Yes, the bill was $7!!! We do have insurance that should reimburse us for our medical expenses while in Ukraine, but with bills like these, we’d have to be in a Ukrainian hospital for almost a year to even meet our deductible.

Well, we could probably tell you more but if you’d like to see more, visit our picture gallery at http://www.chmiels.com/gallery/.

Thank you again for all your prayers!!!

Blessings, Tomasz and Miriam

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” - Romans 8:28