Health care and small town Mexico

We had our first "emergency"l here in Mexico were we required some health care last night. I figured i would let those who are interested know how it all worked out.....

So our son fell and hurt his arm. It was at night (about 7pm) and while it defiantly seemed to bother him, it didn't appear to be broken or anything so we put him to bed. He woke up about an hour later crying and unwilling to move his arm and it was swelling a bit so we decided to bring him to be checked. Where we live there is no huge hospitals. There is one Seguro (public) hospital and an urgent care private clinic. After reading that people had a lot of success with the public system we figured we would go there to save the money. Well we went and they said we needed to bring them XRays first. So we drove across town to a private xray guy. The office was closed but we called his cell phone (it was on the sign) He agreed to come in.

So the guy shows up with his girlfriend and he looked like 15 (you know you are getting old when all the drs are suddenly younger) Anyways he brought us in and did the xrays. I will note they didn''t use any lead vests or anything. The xray guy left the room when he took the pics, but didn't suggest that we do. I wasn't super concerned about the radiation from one xray, but still found it interesting they didn't use the lead smocks. The cost of the xrays was 240pesos (about $21)

We then went back to the seguro, but there was like a 2hr wait so we went to the private clinic instead. They saw us immediately. The orthopedic dr was not available though so the on call dr, assured us that there was no major break but we needed to see an orthopedic dr in the morning. He wrapped Daniel's arm and sent us on our way. Visit cost 200 pesos (about $16)

This morning we took him to a town about 30min away to a DR who was highly recommended. He took one look at the xrays and saw a hairline fracture above the elbow. He put like a half cast on it...the arm was rested in a plaster cast on the bottom and than wrapped in ace bandage. We are too have it removed in 4weeks. Cost was 1200 pesos (about $100)

Overalll we are happy with the care received. I felt all the drs were knowledgeable. Now i have to spend the next 4 weeks with a little guy who loves to climb in a full arm cast...no fun especially since we leave to the states in 2 weeks (where i plan to have him checked)