Part 2 (The Waiting Room)

I thought there were some good storytelling elements in the film.  For the most part the filmmaker let everything happen around the lens of the camera as it recorded it.  I was sucked into the drama as the father was dealing with his emotions and a very sick child.  I was concerned when the guy who needed surgery for cancer and he couldn’t get it.  I was affected by the elderly patient who was having back pain and couldn’t get any kind of treatment for it.  He had a job laying carpet and could not afford proper medical treatment or to stop working even though it was causing him so much pain.  There was also some genuine emotion as a man with a drug problem cried.  He had nowhere to go and it was sad to see this happen to another human being.

I did not enjoy the voice over’s as I felt they took me out of the story.  Everything else in the film, with the exception of the music, which also didn’t work, came out of what was happening in the natural environment.  To take these people into a recording studio and have them overdub lines of written dialogue made it seem a little bit fake.  There was no need to distort the reality of the situation.

The music was also really annoying in the few parts it was used.  At the beginning when they showed moving camera footage of the waiting room accompanied by music, I was pulled out of the film.  There just seemed to be no need for the music as the images did enough to tell the story on their own.

There were some shots shown in the movie that just didn’t work and looked sloppy.  The shots taken outside with the natural light did not work.  It was hard to see the people and looked like I was staring at a blank screen.  It was supposed to be emotional and have tension to see this guy outside who could not get the urgent surgery he needed for his cancer, with his wife.

There were other shots taken with heads cut off.  It just looked unprofessional and did not add to the storytelling at all.

My biggest complaint about the movie is that it does not give me enough information and enough context.  They barely even mention the fact that the hospital is in Oakland.  They don’t say what part of Oakland so that leaves a little to be desired.

The film would have worked better if they had gone to more than one emergency room.  Had they gone to an emergency room in an affluent part of town, they could have used it in stark contrast with the one featured in the film.  It’s hard to judge and say that all emergency rooms are like this, or that this is the problem with the health care system, etc, because of the small sample size.  How does this emergency room compare to an emergency room in San Francisco.

Because of this, I am also left with a sense of not knowing where I am during the film.  They also don’t give much context in terms of time.  What year is this?  What month?  They only show one shot of a clock to let the audience know the time.  This is a mistake because so much of the frustration of being in a waiting room, that the film tries to get across to its audience, is that the people have to wait an extremely long time.  

   

 Having watched the film, I have no idea how long these people were waiting.

To show the passage of time the filmmaker tried to show some time lapsed montages/sequences.  These came off as a little bit cliché (is it cliché for me to say that?).  During these sequences the filmmaker also chose to play some music.  This did not work for me.  If the filmmaker had wanted to convey the passage of time to the viewer it could have been done by simply showing more shots of the clock.  A shot of the clock at the beginning, and then one at the end would have been very effective. 

I have no idea how long these patients spent in the waiting room/emergency room.  The filmmaker could have put up some captions that would have let me know how many hours they had to wait.  I never get this sense.  Time is not dealt with in real terms, only abstract ones.  This is a mistake.  I want to experience time in terms that I can measure.

I would also have liked to have found out how much money it cost for these people, many of them very poor, to receive treatment.  Since this is the biggest difference between the Canadian and American systems, I am very interested to find out about this aspect of the American system.  I think this information is very important and the audience needs to hear it.  They do get to see it in the shots of the faces of the people as they find out what they have to pay, but the audience is left having to translate this into real dollar and cents terms that it can understand.  This is information I want to know and the film never gives it to me.

Too Soon (The Waiting Room PT 1)

I hate hospitals.  Having to watch a documentary about an emergency room, only weeks after spending 12 hours in one, was a little hard at times.

I could not watch and was squirming in my seat when they had to put an IV into this little girl who had strep throat.

One time when I was in the hospital for my asthma, it took the nurse 3 times to get it right in the back of my hand.  

In another scene someone with breathing problems was given a mask with a vapor coming out of it.  I was given a very similar treatment four times a few weeks ago.  They called it a nebulizer.  I had 3 more of these scheduled at the time of my release.   The treatment can be very affective and improve breathing significantly, as it did with me a few weeks ago.

At the Grace Hospital ER they have signs saying abusive behaviour and language will not be tolerated.  I thought of this as I watched the documentary and saw a patient curse at the nurse who was taking his vital signs.

Later on, a patient on dialysis was cursing at his Dr.  He had enough and would rather die than spend any more time at the emergency room.   

That’s the thing about going to a hospital.  When you check yourself in you do so wanting to check yourself 

out as quickly as possible.  The waiting only prolongs the process, dragging it out and making it more painful than it seemingly needs to be.

I saw a lot of similarities between my own experiences at an emergency room and waiting in the waiting room with what was going on in the film.

A big issue that the staff at the Grace was constantly discussing was the lack of beds they had at the hospital, and a lack of rooms to put people in.

During the 1990’s I got a firsthand look at what was called “hallway medicine”, and can vividly recall seeing a lot of patients, many of them elderly, lying in beds in the hallway of the emergency room.

A few weeks ago, the majority of my time, after being admitted to the hospital, was spent in the hallway.  In my hallway there were 4 more patients, all of them elderly, lying in beds.

Like in the film, I also faced a long time waiting in the waiting room before being taken back into the emergency ward.

Like the patients in the movie, the first thing I did was get in line to be triaged by a nurse.  In an emergency room, they see people in an order based on the seriousness of the illness or medical condition, not on a first come first serve basis.  There were a few people who got frustrated by this in the film.  Usually, because of my asthma condition I am admitted right away.  A few weeks ago I was not, because my symptoms were not that serious.  A patient that had arrived via ambulance was admitted immediately.

As in the movie, when I finished being assessed in triage, I was given something to identify who I was that was wrapped around my wrist.

Another similarity with the film was that in Canada, they ask questions to make sure a person has a safe place to go to after being released.

A social worker asked some very similar questions to the elderly Asian man who was being treated in the same hallway as I was.

They asked him what medications he was.  They asked him if he lived by himself and if he had a caregiver at home.  They even asked if he had a lot of stairs at his home.

The biggest difference between my experience in an emergency room in Canada, and the emergency room depicted in the film, had to do with health insurance and the costs associated with receiving treatment.

In all of the times I have been to the emergency room (at least 7 times in my life) I have never had to pay anything.  Going to an emergency room in Canada has always been free.  Sadly this is not the case for all of the patients in the film.

There are a few scenes where payment terms are discussed and the patient has to pay a bill.  In Canada this has never happened to me.

There was a big difference in terms of scale, between my experiences at the Grace Hospital emergency room, and the one depicted in the film.

The hospital in the film had at least 8 Dr.’s on call in the emergency room.  Whenever I’ve been at the Grace Hospital, there has only usually been one or two, maybe three.

There were a lot more gunshot victims in the film than has been my experience.  In my 7 plus visits I have never once seen someone come in because of a gunshot wound.  In the film there were at least 2 or 3, including the young teenager who died as a result of his wounds.  

 I spoke with some of my friends who still live in Korea to get a sense of what it was like to go to an emergency room in that country. 

One friend who had 10 stitches had to wait only minutes at a cost of only 70 000 won (about 70 dollars Canadian)

Another friend who had food poisoning a few days ago was in and out of the emergency room in 15 minutes at a cost of 60 000 won.

Cheers Winnipeg

Manitobans are friendly folk, it turns out, even if you are wearing a Sidney Crosby jersey at a Winnipeg Jets’ game.  With one lone drunken exception, I was treated well Friday night at the MTS Centre.

I hope I don’t sound disappointed but I was hoping for a lot worse.  I did get into a small back and forth discussion with some young drunk fan who knew absolutely nothing about the Jets, but that was it.

Seated right beside me was a young kid and his dad.  The kid sat on the edge of his seat the whole time.  He wasn’t always watching the game.  At times he would be staring out into the crowd, and one or two times he did turn to stare at me for a little bit.  I guess he’d never seen a Penguins’ fan before.  There was another young kid sitting behind me and he kept asking questions.

To my left was a very mouthy teenager who spoke up every chance he got.  He got a laugh early when he said good save to Pavelec for making a simple play.  None of his other comments were as successful.

I had one or two clever things to say during the game.

When the Jet’s horrible mascot came out, I chanted “Benny’s better!”  That one got a laugh.

When the fans started complaining about the lack of calls against the Penguins I would shout out that it was a conspiracy.  I would also say thank you Gary, from time to time.

After Crosby scored his second goal I turned around to the crowd and asked them if they had seen that goal.  To be honest I thought it was a very nice goal scored by the best hockey player in the world right now.  It got me out of my seat.

There was this one drunken fan wearing a Ladd jersey in front of me who kept politely mocking me throughout the course of the game.  I was an easy target.  There weren’t too many Penguins fans at the game, but I did have a nice brief chat with these two fans who were seated next to the aisle.  The ribbing was good natured and I could tell the Jet’s fan meant well.  We shook hands and did a high five before I left.

There was an older Jets’ fan sitting in front of me and when the Jets’ made it 4 -2 he turned around to get in my face a little.  I just laughed it off and we both thought it was pretty funny.

cheers Winnipeg,

rymr 

ps. i ate a big pretzel at the game.  it was very good. i like big pretzels.

Sid the Kid comes to the Peg

“Hey crybaby Crosby, where is your diaper?” 

That was in 2007 in Ottawa during a playoff game.  The Penguins were getting destroyed by the Senators.  I had been dumb enough to shoot my mouth off before the game even began.  I was asking people if they could tell me who the scoring champion in the NHL had been that season, even though I knew it was Crosby.

I’ve taken my share of verbal abuse wearing my Sidney Crosby Pittsburgh Penguin jersey in opposing arenas.  Tonight I’m going to find out what it’s like to do this in Winnipeg.  (see my blog tomorrow for the exciting results – I’m also going to try to interview some people if I can)

Before the day began I did not have a ticket to the game.  Single tickets often get released on the day of the game and in order to get them you have to be on your computer, on the Ticketmaster website when it happens.  They are usually gone in minutes.

The first pair I found were right behind the visitors bench and would have set me back 450 dollars, but I was willing to pay it.  The last time I saw Sidney Crosby play it cost me 1200.  It was in Detroit, and it was game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals. 

There were lots of Penguins’ fans in the stands that day.  Not like that time in Ottawa.  It was like being a foreigner in Korea.  You could go a week without seeing another friendly face.

During that playoff game in Ottawa Crosby appeared to score a goal to make the game close.  Of course I had to get out of my seat to start feeding cheek.  This decision blew up in my face when the instant replay called the goal back. 

With the score 6 – 1 in the third period for the Senators,  Sidney Crosby scored his first ever playoff goal.  I got up out of my seat and loudly proclaimed, “Take that Ottawa!”

Of course the entire section started screaming back.  I think someone even gave me the finger. 

In Detroit the fans were a lot nicer.  I wore my Crosby jersey as I strolled about town and couldn’t believe how many Americans wanted to stop me and talk about hockey. 

At the game I was surrounded by a sea of Red Wings’ fans. After the game was over I ended up shaking hands with everyone seated around me.  The Penguins had lost the game (they would win the Cup), but the experience had been great.

I wonder what I’ll be able to say about my experience tonight.   

How friendly are you Manitoba?

Thank You

It was the easiest job interview ever.

“Do you want to be a public high school teacher in Anyang?”

“Yes,” I said.

“You’ve got the job”.

3 years later I got to thank the person responsible by taking them to a Jet’s game.

Last week while working on my resume, I was told to remove some of the information about my time as an English teacher in the Republic of Korea.

Apparently, being able to deal with a dishonest employer who tries to blackmail you in a foreign country isn’t a marketable skill.

That’s where I was 3 years ago.  Only a few months removed from having hernia surgery, trying to get out of the worst job I’ve ever had.

They didn’t want to pay me.  I was the only teacher at the school and they had less than 30 students.  The previous one I worked at had 200 students, and 3 Korean teachers.  Even that was considered small.

Every morning I would get phone calls from recruiters or potential employers.  They were not impressed with my work record and the fact I was looking for another job so soon after returning.

It was looking more and more like I wasn’t going to be able to find a job and I was going to have to return to Canada.

A friend then directed me to another company.  The recruiter there wanted to help me out because we were both from the same city, Winnipeg.  A few days later I got the public high school job.

To get out of my contract I agreed to pay for my flight.  This set me back over a thousand dollars.  After three months in country, I had come out about even.

My public school job was so incredibly easy.  In a busy week I used to work about 15 hours. (a lot of my classes got cancelled and I had a lot of day’s off)  I taught the same grade and saw my students once a week, which meant I only had to come up with one lesson plan.

I spent a lot of the time watching hockey on my gigantic television, or sleeping.  My desk was so large that I used to pile up text books as a pillow and use it as a bed.

One time I was woken up by the sound of someone knocking at my locked door.  It was my boss, the principal.  He apologized.

It wasn’t just the job.  It was the entire experience and it would never have happened if I hadn’t received some help from a fellow Winnipegger.

I’ll always be thankful for the two years I lived in Anyang. 

Yesterday, I finally got to say it in person.

Dan Henrickson and company, thank you very much.

sincerely,

rymr.