Rapture Surf Camp // Road Trip Managua

I never really thought about the medical situation in Nica till the moment a girl popped out her kneecap on her first attempt to surf down at Playa Maderas. She wasn’t part of our group but everybody who had some medical background (from actual doctors to physiotherapists) tried to pop it back in. When nothing worked they realised they had to bring her to the closest hospital in Rivas - which was a 90 minute drive by car. Her ride was just a normal car but the only way to move her was laying down with her leg straight up in a 90 degree angle. So we offered our car as there was enough room for her to lay on the while her friends were sitting beside her holding up her leg. Needless to say the used a surfboard as a stretcher to carry her to the car.
After this incident I got more aware of the lack of medical help in the area. There are a few doctors in San Juan del Sur but for everything more than a cut or an infection you need to go to Rivas and people told me if you have the chance you should probably consider going to a private hospital in Managua.
So when our long time guest Hanna who had had 👏 with her knee before told me she needed to see a doctor I recommended her going there.
I had just put my surfboard on our car to go to the beach with the group but I could see in Hannas face she didn‘t wanna go on this adventure by herself. So when she asked me if I would come with her I waved my board goodbye and put on some pants and shoes (I‘m talking about elephant pants and Birkenstocks here but I hadn‘t been wearing proper close like this in a while so it felt like dressing up for the city).
Johannes told us the best place would be „Vivians Palace“ as they had really good doctors who spoke Oxford English. Sounded like a fancy Spa to me.
He called Eric of our drivers and we were on our way to Managua.

Hanna and I decided to make the best of our spontaneous road trip so when we passed through Rivas I asked Eric if we could make a quick stop to grab some beers. So before 10 am we had our first Toña and Hanna was the DJ playing some proper road trip tunes. Obviously after the the first beer we had to pee right away. I guess Eric did not believe anybody needed to see a doctor but we only did this trip for fun.

When we arrived at the hospital I realized it wasn’t called Vivian‘s Palace but Vivian Pellas which was just the name of the founder I guess. And it neither looked like a spa nor did anybody speak english.
I did my best talking to the front desk explaining Hannas situation and after I said private insurance they send us up to see an orthopedist.

The doctor led us in his office which did not look like a doctors office but one of a historian with a desk crowed with books and family pictures. As his english was as basic as Hannas spanish it was on me to communicate with my not much less basic spanish.

As Hanna was studying to become a doctor herself and knew about her knee situation pretty well she was pretty uncompromising about what she wanted.
Her knee was swollen due to an infection but she didn’t believe that anti-inflammation-medication would help and wanted the doctor to drain the fluid. As I‘m not a doctor and I didn’t even know how to explain most of the stuff she told me in german or english this whole conversation was probably pretty ridiculous. But with a lot of hand signs and draining noises I managed to explain the situation to the doctor. He would have preferred to work with medication first but Hanna got really annoyed when I told her. Even though he (luckily) didn’t understand what Hanna was saying he did get that my „She would really prefer to drain the fluid right away“ (again with supportive hand signs and noises) was more than a request.
So he showed us around the book shelf behind his desk to the treatment part of his office. Here it got even weirder. There were all kind of prosthetics standing around and when he opened a wardrobe to wash his hands in a wall-hidden sink I was hoping for Hanna to ask for the medication instead of the huge syringe he took out to pull the fluid out of her swollen knee. But I guess her urge to get back on the board was bigger than her fear of non-sterile medical equipment 😬
In the end Hanna payed him 100,- in cash and we were back outside where we found a place for the worst mexican food ever and more beer and tequila to celebrate our achievements (Hanna celebrated her normal-sized knee and I my ability to make people understand what other people want in spanish).Read more