Author: Claudia Salajan

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White corridors with blinking neon lights

at midnight were overcrowded by tenths of sick people. You could see the hurt in their eyes and the equanimity of being treated like this. I could almost feel the disease of this place, it was a disease of attitude not one of the flesh.

The nurse that pushed your hospital bed tried to break through and screamed out loud: “Make space, we have an emergency!” she shouted, yet none seemed to have heard. Their injected eyes showed sorrow, humiliation and pain. They felt sorrow because they had to come to the hospital and pay money they didn’t had and probably they borrowed and kept thinking how in the world will they be able to pay it back. They felt humiliation because they had to stay in line on the corridors to see a doctor who’ll sign some piece paper just to send them to analysis. And they felt pain because they were sick and they felt abandoned by the system. They sit in line in silence, a shouting silence just like the one before the raging storm.

None moved and the crowed became more agitated and one upset woman shouted: “We were here first, we have emergencies, too!” Another nurse came out of the treatment room and said: “They’re right, stay in line! You won’t solve anything by shouting or pushing the one in front of you!” I couldn’t believe my eyes or my ears. You were about to die and no one gave a damn. I thought I was going out of my mind. I seemed so helpless and there was nothing I could do. I tried to get to the doctor, but the crowd kept me aside: “No, stay in line! We’re here for hours!!!” they shouted. “Please let me pass through, it’s really a desperate case, I need to save her!” I finally escaped from the madding hands and screams of the madding crowd and slip inside the consulting room. ”Can you save her?” I asked the doctor. “Sure, stay in line!” he said with a grin on his face. ¨It is an emergency!” I shouted. “Please, she needs help! I’ll do anything!” I tendered my tone. He said with a smile: “Really, than you must convince me! You know, show me some temptation! Show me the money, otherwise I don’t touch her!”

Damn, this was unbelievable! Still, I couldn’t make a sound! I wanted to hit him, tear him apart and yet, I didn’t move. I imagined you on the hospital bed with plastic tubes into your mouth and shots in your veins. He looked at me and saw the terror in my eyes and said, comprehensively: ¨The first time, huh? Come on, give me the money and I’ll see her first¨. I rushed to hand him the money. He smiled and said: “That’s more like it. See now do you understand how we work?”. “Yes, I guess I do!” I replied with an extinguished voice.

Suddenly, an old man came in. He was desperate and said: “Please, doctor, my wife is dying outside, attend her, please.” The doctor was amused and said: “Sure, show me the greens!” The old man desperately gave him money. The doctor laughed frenetically and shouted to the old man: “This is not enough! Not even for a look! In what kind of a world do you live in? I have my needs to!!” The old man said: “This is my pension for six months, for God’s sake, doctor, do something!” “No! It’s not enough money, he said. You need to do better than that. There are others waiting, you know!” the medic blackmailed. The old man started to cry and squeezed. He whispered: “Please, we have been together for thirty years, never apart, I beg you.” The doctor laughed and said: “Death must do it´’ job too, old man.”

I just stood there and watched the scene, shocked. Damn him! Damn this animal! Money were more important to him than a human life! Damn him, he was a butcher! I pulled out a bunch of money and gave the doctor. “Take it, take it, but attend this man’s wife, please, I said, bursting into tears!” He looked at me wickedly and said: “Ha, ha, fine, fine!! You don’t have to be so melodramatic about it!” The old man kissed my hand and made a bow and went out to bring his wife. I said: “Ok, afterwards you must look at her. There’s no other way out!” The doctor mused and winked at me: “You won!”

Another man came in and shouted at the doctor: “You treated my daughter two months ago. Now, she’s dead because of your misguided treatment.” The doctor laughed and said: “Even angels fall!” The man went crazy and knocked the doctor to the right wall of the consulting room. He said: “You son of a bitch! You will pay for this!” The doctor said: “She’s gone, there’s nothing I can do, I’m sorry! Think about it, she’s in heaven now among the angels” The man screamed: “I will sue you, bastard!” “You don’t have to insult me, what’s done it’s done!” the doctor said. The man went out in a rush. ”What a prick”, the medic said!

With a loud slam the door opened again and an emergency nurse burst in. She said: “We’ve got an old man here and he’s really in bad condition!” The doctor said: “Does he have any money?” She said: “Doctor, please, I have already been to five sections and no one wants to receive him. He’s going to die on the corridors, please doctor!’
He repeated angrily: “Does he have any money?” The nurse moved her head in denial: “He doesn’t have a family either.” The doctor mused: “Get him the fuck out, there’s no place for him, here.” The nurse went out with a disgusted face. I stared in wonder asking my self: “God, I’m going to leave you in the hands of a killing butcher and there was nothing I could do, but give him money and hope you will survive.”

After a couple of hours you were sleeping in a silent room. You got treated and were fine. I touched your forehead and sighed. “Thank God you didn’t have to hear the other patients screaming, because they weren’t given pills to calm down their pain unless they gave money to the nurses and the other medical personnel.”

I saw the old man with his wife down the corridors. They were about to go home. He waved a hand with a happy face. I smiled back at him. A few days later, I saw on TV that the man without family died on the corridors of the hospital on a wheelchair, half frozen. No doctor attended him.

After a couple of weeks, when I got you out of there, I met the doctor and he smiled at me waving a hand and said: “Come back soon!” I almost saw the cash shining in his eyes. He was waiting other patients with money on the white corridors with blinking neon lights