- Feb 5, 2002
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ROME – Readers may have noticed that I’ve been absent from the Crux site for more than three weeks. The reason, which I didn’t announce in advance, is that I recently had to have a fairly major surgery on my esophagus, and then I spent more than three weeks in the hospital here in Rome recovering.
Although I’m home now, my recovery is not complete. I have to spend the next couple of weeks on a largely liquid diet, performing physical therapy exercises and going through a series of follow-up appointments, all calculated to make sure I get back to something resembling normal. I was lucky to be in excellent hands – my surgeon, Dr. Giuseppe Maria Ettorre, is considered among the best in the country, and recently performed an abdominal surgery on former Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.
I went into the hospital on Oct. 17 and came out on November 11, meaning I spent 25 days there. Most of that time I had two large drainage tubes coming out of my side and a large IV pumping me with nutrients, since I wasn’t able to eat or drink on my own. I also couldn’t really have any visitors other than my wife, who was able to come three times a week for an hour at a time, because of tight restrictions on outsiders related to infection risks.
That lengthy period inside the system, most of it spent alone, left me with some basic take-aways about the practice of health care. I offer them here since the Catholic Church is the world’s largest private provider of health care, and perhaps these thoughts may be of some use to practitioners.
Continued below.
After a serious scare, three thoughts on Catholic health care
Although I’m home now, my recovery is not complete. I have to spend the next couple of weeks on a largely liquid diet, performing physical therapy exercises and going through a series of follow-up appointments, all calculated to make sure I get back to something resembling normal. I was lucky to be in excellent hands – my surgeon, Dr. Giuseppe Maria Ettorre, is considered among the best in the country, and recently performed an abdominal surgery on former Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.
I went into the hospital on Oct. 17 and came out on November 11, meaning I spent 25 days there. Most of that time I had two large drainage tubes coming out of my side and a large IV pumping me with nutrients, since I wasn’t able to eat or drink on my own. I also couldn’t really have any visitors other than my wife, who was able to come three times a week for an hour at a time, because of tight restrictions on outsiders related to infection risks.
That lengthy period inside the system, most of it spent alone, left me with some basic take-aways about the practice of health care. I offer them here since the Catholic Church is the world’s largest private provider of health care, and perhaps these thoughts may be of some use to practitioners.
Continued below.
After a serious scare, three thoughts on Catholic health care
