DAY 163: Hospital Fear Drives Deaths Within Mexico

DAY 163

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic    

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty-four Monday 24 August 2020

Hospital Fear

Drives Deaths Within Mexico

“A gray Suzuki stopped outside the General Hospital of Mexico and deposited a heaving Victor Bailon at the entrance. He had refused to come to the hospital for days, convinced that doctors were killing coronavirus patients. By the time he hobbled into the triage area and collapsed on the floor, it was too late….Mexico is battling one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the world….And its struggle has been made even harder by a pervasive phenomenon: a deeply rooted fear of hospitals.” - Current newspaper article by the same title

I have made 11 trips to teach in a Bible school in a small town by the Greek border in rural Albania, and to preach Sunday mornings as well. I established a relationship with the director of the local hospital and one year facilitated a seminar for the staff, something I have done in hospitals in other countries as well as in the US. One thing still stands out for me from that seminar -how they treat the dying: they give them pain-killing narcotics and send them home. They don’t want them dying in the hospital. Why? Because people perceive that if you go into the hospital you will die there, so out of fear and ignorance they avoid needed medical care.

It would be too easy to dismiss the attitudes of the people in Mexico and Albania as attributable to poverty and lack of education. But education does not necessarily a reasonable person make, and a disturbing number of educated Americans sincerely believe the coronavirus doesn’t exist and that quarantining and mask wearing are all politically motivated. Pictures of people in the US protesting mandatory mask wearing edicts and refusing to wear one makes them no different than those who avoid hospitals in Mexico and Albania. Ignorance is non-discriminatory, but so also is fear. People in this country fear the virus, or they fear the treatment, or they fear the ‘other’ political party, or they fear the government, they fear. I understand – none of us are immune to fear. Our comfort is in the advent of Jesus who came to free us from our fears, enabling us to find a place of rest in Him. But we must give Him our fears for that to happen.

Reflective question: What do you fear most right now? Jesus came to free you–will you let Him?

Reflective Scripture: Isaiah 43:1 – Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;…”

Reflective hymn:

“Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus” – Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

Come, Thou long-expected Jesus, born to set Thy people free.

From our fears and sins release us; let us find our rest in Thee.

Israel’s Strength and Consolation, Hope of all the earth Thou art.

Dear Desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart.