Persistent cough sends Matthew to Chinese doctor

** Adoption countdown: 3 days until Pam, Terry and Matthew return home **

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

GUANGZHOU, China (Monday, Dec. 15, 2008, 10 p.m.) – If you think health care is overpriced and out-of-control in the United States, then don’t want to fall sick in a foreign country – medical expenses for foreigners who become ill can mount quickly.

We found that out Monday when we took Matthew to a local doctor after he fell ill with a nasty, wet cough. He wouldn’t stop and we didn’t want to take any chances.

So Holt International Children’s Services arranged an appointment with a doctor in Guangzhou who has treated other adoptees and many Americans. Dr. Ong was nice and helped a lot.

After a 30-minute ride through a maze of streets and elevated expressways (some with one elevated span several feet above a second elevated span, which itself was several feet over street-level traffic), we arrived at Dr. Ong’s office somewhere in this sprawling city.

Dr. Ong spoke perfect English and thoroughly examined Matthew. But by the way our son screamed and cried, you would have thought it was the end of the world.

The diagnosis was simple: Matthew had an upper respiratory infection in which a draining sinus was causing his cough. Dr. Ong prescribed and provided us with an antibiotic, a cough syrup and cold medicine.

The price fr everything: The equivalent of about $153. Ouch.

I’m glad I bought travel insurance before we left Mississippi. For about $600, we have coverage against lost luggage, trip cancelation, delayed flight and medical emergency. Matthew fell under medical emergency.

The only catch: I had to fork over the cash today and then file a claim when we return to the United States. That’s OK because our son will, we hope, be better by the time we get home.

Copyright 2008 by Terry R. Cassreino. All rights reserved.