At 7:45 (PM) exactly Axel was discharged from the hospital after I paid the 5000 rupees not covered by our insurance. The amount included a $100l copayment and the cost of his toothbrush and toothpaste, his flexible tip thermometer, a ‘records charge’ and a consultation from the dietitian. It wasn’t until his last meal that I met her and told her he actually liked Indian food (she had assumed all foreigners didn’t) and a records charge. The actual bill was 40.000 rupees or thereabouts which is less than one thousand dollars. This explains medical tourism.
It took another hour to get his discharge instructions and receive his medicine (against Kabul dust, allergies, antibiotics). Only then did the nurse take out the line into his veins and then we were free.
On our way out I pointed out some of the extraordinary artwork – an entire wall of the hall to the elevators was covered by religious images, in stained glass – first there was the Ohm sign, then Jesus, then a holy man I did not recognize (Moses?), then Allah Akbar in calligraphy and finally the elephant god Ganesh. I wondered what the stern looking Afghans thought when they saw Allah’s name right next to Ganesh.
The hospital was full of Afghans who came to seek the kind of healthcare that doesn’t exist (yet I should say) in Afghanistan. This medical tourism by the middle class and even the poor is what bothers Karzai and his minister of health. They want to do something about this and we are often asked to help.
We splurged on a taxi, rather than a tuk-tuk, into the center of New Delhi and headed for a bar that served wonderful Thai food alongside cold beers and cocktails – something we thought about in the hospital during our three long days there.
Since we didn’t know until late in the day whether Axel would be discharged or not we had planned to postpone our return to Kabul by one more day. As it turned out all the flights on Saturday and Sunday were booked which means we have another three days in Delhi and Axel gets to be a tourist after all.
Sylvia's Journal 
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