<i><font color=#555555>""Most Americans DON'T have access to hospitals like Langone or Mt. Sinai.""</font></i>

Isn't that obvious? You need to be in NYC and in need of emergency treatment first.

<i><font color=#555555>""that would not be a fair comparison anyway""</font></i>

I wasn't making any direct comparison.

I can't speak for every state, but hospital emergency rooms in the U.S. are not permitted to turn emergency patients away by law. There are certain conditions, but insurance is not one of them.

If you are a tourist in NYC and you break a bone after falling on the sidewalk, your EMS driver will most likely take you to the hospital of your choice, and you will receive excellent care. Don't be surprised if a fire truck shows up at your injury location because the Fire Department in NYC often works in tandem with EMS.

From the New York State Department of Health:

<i>"Re: Emergency Patient Destinations and Hospital Diversion

A patient's choice of hospital or other facility should be complied with unless contraindicated by state, regional or system/service protocol or the assessment by a certified EMS provider shows that complying with the patient's request would be injurious or cause further harm to the patient."</i>

Everyone should know the best medical care is found, generally speaking, at a University Hospital or a teaching facility. Italy has plenty of these, but Venice does not. The closest teaching hospitals to Venice are in Padua, Verona, Udine, and Trieste.

If you have a serious, life-threatening accident while visiting Venice, your choices for state-of-the-art care are not present.

Not in Venice but Paris, when my mother ended up in a hospital for a few days near the Bastille. None of her medical team spoke English, in fact nobody on the floor spoke English, and she was in a ward.

Our perspective was totally different from the op. We were thrilled she was in a safe place, receiving excellent care, and it wouldn’t have occurred to us that we should have had a translator provided for us by the hospital.

I am not downplaying how frightening and different an experience it was for the op, but really, if you want it to be just like home, then stay home. Horrors! NOBODY SPOKE ENGLISH! In Italy! Btw, I thought ugly American, and vindictive too.

Right. But it's not applicable unless the op is from NYC. There seems to be some kind of expectation by them that their experience would be superior in an American hospital, that somehow the Venice hospital provided them with subpar care. I don't see anything in their post that would indicate that. At any rate, they didn't actually have a life threatening accident, so I'm not sure why a teaching hospital is relevant.

And no, you can't get turned away from ERs. That's why they are generally overcrowded because if you haven't got insurance, that's where you end up for ANY kind of treatment.

The doc I was talking to said the following :
- still losing your time on that forum ? (Hem)
- nobody spoke English ?
Very strange. All doctors nowadays speak at least broken English.
Parts of the training is done based on English documentation. Seminars (international) are all in English.
Every doc speaks some English. Younger speak better.

As for ugly American I'd substitute with ugly tourist.
I can name some European Who would complain in the same way.

All the docs I know and I know quite a few speak English french docs Belgian docs and German docs . Some better than myself most have difficulties mastering the language of Shakespearebut will find their way.

Pretty funny, pariswat. Agree, ugly tourist. Or maybe just ugly patient. I've heard some pretty terrible stories from my nurse friends.

It's kind of weird to me because English speakers were so easy to find in Venice. They're everywhere. That was probably the easiest place on my trip other than London language wise.

And then there's the fact that half the time I don't really understand what a doctor is talking about, even in fluent English, I just trust him or her to fix me up. I'm not sure the language barrier would bug me that much. If the pain goes away, I'm good.

Of course, ugly tourist. My bad.

FWIW (which I'm sure is very little): My reaction to the very first post on this thread was that we had a teachable moment. My kudos to every person on this thread who offered useful information, if not to the OP, then at least to any future readers – info about where / how to get translation services, what to look for in travel insurance, what to expect (or not expect) in medical treatment in a country not one’s own, etc.

Although it obviously seems to matter to some of you, I honestly don’t care whether this was the OP’s first or millionth post, whether she posted only here or on every website she can find, or even whether the situation she described actually occurred or was crafted as part of a research project to assess how people react. (If so, s/he certainly got a range of responses!) JMO.

Curious the OP has yet to name tour company.

I live in fear of just such an accident when traveling now that I'm over 75. Used to keep membership with Medjet, the medical evacuation service, but after 75 they require a yearly letter from one's physician attesting health status as okay to travel along with a hefty increase way above the rate I was paying prior.

Three weeks in hospital? Cathaterized the entire time? No English spoken? Something very wrong with this picture.

"Free" healthcare here is a compulsory insurance of about €100 a month for basic care, for everyone over the age of 18, plus additional optional insurance to cover things like dental care, physiotherapy etc. Plus you pay for the first €385 of care per year, though visit to your GP remain free.
That is in addition to the contribution made through taxes to help pay for it all and to cover long the term care of severely physically or mentally handicapped people.

The insurance premiums for 2018 are due to be announced this coming week. They will be considerably higher than this year no doubt.

There is clearly no such thing as free healthcare - someone has to pay for it, usually the taxpayer. I resent Americans getting free healthcare in Europe at the expense of the local taxpayer.

I don't resent it. We have a good system that works (ed) and if some tourists get the use of it for ´freé well it is nt a problem.
It becomes a problem when they complain about cutlery.

When I was a volunteer in pédiatric oncology an African was brought from home to our Belgian hospital.
It was party time in the village the boy said : he was sent to Europe. He would be taken care of, cured and would come back.

I love to think my taxes are spent this way.
I am a good socialist sometimes

I agree with travelchat. If anyone needs to be named and shamed, it should be the tour company, but the OP is cagey about naming them.
It’s not unknown for a tourist to have an accident on holiday. There may even be the occasional death.
A reputable company would have a local rep who could speak the language and know how to deal with an emergency.
Something doesn’t quite ring true

As someone else has pointed out, at least readers of the thread will have gained useful information. This looks like a useful site http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/...nal-safety.htm

My money is on the OP being a troll. The event she described probably never happened at all. If any of it happened, then she likely embellished much of it to gain more sympathy.

I bet she’s part of the effort to discourage visitors from visiting Venice. Next we’ll hear about spiders in the bed and clowns scaring people.

You make my morning, xcountry! Can you imagine, a campaign of red balloons mysteriously appearing across Venice

It's interesting that the last few "scary" stories of bad things happening to tourists were also set in Italy - at least the stories that have been posted to Fodor's. In one story people in a train car were "gassed" and their valuables stolen. In another, people sleeping in a villa were "gassed" and their valuables stolen.

I agree this thread has unearthed some valuable information about healthcare in Italy/Europe, but I also agree it is fiction. At any rate, the OP should stay in the USA and break her bones there and deal with the sorry state of American healthcare.

Probably worth noting again that the World Health Organization rates Italy 1 in healthcare in the world and the USA somewhere around 39, below Nigeria normally.

The no-English in Italian hospital BS is just that. So is the nameless tour company.

The no-English in Italian hospital BS is just that.>

Yes most 'educated' Italians speak some English or certainly would be someone there who did?

I don't believe OP is necessarily a troll but had a bad experience and making it sound as bad as possible.

<i>Yes most 'educated' Italians speak some English or certainly would be someone there who did?
</i>

Maybe in Venice and other large cities of Italy, but not in Piazza Armerina, Sicily as we experienced it. My experience is that English in Latin countries is less common than in northern European countries.

My experience is that English in Latin countries is less common than in northern European countries.>

Yes true to me too - but in Naples ER and Florence ER I encountered staff speaking English - but like OP can't make sweeping generalizations.

Bigger the country the less they speak English IME.