I am Nicaraguan/live in Nicaragua. My experience at hospitals has been… great, I guess. Yes, we have universal healthcare that covers a lot of things, but my experience has been good because both of my parents are doctors. When I was a kid, and I had to go to the hospital, I would get to my appointment pretty quickly, doctors where responsive, attentive and thorough. My parents may have been friends with them or at least they knew each other, so they were nice.

My experience is not necessarily common. Nowadays when my friends share their hospital experiences, they always complain about their doctors: they are rude, lack empathy, are not thorough, misdiagnose them, and the hospital system is a mess. Doctors are overworked, and they are not able to provide the care that they would be able to if the hospitals enrolled in the social security system didn’t take on so many patients. Their medical personnel doesn’t grow, but their number of patients does, just so they can keep accumulating as much wealth as they can.

My parents’ experience with hospitals hasn’t been great either. When my dad quit his job at the Army’s hospital, he was not paid any of the compensation required by law. This was not uncommon at the time, at least one person made a complaint at the Ministry of Labor, but it was dismissed because… it’s the Army’s Hospital.

My mom worked most of her life at the same hospital, she developed chronic pain due to her work, and was fired after she requested fewer hours. She later tried to file for compensation for an occupational injury and was denied by the (state-run) social security system. The Army’s Hospital is not run by right-wing Somoza-era guards, it is run and owned by Sandinista generals.

I am sharing all this because well, you asked for awful hospital stories, but also to illustrate something that people hate to hear in Marxist-Leninist spaces: Nicaragua is not a socialist paradise, we also live in our very own brand of a capitalist hellscape. A hellscape flavored with Ortega’s desire to enrich himself, his family and his closest allies.

I also live with chronic pain, I sometimes go without sleep for days, but I was able to get a diagnosis and the proper medication because my parents are friends with doctors. Only working class solidarity will save us, not fake socialists in power. (I want to point out, unlike other countries, being a doctor in Nicaragua doesn’t necessarily make you wealthy, only until I also started working did our financial struggles eased up a bit.)

I hope you get the medical care and medications that you need soon, good luck with your appointment!! Not being able to sleeps sucks, it’s just trying to get through the day to finally get to bed… and then being unable to fall sleep, and repeat. It’s terrible.