Tonight my sister had an asthma attack and her inhaler ran out. It was late and the nearest open pharmacy was 3km away. Our options were:
- Walk 42 minutes to the pharmacy.
- Wait 40 minutes, walk 10 minutes to the bus station, take the hourly night bus (pray the route isn’t skipped), and walk 15 minutes to the pharmacy.
- Drive 8 minutes.
Fortunately, I have a car, so that was an option. However, tomorrow I won’t sleep at home and my sister doesn’t have a license, and maybe that happens the next time she forgets to refill… We live in Athens the capital of Greece, not a rural area, not a small town, but the fucking capital.
Car dependency sucks.
Edit: While ambulances are an option, no matter how unreliable they may be, having to escalate, when it shouldn’t be necessary, is increasing the load of an already overloaded health care sector.
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Please don’t depend on an inhaler as a rescue medicine… If she is using Albuterol then she needs a controller medication to take every day. Asthma can be life threatening; please make sure she gets effective care.
I’m sorry you had to deal with everything and am so glad you were able to drive to help her. She is lucky to have you.
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It has been a rough journey for her, lots of conflicting diagnosis and treatments. It’s really hard to get reliable medical advice for that.
Right now she is using aerolin, mostly because it kinda helps and it’s cheap. But, we are looking for a doctor we can trust.
Thanks for your concern and kind words ❤️
How fast would a bike/ebike take for the same route? I also agree that car dependency sucks.
About 15 minutes I guess, but not for someone with breathing problems.
Well, how long would it take someone with breathing problems you reckon? 20 mins?
Probably wouldn’t make it if they’re actively having an attack.
If they can walk, they can bike. If they can’t walk, how safe is it for them to drive a car? Calling a taxi or an ambulance is not out of the question.
ambulance is there for exactly this kind of situation
It would probably be around 30mins because there is no bike infrastructure and I would have to avoid the highway.
Though as others have said during an attack walking such a long distance or biking is not an option.
Also, ebikes like Lime are not an option here.
What is the solution then? The problem is probably more that there aren’t enough pharmacists to run 24/7 pharmacies within walking distance of everyone in a city.
Also even cities with great public transport infrastructure have a spotty night schedule or don’t even have one at all. Like even in Tokyo you can get stranded if you miss the last bus/train and then you have to wait till the morning or call a taxi
This situation would have happened in any city , walkable or not, unless you live near a pharmacy that is open at night.
I could rant for ages about the state of public health in my country, but this is not the community for that.
There are a lot of things to be improved on the area of public transportation.
The night routes are not enough, it’s not like the buses are empty. Also, if the metro operated during the night this would have been a 15min trip. Remember autopilot is a thing, night routes shouldn’t be an issue for metro lines.
The bike infrastructure is non existent, a good bike path would make the time to get there about the same as driving a car.
Last but not least, the problem still stands and escalating an issue as simple as picking up a medicine increases the burden on the already overloaded health services.
Remember autopilot is a thing, night routes shouldn’t be an issue for metro lines.
piloting isn’t the issue, it’s the cost of running a metro line when (almost) noone uses it
If my life depends on it I would call an Uber or cab or ask my neighbor.
That doesn’t take away the point that cities should be designed better.
Or call an ambulance. In some places, sure, Uber or a taxi is the right choice because you can’t afford the ambulance, but societies without universal healthcare have deeply fucked priorities.
We have universal health care, though it is severely underfunded, and the government is trying to privatize it.
Deeply fucked priorities it is indeed.
The wait times for ambulances are horrific, last month there were 3 stories of an ambulance arriving more than 2 hours later only to pickup a corpse.
Do you not have Uber or taxis in Athens?
We tend to avoid them at night, because night fares are expensive and there are safety concerns for women (sexism is so fun 🤬). But, in an emergency they are an option we would consider.
Honestly, sounds like a skill issue. Your sister needs to have two inhailers available at any given time, if possible.
For this case yes, but there is a night schedule for pharmacies for a reason.
Emergencies occur during the night, and avoiding escalation when it’s not necessary removes the burden from the health care services.
What about a cab? We’re car-free and that’s what we did when my wife went into labour. I mean, if you’re having an asthma attack, you probably shouldn’t be driving anyway.
