Oh man. I went on a trip to Cuba with some buddies a few years ago. On the first night they could only provide us with one key so we had one key for the three guys in the room. I was speaking with a girl at the bar and my buddy decided he was going to bed, but didn’t want to disturb me for the key. He climbed the railing to enter from the balcony and injured himself including dislocating a shoulder. I’m about to fall asleep and he bursts through the door yelling that he has to go to the hospital. Lo and behold two hundred bucks and half an hour later and we are in the shoddiest ambulance ever headed to a hospital—we were an hour away to the closest.

Here’s where it gets weird. We finally arrive and I see we are entering the building from the back. It’s pitch black and starting to feel pretty sketched out. Keep in mind we are hammered on our first night there. We arrive in the building and are taken to the basement where there are just old dudes smoking in the, what I presumed to be the lobby/er entrance. We sit there for around a minute and I start to get even more anxious. There absolutely no signs this is a hospital and everyone looks super sketchy and we don’t speak any Spanish. In my mind I’m thinking “this is exactly how people get there organs harvested; foreigners drunk and injured, taken by a random car that for all I know is just a van. Nobody knows we are here except for the Hostess at the hotel, who for all we knows is very willing to sell us to organ harvesters, or whatever”

A few more minutes go by. I’m looking at my injured pal and I’m just trying to gage his state of Mind, we clock each other and are both thinking “we need to leave, now”. At that moment someone comes to get us and I’m thinking, “okay this is literally how I die”. He knocks on the door and after 30 very long seconds or so a guy in scrubs opens the door. He’s literally just waking up, and was yawning and stretching and brought us in.

I’ll end the story with a positive hats off to Cuba— he took immaculate care of my friend and treated him effectively and kindly. Told us we were idiots and to stay safe in Cuba. The ride home was so euphoric. It was kind of beautiful because we’d gone from feelingH so scared to seeing a pro treat someone with dignity and compassion.