Really?!

  As usual, things are not what they seem to be on Ikaria. There are even times when your eyes or other senses just can’t logically be trusted to interpret the reality of a situation. We even joke about it saying “Don’t believe anything you hear and only half of what you see.” A situation that best illustrates this point happened when an American family was visiting us one summer a few years ago...

  The family consisted of mom, dad and two kids, a girl around ten and her brother who had just turned five. Soon after they arrived at our house the young lad came down with a sore throat and a fever. Getting sick in Greece is a constant worry for travelers and locals alike. The socialized model of Greek medicine has its many benefits, but hospitals are sparse and vary in degree of medical care, and physician competency sometimes is questionable. After much family discussion it was decided that I should accompany the father and ill boy to our small hospital, as I was the host and the ever present translator. As it happened our hospital did have a pediatrician on staff, and as we registered the young patient, I requested an appointment with him. Since our American guests were not Greek citizens, or registered under the socialized medical umbrella, we were informed by the receptionist that they would have to pay cash to see the physician. She also indicated it would be over a thousand drachmas to see the doctor. With a strong dollar that summer the doctor bill came out to an astonishing $6.50. Being paying customers our wait was relatively short, and we were quickly ushered into the pediatrician’s office.

  The first indication that something was not quiet right occurred immediately as we walked through the office door, and the odor of tobacco invaded our olfactory sense. As we took our seats in front of the doctor’s desk, a desk filled and overflowing with patient charts, papers and other medical paraphernalia, we spotted a large dinner plate size ashtray brimming with half smoked cigarettes. A couple cigs were still smoldering, their light blue smoke slowly making the journey upward to the smoke tinged ceiling. Within minutes entered this young but serious looking doctor with a recently lit cigarette dangling precariously from his lips. Introductions were quickly made and symptoms of the illness discussed and diagnosed. During this brief dialogue none of us could take our eyes off the lit cigarette still well balanced and firmly attached to the young doctor’s lips, as if an appendage was somehow permanently planted on the right side of his mouth.

  Eventually the doctor had to physically examine the young

patients’ mouth, throat and take his temperature, and as duty called he did remove the half smoked cigarette from his mouth and deposit it on the ever growing Vesuvius mound of stale and smoldering tobacco. The nefarious strep throat was immediately diagnosed by the pediatrician, and a prescription for penicillin quickly written for the patient. As we headed for the pharmacy the conversation promptly revolved around the callous smoking behavior of this Greek doctor. Granted Greeks are the number one smokers in the EU, but one would assume that Greek medical practitioners, particularly ones that deal with children, acknowledge the health hazards and pitfalls of cigarette smoking. They should be promoting healthy life style choices and practices, but this being Ikaria, really, one shouldn’t believe anything they hear and only half of what they see.