The Downside To Guam Living

The one thing that makes me nervous about life on Guam is the limited medical care. Our only non-military hospital is not accredited and is plaqued with major financial problems. This was the headline in this morning’s paper: "GMH critically short on blood." The hospital urged residents to avoid getting into accidents…like any of us plan to get in an accident! The problem is that Guam Memorial Hospital hasn’t been making their payments to the American Red Cross.

An update was published this afternoon. It sounds like we have blood on the way!

1:45 pm, September 16 — As residents are asked to avoid accidents because the hospital is critically low on blood, the Guam Memorial Hospital expects a shipment of 49 units of blood tomorrow.

The shipment should return Guam's blood supply to an adequate level. Generally, the hospital should have 70 units of blood available on any given day, according to GMH officials.The head of the hospital medical staff said residents need to take extra precautions to avoid accidents. Dr. Thomas Shieh said one auto accident could wipe out half of the island's blood supply.The island is low on blood because the cash-strapped GMH has again fallen behind on payments to the blood vendor, the American Red Cross. GMH Adminstrator PeterJohn Camacho said a payment has been made. He said the hospital was five invoices behind, but should only have two outstanding invoices out by tomorrow.