We are, perhaps, guilty of taking for granted out public-health system, which for all its faults, means you don't have to mortgage your house to pay hospital bills.

Don’t travel to the states if you are in the later stages of pregnancy because having a baby in an American hospital will cost you an arm and a leg. Here, in Spain, if you have been in for an operation, they give you a bill, but not one that you have to pay, but rather so that you know how much this medical attention would have cost in the private sector.

It’s a good idea, because, it costs the State a lot of money to provide public hospitals where all kinds of medical intervention are carried out — yet we complain about hospital food.

Take the case of a little boy, aged two and a half. Although the family has a business in La Herradura, they live in Mexico. One day the child started to have problems: he wasn’t eating and was having difficulties in moving his limbs, etc. In Mexico, they discovered that he had a tumour on the cerebral stem, which was causing water on the brain; something that would kill him if not treated.

Medical facilities there are far from modern yet still hideously expensive. They managed to drain the fluid. An operation to remove the tumour would cost around 100,000 euros but that would only be a stop-gap solution and would only extend his life four or five years.

Owing to social media, the story got out and thanks to displays of solidarity, the family fly back today to Barcelona where the child will be operated on. The plan is to remove between 70% and 80% of the tumour; the rest they cannot touch because of its proximity to the brain.

The parents have a diving business in La Herradura and they were going to hold fund-raising dives for an operation in Mexico, but now he is coming back to Spain and Seguridad Social covers the cost of the hospital stay and operation. Furthermore, Motril Town Hall is going to donate the takings from a play that is scheduled to take place in the Teatro Calderón.

To say that the family is stunned by the display of solidarity on the Costa Tropical is an understatement. They are tremendously grateful. In fact, when Oliver (the child’s name) is back with them after the operation and post-operative care, they intend to contact NGOs that exist to help children in medical emergencies and donate whatever funds are left over.

(News: Herradura/Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia – Photo and Original Article)