Please help me find a German hospital where my brother is
October 26, 2018 8:57 AM   Subscribe

Asking for a friend: My friend and I are in the U.S. My friend's adult brother is hospitalized with cancer in Frieburg. Her 92-year-old mother lives in France and can't seem to collect the right information about what hospital he is in or how to reach him.

Here is the information we do have, which may not be entirely correct: Frieburg Clinics; the University of Frieburg Clinics and a phone number where some of the digits may be wrong: 49.514.2(or 7?)61.60(or6?)30. We would like to find the hospital so she can call him. Many, many thanks in advance.
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat to Grab Bag (9 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: There's a Universitäts Klinikum in Freiburg, and the phone number according to a Google search for "Freiburg hospital" is +49 761 2700, which I realize is nowhere near the phone number you gave. They do have an e-mail for international patients: info-ims@uniklinik-freiburg.de.

I really hope this is it.
posted by Somnambulista at 9:10 AM on October 26, 2018


Best answer: First off, are you certain about it being FrEIburg (in Germany) and not Fribourg (in France)? Sorry if this is a dumb question, I'm not sure exactly how much information you have.
0049 is correct for Germany, 761 is the area code for Freiburg so could the number groups 761 and 514 be switched?
I haven't found a hospital with +49 761 514 ... though.
posted by any_name_in_a_storm at 10:40 AM on October 26, 2018


Best answer: 2nding to check Freiburg vs Fribourg. Also, please be aware that there are 2 Freiburgs in Germany and 2 Fribourgs in France and Switzerland. Someone I know found that out the hard way, getting a train to the wrong country.
posted by gakiko at 10:49 AM on October 26, 2018 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Thank you. We think it is the one in Breisgau. We didn't know there were two.
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 11:07 AM on October 26, 2018


Best answer: If you have no other information I think you may be best off calling them - sorry :/ I looked through quite a few hospitals in Freiburg (Breisgau) as well as the departments at the University Clinic (Uniklinikum) Freiburg which sounded like anything to do with oncology, as well as the Tumorzentrum Freiburg - CCCF and none of the phone numbers match even partially with the number you have (past the +49 761...)
If you have any more info (maybe a doctor's name?) I'd be happy to try again though!
posted by any_name_in_a_storm at 11:55 AM on October 26, 2018


Best answer: And with calling them I mean the uniklinikum at the number from somnambulista. It sounds like that part is reasonably certain, and with a name they will be able to check all departments I hope.
posted by any_name_in_a_storm at 11:57 AM on October 26, 2018


Response by poster: Not to threadsit; just a follow up: We did call various versions of the number we had originally but they were all the wrong number or a disconnected one. We don't have a doctor's name or any other info. I think the idea that the country and city codes might have been reversed is a good one. We will try that tomorrow. We have emailed the international contact and are waiting for a reply. Thank you all very much. I'm going to mark this solved but appreciate any more info anyone might have. We'll be checking back.
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 12:24 PM on October 26, 2018


Best answer: A family member was in an Austrian hospital some months ago, and this did the trick for me perfectly. When I asked here, many MeFites provided useful information, and it was a great comfort to us. The care was top notch (American doctors were very complimentary), and recovery has been fine.

Use Google Translate to convert your (plainly worded) queries from English into German. You should be able to get email conversations pretty quickly. They were happy to talk in person to my relatives in English (except for a single nurse, who was still polite), but all medical records were auf Deutsch. (Only one figure of medical speech didn't translate easily, and that one turned out to be totally weird and beyond vernacular.)

I had also looked up the American Embassy in Austria and sent an email asking for general communications help to an address on their web site. I got a reply when business opened the next day, but by then I was all set (thanks to AskMeFites). That might be a good way to get local help in hooking you up with staff at the hospital, after which you can try to communicate directly.

This feels crazy to you, I imagine, but the care should be good and you will be able to reach someone! Deep breaths.
posted by wenestvedt at 1:07 PM on October 26, 2018


Best answer: If you need someone to translate for you, I'm German. I won't follow this thread, so please PM me if necessary.
posted by LoonyLovegood at 8:41 PM on October 26, 2018 [1 favorite]


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