On Friday, August 12, I was heading into the city to spend the day. Most Fridays, I have lunch in town, visit with friends and stay to have dinner out with Joe. As an added incentive on this particular day, our neighborhood power was cut at 7:00 am that morning and would be off until 8:00 pm that night.
As usual, my driver picked me up and we headed into town. Since I'm not driving and it's about a 30 minute commute into the city, I always take my Kindle along so I can read to pass the time.
Everything seemed normal until I remember hearing my driver, Tom, make a sound. As I looked up there was a crash and exploding airbags in a matter of seconds. Tom had rear ended a car. Luckily Tom and I were wearing seat belts. I had the wind knocked out me and was unable to respond to Tom for a few seconds until my lungs were able fill back up with air. I felt like my whole midsection had been rearranged. Tom released my seat belt and I was slowly able to get my breath back enough to tell him to call Joe immediately. Tom was not injured and at that point, I wasn't sure if I was or not but I was hurting and afraid to move. Tom got Joe on the phone and I was able to tell him to get to me as fast as he could and to bring the Global Doctor, from the expat medical facility in Joe's office building, with him.
A little side note. One thing you don't want to do in China is do ANYTHING to draw attention. We are constantly seeing accidents along the roadways, some minor but often times some very serious. One thing they all have in common is an avid curiosity among the Chinese to get up close and personal with everything going on. They aren't necessarily interested in helping but just want a front row seat to the happenings. People stop what they are doing, cars stop on the road and people get out to look.
This day was no different. As I sat there waiting for Joe to come, Tom tried to get the car doors open to get some air circulating into the car. Due to the impact of the crash, the car had been compressed back to the point that he had to forcibly pull the car doors open. All of the airbags had deployed in the car so the side airbags were down along the side windows and he rolled them up to get air in. At one point I looked to my left out the car window to see at least four Chinese people with their cell phones taking pictures of the car and me inside the car. I almost lost it and was calling for Tom to get the people away and shut the doors and pull the airbags back down. A little later I remember looking out the front windshield and seeing more people standing at the front of the car taking pictures. I must note that that NONE of these people were in any way involved in the accident.
While waiting for Joe to arrive (his office is about 20 minutes away), an ambulance arrived, stayed a few minutes and then was gone. I don't remember seeing anyone put into the ambulance but I was later told two people from the other car were taken to the hospital. I remember the ambulance coming up close to our car but no one ever came over to check on me. With the state my driver was in, I probably wouldn't have been able to communicate with them anyway and I certainly wasn't going to go anywhere with them at that point since Joe had not arrived.
Joe finally arrived with his office manager, Josie, to translate, as well as one of the Global Doctors and a nurse. From that point I felt better knowing Joe was there to take care of things. I was in pain in my midsection and a little nervous at the thought of having to go to a Chinese hospital to get checked out. Another ambulance finally arrived. I was able to get myself out of the car to get on the gurney and was put into the ambulance. Joe was able to ride with me.
That was the worst ride of my life. I was not strapped onto the gurney, it was a rattling, bumpy 10-15 minute ride and I thought it would never end. We finally arrived at the hospital, People's # 1 Hospital. This designation does not in any way imply that it is the best hospital in Chengdu. Here we were met by a representative of Parkway Medical that adjoins the hospital. This is also an expat medical facility. My view of the hospital was of the ceiling so I can't really describe much about the emergency room. I will say that Joe later told me he looked up to see several people standing at the foot of my bed in the emergency room looking on. When Joe asked the Parkway Health doctor if they were medical personnel, he replied no. Joe immediately asked that they be removed from the area. Such nosiness for a laowai (foreigner)!
One good thing was that I was immediately taken to get a CT scan. I think I was actually put ahead of several waiting for the same procedure. I don't remember much about the ride except this wonderful little Chinese nurse that was by my side holding my hand and being reassuring. She was dressed in a white nurses uniform dress complete with little white nurses hat. She had on a mask, not sure what she thought she would catch from me. One thing I did notice though was no one was wearing gloves. Hmmm. When we got to the CT room they attempted to pick me up to transfer me onto the table. Laugh! In frustration, I finally said I would get myself onto the table. The table had apparently seen many that day already as there were shoe prints and other indications that I was certainly NOT the first person to be on lying on that sheet. Although it did not take long for the scans, it was painful because I was told to hold my breath and not move. In pain and still having some breathing problems, this was a little hard to do.
After the scans I was taken to the Parkway Health facility where I would wait for the results of the scans. I was placed in the care of the doctors there and spent the rest of the afternoon waiting. I will say I got good care and felt in good hands at that point. While we were waiting for the results, Joe was able to return to his office to pack up his things and I was able to just sleep off the morning.
We finally got back the scan results. They are amazing films of the midsection of my body and included a detailed, all angle look at my ribs. There was no damage or ribs broken. I was told I would just be sore for the next several days.
In the meantime, Joe had gotten another car and driver from the car agency and he was coming back to the clinic. That car broke down in the middle of a street on a Friday afternoon in Chengdu traffic. He waited for another car to come, but finally hailed a cab to get back to the clinic. He was told there were no other cars available and they were looking for another vehicle for us. I was released to go home but we did not want to have to take a Chengdu cab home. We finally got another car and got home around 6:00. My day had started from home at 9:30! Good news was our electricity had come back on early!
Over the next several days my body went through various stages of soreness and bruising. When I had my seat belt on, as usual I had the shoulder part under my arm instead of properly over my shoulder. As the days progressed, my bruising has changed significantly where the seat belt was against my body. At any given time I have been black, blue, purple, red, yellow and green. Picture a terrain map with the designated highs and lows in different colors. That's me. Although I had no broken ribs, my ribcage has been quite sore. You'd just be amazed how that part of your body is affected by things as simple as yawning, sneezing, coughing and laughing.
Looking back, I told Joe it was probably a good thing that I didn't know what was about to happen. I had no time to react and that probably kept me from being injured anymore than I was. If I had seen what was coming, I probably would have put up my hands and arms or braced my feet for impact, tensing up my body which might have caused me to break a bone or have more serious injuries.
I'm on the mend but still have the seat belt markings. I hope I never have to go through something like this again here in China or even back at home. Here in China we must place our lives in another person's hands and pray for safety on unsafe roads where very few road rules are bothered to be observed. We're still trying find out what actually happened. Our driver is vague on the details. One thing Joe observed at the scene was the lack of skid marks on the road for our car. I don't remember Tom breaking before impact. We think the car was going about 45 mph on impact. We're still trying to find out about our car and trying to decide if we want to continue to have Tom drive us. The agency told Joe it would take two weeks to fix our car. Joe has told them the car should be totaled and we would not feel safe again in it. Not sure what the result will be. We will probably try out another driver before we decide about Tom.
Below is a picture of our car and the car Tom hit from behind. In hindsight, I wish we had thought to take our own photos. At the time, I wasn't in any condition to do so and Joe was handling everything else. Only later did we think about it. Joe says our car is much more damaged than the photo indicates.
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| Our Car |
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| The other car |
Seat belts and airbags save lives. I don't even want to think what my injuries might have been had I not been wearing my seat belt, all be it improperly. I am much more conscious of wearing it properly now and still a little apprehensive when I get into any car.
Love to all!
The day was spent catching fish here and there - Red Coral Trout, Red Throated Emperor and various other species of reef fish. Dennis also cast a line off the back of the boat that was watched throughout the day. The first tug of that line, Sam took control of the line and fought for 30 minutes before pulling in a 50 pound Spanish Mackerel.
Sam and his 50 lb. Spanish Mackrel.
Joe showing off one of his fish.
What a wonderful day! When we got back to resort with our fish, the restaurant chef cooked up a coral trout and the red throated emperor for our dinner. He did a fantastic job! The emperor was coated in sesame seeds, baked and served with vegetables and a soy/ginger sauce. The trout was simply baked whole with citrus influence and served with vegetables. Joe even gave the chef another trout to keep and cook as he desired. Sunshine, The Great Barrier Reef, reef fishing and amazing meal = ONE FANTASTIC DAY!
