[GeoStL] Re: China musings

  • From: "GC-RGS" <gc-rgs@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <geocaching@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 12:57:09 -0500

-
Yvonne,

Yes, thanks for posting this. We all enjoyed the story at lunch but 
unfortunately those reading this didn't get to see the expressions on your 
face as you told it :-)

Rich

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eric East" <christianherper@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <geocaching@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, June 24, 2006 12:47 PM
Subject: [GeoStL] Re: China musings


> -
> What a story. And what a concept...
> being responsible for your actions.
>
> Eric
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Yvonne Von Der Ahe" <yvda@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <geocaching@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Friday, June 23, 2006 2:37 PM
> Subject: [GeoStL] China musings
>
>
>> -
>> At lunch today several suggested that I write up what recently happened 
>> to
>> me in China.  So here's the story...arrived Beijing from LA on May 18th 
>> at
>> 5:30 am after a 15 hour flight, went to breakfast, then on a tour of the
>> Hutong (the old area of Beijing) via rickshaw.  At the end of the tour my
>> friend, Mary, and I alit from the rickshaw and were standing by the 
>> driver
>> when this car came out of nowhere and struck me (I was not standing in 
>> the
>> traffic lane).  I was knocked to the ground and the left front tire of 
>> the
>> car ran over my right foot causing my shoe to come off (tread marks on 
>> the
>> shoe to prove it).  I could not stand or bear weight on the foot and my
>> right arm was battered and bleeding.  The car's driver picked me up and
>> placed me in his backseat and took me to the Beijing Friendship Hospital
>> which treats foreigners.  We were accompanied by the driver's co-worker
>> and the local tour guide who acted as the translator.  It took over an
>> hour to get there as he didn't
>> know where it was AND he had another accident on the way there...a fender
>> bender, but that's another story).  This man was NOT a good driver, but
>> after 2 weeks in China I'm convinced that there are few.
>>
>>  On arrival at the hospital, all three went in and obtained a gurney 
>> which
>> I got on then they rolled me into the emergency room.  It was a LARGE 
>> room
>> with lots of Chinese people on gurneys surrounded by family members.no
>> nurses in sight.  Off to the side of the room were several curtained
>> cubicles where patients were slowly being seen.  In China all care has to
>> be prepaid, so the man who had caused my injuries registered me and paid
>> the fee.  I was then taken to a small room where the doctor (who spoke no
>> English) cleaned my bleeding arm and applied some bright blue-green 
>> liquid
>> and a dressing, and ordered x-rays of my foot.  By this time a friend of
>> the driver had come to the hospital and joined our group.  The group
>> (driver, co-worker, friend, and tour guide) then took me to the radiology
>> department for x-rays (again the service had to be prepaid). The group
>> even accompanied me into the x-ray room for the pics and discussed with
>> the technician the positioning of my foot.
>>  We then returned to the doctor with the x-rays and the group had this
>> animated conversation with the doctor in Chinese and all ignored me.  The
>> doctor with the assistance of the group put a splint on my foot/lower leg
>> and told me to come back in the morning to see the specialist.  He also
>> prescribed a muscle relaxant for the discomfort and a herbal medicine for
>> the swelling (again had to be prepaid).
>>
>>  The next morning the driver came to the hotel accompanied by his sister
>> and the friend from the previous day, the local tour guide joined us and
>> we went back to the hospital where we had to wait in line to be seen (was
>> only about 45 minutes and again had to be prepaid).  The doctor looked at
>> the x-ray, discussed it with my accompanying group, then went next door
>> and discussed it with the other doctor, then discussed it with the 
>> casting
>> technician.all in Chinese and not a word to me.  Finally I got some
>> information out of the tour guide.multiple fractures (which I knew since 
>> I
>> had looked at the x-ray), no walking cast, no weight bearing for a month.
>> After the cast was applied I was taken back to the hotel, a wheelchair
>> with a pusher was arranged for the rest of the tour and a pair of 
>> crutches
>> obtained for areas where the wheelchair would not fit (hotel/restaurant
>> bathrooms, etc).  I then joined the rest of our tour group.
>>
>>  For the next 12 days we toured Beijing, Xian, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Wuxi,
>> Suzhou and Shanghai.  China has more than eighty caches and I had planned
>> on geocaching while there.  Obviously the accident resulted in my not
>> being able to do many.in fact only three.  A beautiful country with MANY
>> people (all friendly and helpful), good food (as long as you don't ask
>> what it is), bad water and air pollution, wonderful gardens/parks, and so
>> many pagodas and temples and historic sites!  I took lots and lots of
>> pictures...from my wheelchair.
>>
>>  On my return I went to the orthopedist, have a Lis Franc's crush injury
>> with fractures of the 2nd-5th metatarsals...if I had been in the US with
>> this type of injury they would have taken me to surgery to stabilize the
>> joint.  But, alas, I was in China.  Now no weight bearing on the affected
>> foot.so am hobbling around on my crutches till mid-July when I have
>> another appointment with the orthopod.
>>
>>  Additional information.In China when someone harms you they are
>> responsible for you and so it was that the driver paid for all the 
>> medical
>> care I received while in Beijing.  But, the costs for medical care are
>> much lower there than here.  After he returned me to the hotel he went to
>> the police with his friend to file the report (or that is what I was
>> told).  Later in the trip we saw another accident where the woman hit by
>> the vehicle appeared to be dead.  Our tour guide explained that if the
>> woman was alive, the driver was responsible for all her hospital costs; 
>> if
>> she was dead then he was responsible for her funeral expenses, and if she
>> had young children he was responsible for them.
>>
>>  Ladybug STL
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
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 Missouri Caches Scheduled to be Archived  http://tinyurl.com/87cqw

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