It took us less than 90 minutes from capsizing to peeling me out of my smug, life west, harness and wetsuit, to putting my deformed left arm on ice, and to being classified ‘urgent’ in the ER of Asian Hospital.
A few X-rays supported my layman diagnosis of a broken bone. More precisely, my forearm bone broke just below the wrist, sparing more delicate or sensitive parts. So far, the good news. The bad news was that the pieces had shifted through the impact and needed to be set.
Trying to imagine the pain the setting would cause, I weighed the pros and cons of a full anesthesia versus local anesthesia. I decided for the latter. As long as Glenn could be there holding my hand!
In stark contrast to the intern who took my X-ray (I had to remind him to put some radiation protection on my body) the nurses in the operating room played by the rulebooks. In order to keep a sterile environment in the OR I had to remove even my underwear (yeah right!) and Glenn was not allowed inside. All logical arguments (it would help keep the patient calm, he could wear a protection suit, it’s just a closed setting...) could not penetrate the decision maker’s reasoning.
It took my doctor’s creativity to ‘accommodate’ and come up with a crazy plan. He rolled me, plus all needed equipment and nurses into an empty recovery room to undergo the procedure. Only in the Philippines! At least Glenn was able to be there and witness a medieval procedure of setting bones in one of Manila’s most modern hospitals.
Laying on my back the doctor shoved my index and middle finger into a wire finger trap. He then tied the straps of the trap to an empty IV stand holding my arm in an L-shape. For a counter weight, he tied a bucket filled with IV bottles onto my upper arm. He himself admitted that this is “very basic for a modern hospital”.
Well, at least the anesthesia was a modern injection and not a bottle of rum. After a few minutes, my wrist was numbed and within seconds, he had pushed the bones back into place. A quick X-ray showed nothing but a thin dark line where before a big void had gaped. Plaster cast perfect!
Glenn took care of the biggest obstacle: paying the bills. And, I’m not talking about the price tag. It took him 20 minutes visiting three different admin offices to hunt down the bills. Meanwhile, I was not allowed to leave the recovery room. Trust doesn’t seem to be a common virtue around here...
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