The
Midnight Run
Well my friends there are few things worse
than being sick while you are traveling.
Oh wait, I think there is…if you are traveling over 10K miles away, AND
you are in AFRICA!!! Well lucky for us
we are in the beautiful and very sophisticated (1st world) country
of South Africa. If you have to get
sick on this continent, this is the country with which to do it.
Ken, Don and I had just gotten back from
the Apartheid Museum. Don is Don Agee
the CFO with our JV partner AGES worldwide.
We had planned to go to an area called
“New Town” for some good local jazz music. Don and I were having dinner and we were waiting
for Ken, but he did not show up for dinner.
Once we realized he was 15 minutes late for dinner I thought he had
fallen asleep….nope! He was violently
ill, not to go into any details, but after multiple over the counter attempts
to get it under control, we quickly realized that he had to go to the emergency
room; he was loosing a large amount of fluids.
The owner of our Manor, (Marnel) who is a delight, was just wonderful,
she got her car, and Don and I helped get Ken to her car then we were off. Ten minutes later we arrived at a hospital
that was first rate and well staffed. I
had Ken with his arm around my shoulders as I was going right by the desk to
through the “hospital staff only” doors and walked him right into exam room
number two. At this point, I was not
asking anymore and the nurses knew better to even ask, as I guess my look was
one of ….don’t even! I helped get him
down, we got his vitals, and the nurse agreed to give him an IV and an
anti-nausea injection before the doctor came.
That helped a great deal. We
waited an hour, and finally the doctor came in and they did some blood work,
and we had to wait another hour for the results. Meanwhile Ken’s IV was finished and he was
starting to get nauseas again, so round two with the anti-nausea
medication. Once the blood results came
in we saw the white cell count was too high indicating a bacterial
infection. The Doctor came back and said;
“Now I am going to give you some Jet Fuel.
(Not kidding)” It was another liter of IV fluids with about six different
injections of a variety of vitamins, and by the time he was done the IV liquid
was Pink, and all this stuff was going into Ken’s veins. Meanwhile I am thinking whoa…but at the same
time, I figured these guys have definitely seen this before, because they knew
exactly what to do. After that bag was
done it was 3:00 AM, and Ken was feeling much better, and I called for our
driver and he came to pick us up. Side
note, our driver is from Zimbabwe, and I have advised the Manor owner that I do
not want anyone but him…his name is Russell and he is and was fantastic,
caring, and protective of us…the perfect person to have as a trusted guide in a
foreign land. When we come back, I will
stay at the same place with the same driver I cannot say enough good things
about both. Ok, back to Ken, so now it
is 3:15, Ken is totally spent and my adrenaline is running out, and the Doctor
said that we need some prescriptions to pick up, we had to go to ANOTHER
hospital to get them filled because the hospital where Ken was being cared for
had a pharmacy, but it was closed, and the only pharmacy that was 24-hrs was
some where else. The last thing Ken
wanted to do was wait another minute, but if this was bacterial, we needed
those drugs, ASAP, so off we go. Ken is
not a happy camper, the pharmacy was extremely efficient and there was no wait.
We made it back to the room at 3:45 AM
and Ken fell fast asleep. One more side
note: the doctor and nurses were so
awesome, they wanted to give us their cell phone numbers and as we were driving
to the manor, they kept on texting me “are you at home yet?” and “please advise us when you are home safe”
Very cool. Now, I am not going to
answer this question, but we obviously did not have RSA medical insurance, so
how much do you think all of this cost?
Remember, 3.5 hours in an emergency room, two IV’s probably no less than
six intravenous meds, a complete blood work up, and three prescriptions and
full retail price. What was the total
cost? Please use the comment section to
post your comments and later in the week I will let you know total cost.
I have lots of pictures that I will upload, so stay tuned. It is off to Rustenburg tomorrow, so stay tuned. Cheers,
Will
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