It is surprisingly easy to evacuate Cambodia in case of medical emergency, provided you have decent medical insurance and Skype. What is not so easy is finding a tuk tuk on our street at 11pm on a Monday night. Little did we know, 24 hours later we would be at Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok.
My husband woke up with stomach pains on Monday night and I helped him get to Naga Clinic. The night guard called us a tuk tuk. The driver just drove around and around (after assuring us he knew where he was going AND after the night guard at our apartment told him in Khmer where we were going.) This is not unusual. For a pretty small city, drivers get lost more often than not. Poor Deva was in a lot of pain holding a grocery bag of his own vomit and shouting out "bot chveng" (turn left.) It was too dark to read a map. I was very scared. We were on street 51 surrounded by drunk westerners and a friendly bi-lingual Cambodian told our driver where to go. Phew, we made it.
The doctor at Naga (Deva has found it to be more reliable and cheaper than SOS Clinic) diagnosed him with food poisoning, gave him an injection for pain and 27 bucks worth of meds. We woke up our driver and he took us back to our apartment without getting lost (impressive!)
When I was getting ready for work, Deva was lying and moaning in bed feeling worse, not any better. I left the business card for my doctor at SOS Clinic, just in case.
At 10 am on Tuesday I received a text message from him that he has appendicitis and would probably have to be medically evacuated to Bangkok, Thailand.
My Principal let me call the insurance company using Skype on her laptop and substituted my afternoon class. My teaching assistant taught my Early Years class. I arranged for our downstairs neighbor to take care of our cat. Another teacher covered my Early Years playground duty while I quickly typed my emergency sub plans for the next three days (apologies to my poor substitute if they were not the best plans.) They were all being really nice. I didn't need more stress being four months pregnant.
I headed to SOS to see what the situation was at 1pm. We were waiting to hear from the insurance company, which I did on my way home (driven by our reliable tuk tuk driver/ part time policeman, David.) I packed our things not knowing how long we would be gone, ate some lunch, told the cat goodbye, and headed back to SOS Clinic around 5pm. Meanwhile, Deva was driven to Calmette Hospital to have a CT scan to confirm the doctor's diagnosis. I dropped off Deva's teaching materials and class roster at his work, ACE, and the office administrator offered me a job teaching English. It's nice to have options, but what strange timing.
I asked the doctor why we couldn't just go to Royal Rattanak Hospital in Phnom Penh. In case of complications, their blood supply is iffy at best and their nursing care is sub-par. Eek. It is sad that the government can't pull it together to have better health care. Oh wait, if they or their families are in need of treatment, they can just fly to Thailand or more likely, Singapore. But what about everyone else? It is very unfair.
At about 11:30 pm we were in the emergency room (the cleanest and calmest ER I have ever seen, even if it did small like nail polish.) The hospital made Deva sign some forms and we met with the doctor. By 1 am he was in the room outside surgery and at about 2:30am (I was pretty groggy, too) I received a call he was finished with surgery and in the post-op room for a few hours. They made him take off his wedding ring which was the worst part and I took it upstairs with his clothes to room 904. This hotel...err, hospital is swanky.
He was wheeled into the room about 4:15 am, pretty groggy and threw up again due to the anesthesia. We both slept all day being occasionally interrupted by doctors and nurses.
I scavenged some breakfast at Au Bon Pain... wait, there's a Mc Donalds (in a hospital? isn't that counter-productive) and a Starbucks and REAL Thai food (being Thailand.) I ate really well, while Deva was prescribed broth and jell-o.
We stayed three days and on Saturday, the insurance company arranged for the flight back to Phnom Penh (one day I'll get paid back I hope.) Deva got to lie in the lap of luxury eating canapes and sipping champagne in his first class seat (doctor's orders.) I was in the cheap(er) seats in back eating my yummy sandwich and French dessert. I would recommend Air France. I would also recommend giving yourself an extra hour to check-in at the mega-crowded Bangkok airport.
We are back in Phnom Penh with the cat, some medicine and waterproof bandages, awaiting the doctor at SOS to take stitches in a week or so and also awaiting our next teaching placement in a country that has better health care than Cambodia.
In the mean time, we are thankful that our doorman and trusty driver can carry our heavy things since neither of us can for a few months and that Door-to-Door can deliver French food to our door in less than 30 minutes.
