By the time we reached the hospital I was feeling fine ... well rather bruised around the mouth and somewhat concerned about my missing and broken teeth, but otherwise OK. Nurses busied themselves taking my blood pressure, attaching a drip and cleaning away the sticky mixture of blood and sand from my face.
I wanted to call someone to let them know that I wouldn’t be back home for a few hours but I could remember no local number and the hospital wouldn’t allow me to make an overseas call. Directory enquiries was not a concept the Filipino nurse wished to understand. He was efficient and professional, but on the salary he was receiving there was no way he was going the extra mile for anyone, let alone this overpaid white guy without teeth.
X-rays to head, neck, knees and elbow, blood works, drip and neck collar, endless testing of pulse and blood pressure, three hours observation and pleasant conversations with an overworked Egyptian doctor ... and I was out on the street.
A Saudi gentleman spotted me at the entrance as I looked round for a taxi. He shouted something in Arabic at a nurse (who took me by the elbow - covered in blood and with a bashed in face I must have looked much worse than I felt) and then ran off to the main road to hail a taxi. A few minutes later, he returned and helped the nurse bundle me into the back of the Toyota Camry.
In a crisis, people look after you in Saudi Arabia.
I wanted to call someone to let them know that I wouldn’t be back home for a few hours but I could remember no local number and the hospital wouldn’t allow me to make an overseas call. Directory enquiries was not a concept the Filipino nurse wished to understand. He was efficient and professional, but on the salary he was receiving there was no way he was going the extra mile for anyone, let alone this overpaid white guy without teeth.
X-rays to head, neck, knees and elbow, blood works, drip and neck collar, endless testing of pulse and blood pressure, three hours observation and pleasant conversations with an overworked Egyptian doctor ... and I was out on the street.
A Saudi gentleman spotted me at the entrance as I looked round for a taxi. He shouted something in Arabic at a nurse (who took me by the elbow - covered in blood and with a bashed in face I must have looked much worse than I felt) and then ran off to the main road to hail a taxi. A few minutes later, he returned and helped the nurse bundle me into the back of the Toyota Camry.
In a crisis, people look after you in Saudi Arabia.
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