UPDATED: Giving Thanks

Vanakam Readers,


As you can imagine while in India I have realized how thankful I am for numerous things in my life. Underground sewers, air conditioning, clean drinking water, clean roadside bathrooms, people who speak my language, reliable electricity, living near my friends and family, paved roads, the absence of farm animals on the roads (no cows or donkeys). Through these past weeks I've continued to realize how blessed I am to have been born into my family. Life would be a lot different if I was born to a village family in India. For one I wouldn't have all the opportunities that have brought me to this point in my life. I'm less than a month away from graduating medical school and I know this is a great accomplishment both for myself and all the people that have helped me along this journey.

Little did I know that through this trip I would experience the gratefulness of just being alive. Of being able to breath and eat and talk and walk. Of being able to speak with my family and discuss menial things with my friends. As some of you may have learned from my fellow travellers' blogs we were in a serious car accident this past Monday morning. Let me begin by saying that we are all doing okay. We were all able to walk away from the wreck and from the pictures you will see in this blog that is truly a miracle!

This past weekend we travelled to the state of Kerala to go on a houseboat. This is truly considered a once in a lifetime experience. And is considered to be one of the top 50 things to do before you die. Kinda' erie thinking about that after what happened but the point is that the houseboat experience is truly something unique and amazing!. The houseboat accommodations had been arranged by a friend of another UTHSCSA student. Everything was paid for, but we had to arrange our own travel to Kerala. We tried to get train tickets, but were unable to do so because graduation for the school of nursing occurred the Wednesday before the trip so a lot of students were travelling back home to Kerala. Our other option was to rent a van where we could all travel and drive overnight. For some reason this seemed like a valid idea. Although I was not happy about the 15 hour journey I knew that once we got to the houseboat it would be well worth it.

The drive to Kerala was quite scary. We left an hour later than we had planned. I slept uncomfortably through most of the night and woke up in the early morning. As soon as I woke up I noticed that the driver seemed very sleepy. His eyelids looked heavy and they kept closing. I knew he was fighting sleep, but I encouraged him to stop for coffee and for little breaks. Sometimes I would just ask him a question to try and wake him up. We made it to Kerala later than we had planned and had a great time. I will do another post on that because Kerala was simply amazing. We spent the night on the houseboat and Saturday spent the day at our new Keralan friend's house.

Our big mistake came when we decided to leave Sunday at 4 pm. We had originally planned to leave early Sunday morning, but our friend had arranged ayurvedic massages for us that morning. (I do not hold our friend liable for what happened to us. The whole purpose of the massages and our trip was to give us the full experience of Kerala. He and his family were hospitable and friendly. They did so much for us. I am truly thankful to them for their outstanding hospitality.) We all talked about the decision to stay later and were in agreement that we wanted to do so. Discussing it now, some of us shared our apprehension of that decision. The thing is that no one really shared that with the group when the decision was originally being made.

So when ended up leaving Kerala at around 4pm as planned. We stopped for dinner at around 8 or so and had a nice meal. After that we watched movies in our van. At around midnight most people went to sleep. We stopped again at around 2:30 am. I and others noticed that we had done so and asked the driver why we had stopped. He seemed to plead with us "10 minute sleep". Which was really fine by me.

Next thing I remember is a deep pain in my chest and the feeling that I couldn't breath. I promptly removed my shades that had been covering my eyes and saw chaos all around me. Slowly I realized that we had been in a wreck and saw the cargo truck we had hit right in front of me. With my left hand I reached forward and touched it with my fingers. The steel felt smooth and warm. There was a hissing sound as if gas were escaping from somewhere in front of me. I heard my friends screaming. I quickly put on my glasses that I had tucked in my shirt before going to sleep. Dinesh was trying to wake up Chris who was in the aisle next to me. Chris had been sitting behind me. Anne was standing up and yelling. She was saying she couldn't breathe. I think this awoke something in me. I told her to calm down and breath slowly. Then I knew. I was in pain. An accident had occurred. It was serious. I needed to get out. I tried to figure out how I was going to get out. The door we used to get in was in front of me exactly where the truck had hit. This was not an option. I could only somehow climb out the back. Thankfully my shoes were still under my seat. A miracle considering the force with which we hit! I put them on and grabbed my purse on the way out.

As I climbed over the back seat into the small trunk the doors were open. I could barely see a bunch of Indian men in front of me for I was feeling dizzy. They were all staring and saying things in Tamil which I couldn't understand. I remember being mad because none of them would help me. They just kept staring! I saw it was still dark and jumped off the van. I saw our bags on the side of the road and a man pointing to them as if he was guarding them for us. I needed to sit down. I sat with my back to the accident. I couldn't stand looking at it! It was just too much. As Vida came and sat next to me she started to yell at people to call an ambulance. I think I started to yell too. Together we figured out who we could call to help us. This is most of what I remember until the ambulance got there. I'm not sure about time or how long anything took.

The ambulance got there and we all somehow managed to climb in. Everyone was talking and discussing. And it helped to distract me from all that was happening. I know I ate a cherry jolly rancher (my favorite) someone offered me on the way to the hospital. Thankfully we were only 80 km from CMC in Vellore and we made the decision to travel here. I have to say I had no part in this decision. I was still in shock.

When we got to CMC everyone was staring at us. We had called ahead to arrange for people to be waiting for us, but no one was there. We had to wait to get a wheel chair and stretchers. There were three of us that were seriously hurt. Chris, Michael (Swami), and me. We were also concerned about Jami who had low platelets due to a medical condition. It took a while for us to get seen. The account of what happened in the ER will probably be more reliable from other friends because I didn't really know what was happening. I had been knocked out and I had my glasses on which always makes me feel out of it. The thing I do remember is that before they did anything to me we had to pay. My friends took care of this so I just laid in the stretcher. Before being seen by doctor you must pay. Before drawing blood you must pay. Before getting shots you must pay. Before getting oxygen you must pay. Before getting x-rays you must pay. Before echo you must pay. Also there was no A/C in the ER! It was so hot!!! It just made me feel worse overall.

After everything was said and done I got a tetanus shot, morphine, ecg, 8 x-rays, echo of heart. Everything checked out fine and I was able to go to the hotel that afternoon with a prescription for an anti inflammatory. Since then I have felt okay. It's been two days since the accident and the things bothering me the most are the pain in my chest and headache. My left triceps, ribs, hip are bruised. My right knee also has a nasty bruise.

So these are things I learned/ realized from the experience..........

1. REAL experience of Indian patient
2. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER drive in India at night (especially long distances and overnight trip)
3. If you feel apprehensive about doing something share that feeling with others. Even if it's something small others may share what you're feeling.
4. Trust your gut. Trust yourself.
5. I have been given so much. From material things to people to my life!!!!
6. Miracles do happen!!!! And I am living proof :)

Okay, okay. Here are the pics I have of the accident.



This is a picture of my left upper arm. You can see the large bruise extending almost to my elbow (upper part of pic) to my shoulder. The abrasions were cause by the window that broke next to me. This morning I found a little piece of glass in the back of my head! Right after the accident my arm hurt a lot. I really thought it was broken!!! I could barely move it. Everything checked out okay. No broken bones!!! Miracle :)


This picture was taken by Jami. It's really scary once I tell you where I was sitting. See that crashed in window? You can see a seat in there? That's where I was sitting!!!!! So scary!!!! That's why this is a miracle! I'm so happy to be alive!!!





This picture was taken by Claire. This is us in the ambulance. I'm eating the cherry jolly rancher someone offered me. It seemed like a good idea to have some sugar. I'm still in shock here, but happy that we're all traveling together to CMC. Chris is wearing his "C-collar". In the US they normally have a plastic thing not a towel! Chris helped comfort me during the ride there. And held my hand like my brother would have if he had been there. Thank you Chris!!!


This is a picture of me at the hospital. (please excuse the double chin!) I'm already doing better and I'm about to be discharged home. I'm pointing at my IV. It hurt as much as in the US! I'm feeling hot and thirsty and out of it, but also very thankful. Claire had just showed me the picture of the crash and where I was sitting. Happy to be showing off my IV!





This is a picture of me a couple of days after the accident. Still hurting and can't really make sudden movements but doing fine. This is infront of a restaurant we really like because of the yummy food and the picture of the cats with guns! So funny!