The Motorcycle Accident Diaries: Part II

The author on the day of her accident.

Click HERE if you missed Part I of The Motorcycle Accident Diaries

Luckily, the hospital we finally ended up at was one of the best in Taiwan but there were some very noticeable differences. For example, the hospital did not provide food, nor did they bathe patients or change their sheets. I should say that Taiwan is an extremely family oriented society and those duties are often taken up by family members, not nurses or orderlies. In fact, I am sure the Taiwanese would be just as appalled at the notion of leaving strangers to care completely for injured family members. The facility was organized to accommodate this approach and each room had the necessary beds for family to set up camp.

I don’t want to give the impression that Taiwan doesn’t have a sophisticated healthcare infrastructure, it does. The doctors are highly qualified (often having studied in the USA) and many of the hospitals have the very latest in technology. Furthermore, all of the services I mentioned above may have been available but for some reason were not offered to me. The problem was deciphering what my options were, which brings me to the main challenge I faced, the language barrier.

Most of the doctors spoke English to some degree but the problem came when dealing with the rest of the staff. My Mandarin extends to social chit chat, not medical situations, and I often found myself confused as to what was happening and exactly how bad my condition was. An example of this was the pain medication I received, which consisted of Demerol shots every few hours. Despite the shots, I was still incredibly uncomfortable and it got to the point where I would be in so much pain that I would be begging for another shot. Eventually, a friend who spoke perfect Mandarin asked the staff why I wasn’t on a self-administered morphine drip and the response was that they thought I was a student and couldn’t afford it. The situation was quickly remedied after that discussion. Despite these types of issues, or perhaps because of them, my friends and I spent much of our time laughing hysterically at the all of the miscommunications and cultural differences.

I can also say that, as a foreigner, I definitely received special treatment. The nurses and attendants brought me special treats and checked on me  frequently. They often giggled like school girls when they were tending to me. In fact, one nurse who attempted to put in an IV needle was shaking like a leaf and explained that she was “very nervous” because of the wai-guo-ren (foreigner).

I often felt a little like an exotic zoo animal as the faces of many different nurses would appear above me, all cooing about my appearance (I’m blonde and that seemed to be all that was required to be considered pretty in Taiwan) and how sad it was that I wasn’t near my family. They were all very sweet and sympathetic and, despite the fact that I was a bit of a novelty, they were very professional.

I ended up having numerous Frankenstein-like stitches to repair the damage from that evil bamboo that I sailed through on my way to solid ground. I also had to have surgery on two ligaments in my left knee and, because of a pelvic fracture and massive blood loss; I received a couple of blood transfusions. I was lucky though, it could have been worse and, after many months of rehabilitation, my friend and I both made a full recovery.

I spent a full two weeks in the hospital in Taiwan, trying to make sense of a very different system but I was grateful to all of the healthcare workers that I encountered because they turned a nightmarish situation into a bearable one.

I was extraordinarily happy when my mother arrived to take me back to Canada for further care and I vowed that, if I ever found myself in the hospital on home soil, I would be sure to profusely thank the healthcare workers for changing my sheets and happily eat up every last morsel of Jello they provide for me!

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About the Author Laura was an English teacher for 6 years and taught in Taiwan, South Korea and The United Arab Emirates.  She currently lives in Canada where she received her degree in Sociology from the University of British Columbia. Her interests range from reading and writing to sailing and camping but her greatest passion in life is her love of adventure and travel.

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