The bloody fall: Transferred

*continued from The wake up call*

When we arrived at Batu Gajah hospital, all I remember is that I was put in a wheelchair and pushed inside the ward, emergency I assume. A neck brace was fixed around my neck and the next thing I knew I was lying in bed, a blanket kept me warm. Then a doctor came in and asked me how I was feeling. She told me that I didn’t need a CAT scan since they found nothing alarming about my head’s X-ray.

“Huh? I don’t recall any X-ray procedure. How does that affect my brain?” I thought.

“Gus, we’re going back now. I’ll come back as soon as I’ve freshen up. What do you need? And what’s your aunt’s number? The one in Ulu Kinta, Perak” Michael said.

“Uhm, her number is in my wallet back home. There’s a piece of paper with phone numbers. Aunty Ben” I said and my thoughts drifted, I slipped into slumber.

I must have slept for a few hours since my surrounding was already bright and it didn’t feel so cold anymore when I woke up. Aunty Ben stood beside me. I could just see her from the corner of my sight since I couldn’t really move my neck with the brace on.

“Hi…” I weakly greeted her.
“How are you feeling now?” she asked.
“Okay I guess. My head feels very dizzy though”

Then another familiar face came near. She’s aunty Ben’s sister in-law, a nurse in Ipoh hospital. I’m not sure if my uncles are around as it was all blurry since I am short sighted, faces are only clear from less than a meter away. Somehow I forgot about my glasses. My surrounding seemed hazy.

The two ladies spoke for a while and then my aunt told me “They’re transferring you to Ipoh General Hospital. She works there and it’s nearer for us to check on you”

After they left, several nurses came with a stretcher. I was ‘loaded’ on with a mere lift. I didn’t need to move a muscle. Neat, I thought. If only I was feeling better. They pushed me into an ambulance. As the door slammed close, I realized that I was without a blanket. I could see my nipples. Horror! I have no shirt on! I looked further down and discovered another horror. I was wearing my favorite cotton shorts, soft and thin; the kind I’d wear in bed, without any briefs on. It was effectively a boxer!

Oh great! I have only one piece of clothing, and it’s my first ambulance ride! To make matters worse, there was no air conditioning at the back and the ride was awfully bumpy. Worse, the sun was piercing through the windows and blazing my skin. Gosh, how I wished the ride would end soon but I was out of luck since they didn’t switch the siren on. So I had to endure every stop and every stall, and all the heat radiated on me.

When we finally arrived at Ipoh General Hospital the door opened and I was conscious about my exposure once again. There I was being pushed on a stretcher through a huge crowd, everybody looked at me like I was the only survivor of a plane crash or a mudslide. I mean, can’t they go through a back door or something! I’m completely aware of my appearance here, hello…! Cover me or sedate me now please!

Nobody heard my thoughts.

I was made to linger at a place with many incoming stretchers, a buffering area it seemed, before being transferred to a stationary bed, again with a flick of the sheets.

My aunt was at my side once again. She covered me with a blanket, God bless her. I could also see traces of people walking around me attending to the other patients.
“I need to pee” I told my aunt. “But I can’t get up and walk to the toilet. I’ll get so dizzy I might collapse.”

“Hang on, I’ll get you the peeing jar.” She told me and went to look for the contraption.

“Here, use this” she later handed me a stainless steel jug, handle and all. It felt cold in my hand but I didn’t expect it to freeze my abdomen as I slipped it under the blanket. I experienced another meaning to the expression ‘hips don’t lie’. A nasty shock was regretfully inevitable, and when you gotta go, you gotta go!

Shhhh….


After a while a doctor approached and introduced himself. I can’t remember his name but he was from the ENT, Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist department.

“What is your name?” he asked.
“Agustus”
“Do you know where you are?”
“Uhm, Ipoh Hospital” I answered.
“Yes, but why are you here? Are you in the navy?” went another of his question.
“No, I’m a student. I’m studying in Universiti Sains Malaysia, Egineering campus Tronoh, second year” I answered.

“Oh, I thought you were in the navy, you have that navy haircut” he explained.

Huh? I thought his questions were for determining if I still had my memory well intact.

He examined the paperwork on me, nodded and asked “what happened exactly? Did you have a party last night? Too much drinking maybe? Did you have a brawl? Fights?”

“No, no such things. But I really don’t have a clue. I just woke up with blood in my ears and nose.” I firmly answered.

“Come on boy, you can tell me. I’ll understand” he persuaded on.

“Really, there was no party, no fights and no drinking. I simply don’t know what happened.” I assured him.

“Alright then, we’ll take care of you. You won’t be needing your neck brace any longer, your neck’s fine. I need to do some more examinations and diagnosis though. I’ll be back with more news and updates on your condition” he said and left.

I can’t remember the procedures done on me but I guess it was nothing major. A few peeks into the ear and some other inspections got the doctor coming back to me with “The clog in your ear will take time to clear. I’ve prescribed you some pills to stabilize your condition, and ointments to help the unclogging, nose and ear”

Friends came to visit me that afternoon and evening. Seeing them was such a relief. I am totally grateful to all of them. Ipoh is 30 minutes away from Tronoh and it was a weekday.

Day turned into night and I was still lying in bed, unable to move much. Especially delicate was my balancing system, or whatever you call it. I would get very dizzy; walls start spinning like being sucked into a tornado kind of dizzy, whenever I tried to turn my head sideways. So I was forced to keep staring forward. A TV set was fixed on the wall about 30 degrees to the right of my view but all I could do was listen to the show, that way I wouldn’t strain my eye muscles. Plus, I didn’t have my glasses on so there really was no point in watching. I therefore listened to ‘Kopitiam’, a local TV sitcom to ease the boredom until I fell asleep again.

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