Travels in Thailand.... Health Tourism

Well, as some of you may know, things at Mizzicats HQ ground to a halt last Tuesday at 5am UK time. I got the dreaded phone call saying "mum I've been in a crash & my leg is broken & I'm waiting for an ambulance" from my youngest.

 

To say I went into "panic Mr Mannering-panic" mode is an understatement. My other half aka Clint, was fabulous & calming and said/did all of the right things to try and soothe me. I was panic shopping flights as soon as he put the phone down but held fire awaiting an update.

A couple of hours later I got a copy of the x-ray showing both his tib & fib broken below the knee and then promptly booked my flight over here to Thailand. To add complications the accident had happened in Chiang Mai which is a 9 hour drive north or a 1.25 hour flight.

Initially his insurance did the right thing & insisted on him being moved to another hospital (Bangkok hospital Chiang Mai) that could provide him with safer treatment. We then got told the operation would cost 350,000 baht and Ben had to put down a deposit. Luckily we had the money so transferred it straight over to Ben. By 8am on the 23rd the insurance hadn't confirmed with the hospital whether they were going to pay but they authorised Ben to pay. He paid and promptly went down to theatre where his tib was pinned & plated by the surgeon. The fib was left with a spiral fracture because it was too close to his knee. 

I ended up landing in Bangkok & going straight to Don Meung airport so I could get a flight up to Chiang Mai asap. You can't book internal flights from Bangkok Airport and hoc-you have to book them well in advance and that weekend was the lantern festival-the biggest festival of the year for Thai people & hundreds of thousands of visitors descend on Chiang Mai.

I managed to book my accommodation at the same time as my flight so dropped my bags off & got a taxi straight to the hospital.

Ben's leg was bandaged & drain in place but he was comfortable thankfully. I got the full tale that he thought he'd crashed into someone and then he'd gone off road & he stopped first, followed by the bike tipping over on his right leg smushing it. 

The people at the bike shop had encouraged him at the scene to compensate the Thai lady he'd crashed into & there wasn't a problem any more because money solves every problem here.

The next day I went to the bike hire shop (always follow up) and they showed me a video of the bike. I'm a biker & I've seen enough crashes on track in my time to understand trajectories & mechanism of injury. The lower right fairing had a hole punched in it & paint transfer indicative of being side swiped which would explain why Ben's bike shit to the left. He'd just done a "U" turn. Here they have few roundabouts so it's basically a gap in the central reservation where people wait for a gap so they can go back the way they've just come to enable them to turn left a bit further down-it saves them building bridges over the road. He'd waited for a sensible gap, then set off in a straight line and had got up to 50kmh when his bike veered suddenly to the left.

I asked the bike shop people why they assumed it was Brendan's fault & why no pictures had been taken of her bike & why the police hadn't spoken to him and they had no answer. Sadly here in Thailand it's always the foreign persons fault. Thai's earn peanuts. If they admit it's their fault the expectation of compensation would probably equate to a decade of work for them so they blame the foreigner. The police turn up, they shake the foreign person down for cash & the problem goes away. They don't take photo's of the scene, don't interview foreigners and they just make sure the problem is solved.

I can't blame them. Thailand is not a rich country. The police are underpaid, underfunded & under resources as well as under trained. All of us foreigners come over here & we drain their system of resources. 

In Thailand, driver training mostly consists of driving a car backwards & forwards on a car park. There are no CBT's or riding skills needed. If you can imagine a shoal of fish on scooters, 3 or 4 up with the odd 9 month old standing on the tank, all weaving in and out, indicating right when they mean left, pulling out in front of you, turning left on a red light and basically trying to kill you every 5 feet then you've imagined the best case scenario.

I've ridden these roads. I've done the Mae Hongson loop twice in 2018. Getting out of Chiang Mai alive felt like a massive achievement! You try and explain to an insurance company how the Thai's ride and they cannot comprehend. Nobody understands. The Thai's do. They ride in symphony like a well orchestrated complicated tango on bikes & in cars & whilst they do crash, it's predominantly because somebody ignored the rules. 

Anyway I digress! My son would have either died or lost his leg in the time it's taken for the insurance company to not respond. I dread to think how many tourists have actually died or suffered due to the slowness of their insurance company. God forbid anyone came here without insurance! 

The insurance companies use an intermediary who are equally useless and really don't care if your man/child is injured. They only care about the cost-if you can pay it then you get amazingly great top class care-if not you'll not get any care at worst & shoddy care at best.

Luckily Brendan is now out of hospital, his wound is healing nicely (another £64 ta very much) and we have his final check up & hopefully (omg fingers crossed) fit to fly on Thursday. We could be here another week yet though....

My apologies for not doing a newsletter/Xmas drop but family always comes first! 

If you find yourself in the same situation please please

1) Buy a Thai SIM from the airport immediately & download GRAB- this means you can ring Thai numbers & get a taxi. Plus it's great for ordering a take away in a food emergency. 7/11's are like Spars so do all of your shopping there- don't bother packing too many clothes because they're cheap enough out here (about £300 baht for a nice dress).

2) Get a decent hotel near the hospital-it makes things much easier and more palatable for you if you're comfy.

3) Go and see the cashier's in the hospital and ask for advice-they are really nice.

4) If you're struggling get in touch with your Embassy in Bangkok-they are a wealth of advice 

5) Always ask questions and make sure they get physio asap-once they know you've got money they like to keep their hands in your pockets & each day in bed means more muscle wastage & more institutionalisation. 

6) Be prepared to deal with tantrums & tears-mostly your own out of sheer frustration & banging your head against a brick wall!

Don't get me wrong I LOVE Thailand. The people are lovely, the sun amazing, the massages are sublime (please pick a proper spa though-you don't want a happy ending) and the food mostly great too!

Hopefully in 10 days I'll be home moaning about how bloody cold it is! Too late to salvage my Xmas makes but hey there's always Easter right?

If anyone you know is thinking about coming to Thailand DO plan for in case of emergency. DO have a contingency plan. DO read the small print on your insurance. 

IF you're hiring a bike DO use a reputable company and check that you have a valid CBT or at least 10k in your bank if you haven't. IF you're hiring a car make sure you have an INTERNATIONAL driving licence because you WILL get stopped & have to pay lunch money. 

Remember the overnight buses aren't great but they get you from A-B in one piece but keep all of your valuables on you because those stories of people looking through your bags on the bus are true. Same if you leave your luggage in a hotel-they will rifle through your bags for anything they can sell-they get about 300baht per day.

Do tip. Please tip. Help them earn a little more than it costs for a coffee. Most live in absolute poverty so be kind.

Do make sure if you go into a temple or you're walking around that you retain a wee bit of modesty. It's disrespectful to go walking all over in a biking and getting your baps out is really frowned upon. Don't insult Thai people-they all learn Thai boxing at a very early age and will kick your ass if they're insulted.

Do not muck about on the beach at 2am unless you want to disappear without a trace-its still a dangerous country with no mental health system & being jailed is almost impossible unless you miff them off!