Wednesday, 28 August 2013

Fatal Escape

23/08/2013 – Friday
     Here I am, sitting on this uncomfortable white bed that could be controlled remotely in this lighted room. In agony and sadness, I wake up from my nightmare to write about my automobile experience as early as 3AM in the morning.

     Before everything happened, I shall explain what happened from the very beginning. On 21st of August 2013, it was supposed to be just like any other ordinary day. Sadly, that didn’t appear to be the case.

    I slept early the night before and woke up fresh for the day. I go to school, studied and lazed around a little before I went home. On the way to my car, I noticed my left side window was severely cracked.
“Oh no, not again..” I thought as this has happened to my right side window few months back. As soon as I got home, I grabbed my phone and rushed off to find a repair shop for my car. Searching for the repair shop was a huge burden as my mom seriously needs to improve her ‘giving directions’ (we were on the phone). I gave up listening to my mom’s directions and found a repair shop on my own. The original repair cost was 170 ringgit but I managed to bargain a discount of 5 ringgit. Oh well, the extra 5 ringgit would serve as my lunch money. The repair men told me that cases like my car window cracking is nothing surprising, it’s even increasingly popular. The cause of the window cracking could be the work of people who cuts/shaves the grass, just one small stone that flicks to my car window is enough to crack the entire portion. 

     Receiving the knowledge that I may be able to claim back my repair fee from the government, I eagerly rushed home and geared up to ride my dad’s bike back to school (wanted to check for evidence of grass being cut/shaved). Carefully riding my bike, I noticed a taxi by the junction. I was going straight and not too far from the junction so it was obviously my road. Despite that, the taxi driver selfishly swooped out from the corner to make a U-turn and blocked my road. There were 3 lanes, the first and second lane was blocked by the taxi, I was on the second lane and the third lane had an oncoming car not too far from me. In the midst of urgency, I grabbed my clutch to kill the engine and carefully pulled the emergency brake.

    It was too close and I had no time, my tires screeched and wobbled then my mind blacked out before/after I crash. Everything happened so fast and no, no light flashed before my eyes or whatsoever, I just blacked out. When I regained consciousness, I saw people of different races barricading the road for me. I was lying right in the middle of the road with my face looking up to the sky, the sky looks as if…someone wrote before ‘sky goes on forever’. The people whom were barricading the road for me (to prevent any more accident) stared at me intently, I sat up and cried in agony. There were no tears but the pain can be detected from my voice. I turned my body a little and saw my dad’s bike (Kawasaki ZRX 1200) lying on the ground, damaged. Still screaming in agony, as my side ribs and shoulders hurt immensely, there was a girl whom I thought was from my school (found out later that she is my classmate’s elder sister) who called out to me in the crowd “Bryan, are you okay?” but I was in too much pain to bother. It took me a few minutes to gather my strength so I could walk to side of the road (with the help from the crowd). They settled me on the sideway and pushed my bike to the side. The taxi driver came out from the taxi and looked down on me with his cold eyes. He was there standing while blaming me that I was going too fast and rammed into his taxi. Nobody bothered listening to him, they gave me water and urged the taxi driver to drive me to the nearest clinic available.

     I told the crowd to grab my keys for me and they helped me onto the taxi. The old chinese looking man was mumbling on his own as he reluctantly drove me to the clinic. He appointed me into the clinic (with the Identity Card in my wallet) and left without another word (I’ll explain more about this later). I was laid on a small bed in the clinic, screaming agony, I had no strength to spare the doctor’s endless questions. Luckily my mobile phone was intact, he used it to notify my mom that I was involved in an automobile accident. Once again, it was my mom’s turn to shower me with her set of endless questions. Receiving no proper answers from me, she rushed from her office to find her son, to find me. About 15 minutes after the doctor injected the painkiller (which was ineffective), my grandma and sister came to visit me, as the clinic is just opposite of my house. Soon after that, my mom came and prepared to car as I had to be immediately sent to the hospital. I grabbed my mom’s wrist and tears started rolling down my cheeks.
    
    “I’m sorry”, it wasn’t the pain that made me cry, it was because of the burden and worries I left for my family. Two indian men and one indian lady came in, carried me into the car and I was rushed off to Sunway Medical Centre (the hospital).


     We were caught in a bad traffic jam and nobody bothered about my mom’s ‘hazard signal’. Every second, every bump and every brake was excruciating to me. By using the emergency letter from the doctor before, I was given immediate attention by the hospital and was rushed into the emergency ward. Breathing was a challenge and so was enduring the pain. They scanned my upper body with X-ray before injecting another stronger dose of painkiller. After I have calmed down a little, I was brought for CT scan. Once that was done, I was left lying on the temporary bed in the emergency ward, waiting for my results. Making effort to breathe in and out once again, tears began to roll down my cheeks once more. My mom was sitting next to me, wiped my tears while engaging on her numerous phone calls.

     “Yeah, he is lying on the bed, crying.” Was what I heard. Little did she know that my heart was saying “Mom, I’m not crying because it hurts, I’m crying because I’ve hurt you and caused you to panic because of me.”

     Even with extra dose of painkiller from before, I was fighting back tears and pain. My mind was screaming out her name “Li Hung! Li Hung. Li Hung….” before I fell asleep. She is my strength and motivation, so thinking of her calms my nerves.
                                                                                                                           
     Unaware of the hours that passed by, I woke up to find my sisters and aunt looking at me. My mom was still on the phone though (whao, she’s busy). We received good news from the doctor as there were no serious nor permanent injuries. My shoulders are fractured, my ribs and back are cracked and my lungs are bleeding. Few hours later, I was admitted into a proper room (a room for two), my relatives came to visit me and we shared our stories. I then found out that the taxi driver made a police report before my family did because when my mom left the hospital earlier, she typed in my dad’s bike plate number and immediately another plate number popped up, it was the taxi’s number. Anyways, as visiting hours ended, everyone was forced to leave because I was sharing the room with another man named Mohan, my neighbor.


     My body was laying on the bed uselessly, I just kept thinking of her name, repeating it over and over again till I fall asleep. It was not a peaceful night. There was the sound of snoring coming from both sides (one was my neighbor, another was a patient from some other room), the ‘nurse bell’ was ringing non-stop, my body felt horrible and my heart was uneasy.

     The following morning came by, 22nd of August 2013, my mom and sister came to visit me at approximately 7.30 AM. The doctor came into my ward and gave an unofficial result, similar to the day before, no serious nor permanent injuries, all my wounds and injuries will heal in a few months. The day just passes by with visitors coming in and out of my room. I shared my story, I ate my meals, I chat a little and fiddled with my phone. Obviously, I was stuck onto the bed the whole time.
     I want to thank my friends, Adrian and Edwin, for taking care of my bike while I was away and I appreciate the, visiting me in the hospital along with their packet of oats. I am touched to have friends who would help me when I am in need of help.

     Family, relatives, friends and my mom’s church friends came to visit me I appreciate each and everyone one of them. Visiting hours ended and I forced myself to sleep once again. The light on my neighbor’s side was on, the televisyen was on, he still have visitors (even when the visiting hours ended), the ‘nurse bell, was blaring non-stop and I just laid on my bed helplessly, thinking of her.

     23rd August 2013, here I am, once again, I’m back from the beginning. It’s 6AM and I just finished chatting with my room neighbor, Mohan since an hour ago (he was also awake). I really appreciate right now, getting up and taking a few steps is already a huge effort for me.

     I end now and tell my tales, another day…

Side story : it was my first time sitting on a wheelchair. I was bored and wanted to explore the hospital even if it’s a little. My mom showed me Starbucks, 7-eleven and the list of doctors in Sunway Medical Centre. It was just a short while but I already ran out of breath as sitting up is also an effort to me. “Thanks mom for pushing me around in the wheelchair and sorry for causing you so much to trouble. I love you even if I rarely show it.”


The end. 



1 comment:

  1. Bro, I pity that you have been involved in an accident. But I'm amazed on how strong you are to recover from such horrible and scary accidents. :p

    ReplyDelete