No Ordinary Bloke by Donald Paterson & Neil Cadigan

Author:Donald Paterson & Neil Cadigan [Paterson, Donald and Cadigan, Neil]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-73-049604-5
Publisher: Bolinda Digital Pty Ltd
Published: 2009-04-14T16:00:00+00:00

7

MELTDOWN

I think it was 12 March. It had been around nine weeks since my arrival in Sri Lanka. I knew I was struggling, mentally as much as physically. Other people identified it more clearly than I did. People were telling me I didn’t look good, that I should take a break. One morning at breakfast I thought, ‘They’re right, you know.’ I was missing my family so much, even my dog, Spencer; deep down I knew I had to get out of there to recharge myself. But there was too much to be done for me to ease down and not pull my weight. But I was finding it very hard.

I remember little of the detail but I do remember I was walking in the village and all of a sudden my right leg felt like it had a snake unravelling inside the calf trying to strangle it. It was just excruciating pain. I remember feeling weak all over my body and, bang, lights out! I now believe it was a blood clot moving from my calf, an excruciating experience I was to feel again years later. Next thing I recall is waking up in a dreadful hospital near Galle. It wasn’t until I saw the documentary for the first time that I had any concept of how bad I was and how dreadful I looked. I was quickly bundled into the back of a vehicle, put on an intravenous drip and driven to Galle with Bruce and a German doctor, Dr Stein, in the back of the wagon with me. I was so lucky that I had many good medical people around me who could act quickly.

I can remember going to the toilet at the hospital in Galle and seeing someone in a really bad way on the floor. I went back to my bed and said to Dr Stein and Sebastian, ‘I can’t stay here. You’ve got to get me out of here.’ So they transferred me to the Apollo Hospital in Colombo where I was diagnosed with exhaustion, severe dehydration – basically a physical breakdown – plus back problems and, surprise, surprise, stuffed knees.

One of the volunteers, Michelle, was assigned to go to Colombo with me to make sure I got the right attention. She checked my emails and took care of any administration problems which came up from time to time, as well as making sure I got the best treatment from the best doctors and nurses. She was my conduit to the outside world.

I was in hospital for ten days and I reckon I slept for three-quarters of that time. A really touching moment was when a group of people from the village came up on the bus to visit me – and that’s an eight-hour round trip. I’d never had that kind of love or concern thrown my way in my life before, outside of my family. There was Babido and her mother, Chamilla, and Chamilla’s husband, plus Kumara and Toyna, and even one of the Sri Lankan senior army officers and, of course, my Italian buddy Oscar.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.