Image of the Week or Why Comebacks are a Bad Idea

Lucy had been trying to convince me to play touch rugby with the fathers of some of her friends for several weeks so I told her I would play on my return from a work trip to Macao. 

It had been a little over 10 years since my last serious game of competitive rugby, indeed I hadn’t played any type of rugby including social touch in that time. As a result I was conscious of the fact that my best rugby years were long past and that I should be careful.

After a few minutes of play, the competitive juices were in full flow, even in a social setting. A hole opened in the defensive line and a quick dummy and run saw me dive over the try-line untouched and reliving former glories. Unfortunately the slide carried me onto a concrete footpath and left my third finger sitting at a rather unnatural angle. A quick trip to the local hospital then gave me an opportunity to experience emergency treatment Indian style.

First of all I must say that the experience was generally good. After being directed to casualty I walked in to the ward to wake half the staff who were dozing on the chairs and beds. In Australia on a Sunday morning there would be a long queue of people who had partied too hard combined with early morning sporting injuries. They quickly decided I needed an x-ray then they dispatched me to billing. On the entry to casualty is a notice board titled “Image of the Week”. This consists of the most interesting x-ray from the previous week, in this case what looked like a large metal rod inserted somehow into an unfortunate individual’s stomach cavity. Obviously, medical confidentiality was not a big issue and I secretly hoped that I would make the short-list for next week.

There was obviously going to be no treatment until I paid. I waited briefly at billing then they started to enter my details. Unfortunately the power supply was somewhat intermittent with the power cutting out three times while the billing officer was entering my details. Each time my data was lost and had to be re-entered. This proved to be the longest and most painful step in the process. Once complete I was dispatched to x-ray.

We found the x-ray technician who took me straight into the radiography room. He flattened my hand on the x-ray plate when I winced he enquired “where is it paining?”. I pointed to the obvious angle in my finger and indicated that that was the problem. In arranging my hand, he grabbed the tip of the offending digit and dragged it to the right. When I inhaled sharply, he once again asked “where is it paining?”. At this point I was started to get concerned about the competence of the medical staff. That said he took an excellent image and dispatched me back to casualty.

Where is it paining?

A brief wait ensued before an orthopedic surgeon arrived. Without any obvious ID, Grey’s Anatomy style hospital clothes, or any introduction, I initially thought that I was being examined by an interested auto rickshaw driver. However, when he did speak it was clear that he hadn’t just parked the rickshaw outside and was clearly professional and competent. While he examined my finger I was trying to assess my priority level as outlined in a convenient chart on the wall in the treatment area. It listed the criteria for “Priority 1, 2 3, 4 and No Priority”. The criteria for “No Priority” was “Dead” and “Unresponsive”. Luckily I was proving to be responsive!

A quick local anesthetic and a tug on the finger and everything was back in place. I was again dispatched to billing to pay the final amount for the procedure which totaled about 5,000 rupees (100 AUD) but this still represents almost a months’ pay for an Indian working as a manual laborer. Kate started to protest at the price claiming that we were paying foreigner rates. For me I was a happy with my first trip to an Indian casualty ward. All in all the process took 75 minutes and, apart from some amusing distractions was professional and efficient. That said I was fortunate that I had money.

Later in the day I ran into a friend, Alex who is a keen photographer and he had his flash Lecia hanging around his neck which meant he was off to some back alley in Bombay for a photo trip. He sent me this image of a local junkie “chasing the dragon”. Along with metal rod in the stomach this should be included in the Image of the Week.

Chasing The Dragon by Alex