After making some phone calls in the morning, I decided to take the day off. So I went to see Kamil at UH.
Parking was horrible. To park at UH, you need to go to the Trauma building, and believe me, it was traumatic. The guy who designed the parking bays must have been inhaling wet chicken shit to get high or something.
I mean, they had corners that go up a level where the opening was just three to four feet wide. The whole place was full of concrete 'scars' and paint transfers from various vehicles.
Anyway, went to see Kamil at the orthopedic ward. First thing I asked: how much will it cost?
Nothing.
His wife is a civil servant. Meaning, free medical care at Government hospitals for herself, spouse and kids. Up to a certain point, I guess, but I do not know what the ceiling would be.
Got that from his GL - guarantee letter. I also noticed MRI rooms on my trek to the ward. Meaning the hospital cost at least a few hundred million, with all the things they have there.
However, making medical care accessible to all Malaysians from all walks of life is worth it.
If anyone who is not a civil servant wants treatment, they can pay a minimum or ask for free care. It can be arranged.
Only problem for Kamil would be - does his job cover such accidents? Will he still have one if he's taken out for two months? We all think we're ubermensch, but one day we will get sick and won't be able to work. And that's when these things come in handy. Insurance from your employer should cover everything or most of it. Medical insurance for workers are cheap, relatively speaking, so if your employer does not have a good coverage, that means that company is stingy or will go bust by March next year.
And then, check their terms should you be unavailable due to legit medical conditions. Some assholes would want you to work even if you're 79% dead. Trust me.
He even got food, man. Dinner was rice, sweet and sour chicken, kangkong and a soup-like thing.
I, myself, have been to Pantai Medical Center, Damansara Specialist and UH. Had kidney stone and was warded at Pantai. Went for a surgery to correct a deviated septum at Damansara and went to UH for something. I can't remember.
I was not warded for an open mouth surgery back in '99. That trip to UH was for a stomach thing.
I prefer Damansara Specialist Hospital, if you want to be warded. The nurses are very attentive. One even stood by as I stripped for the operating table. Kin-ky! Food is a tie-up between Pantai and Damansara. I love porridge. And I only know where to smoke at one of the hospitals.
I have always been lucky. Like Kamil, I had fallen off my bike a few times. Once, I ran into a car and almost flew over the hood.
All the times I had accidents, I walked away with some minor scrapes and bruises. Got some scars, but that was it.
I find that since I don't have a RM4000 protective leather jacket, curling into a fetal position and rolling gets me fewer wounds. You should have seen one in 2000. I got skin hanging off my elbows. I was screaming like a girl. Like a virgin who fucked a cactus.
All I remember of the fall was how it went on and on and on. I was like, "When is this going to end? One potato, two potato...LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!"
Lucky no cars were coming from the opposite direction.
Had to cut off the flapping skin with a scissors. Doused it with Dettol and bandaged it myself. With bandage from a first aid kit. Didn't feel pain till the day after. Adrenaline. I was wearing a helmet. It wasn't a helmet when I got through with it.
I stopped riding motorcycles cause I know this attitude car drivers have against them. I would be on a bike, see, and they would try to push me off the roads. Unskilled driving? A general contempt for bikers? I don't know what the fuck, just that I needed to get off the roads, quickly.
I'm fine with dying, but ending up crippled is a nightmare. Plus, for people of my generation, they had cars back in college. So if you want to fuck a girl based on the flash of cash, you needed a car. Bikes are for roti canai and teh tarik and a girl who doesn't demand much and most probably has a face that looked like roti canai. Inflation gets to all of us.
So I told Kamil to get a car. Cheapest I ever found was a Datsun 120Y priced at RM1,800, which I thought was too expensive for a 1976 car. But hey.
He doesn't know what his prognosis is. I guess, at free hospitals, they really don't tell you much.
Their concern with stopping the bleeding on his knee and their expedition with a camera inside his kneecap tells me that they're worried that an artery has been severed. Tendons have been torn, that's a given.
I estimate it would take two months at least before he can walk without a crutch again. But I'm no doctor.
What I do know from 24 - the TV show - is that injuries to the knee, like a gunshot wound, could take away your ability to walk. I hope that is not the case with Kamil's situation.
Only advice I had for him was - ask for more morphine. I know that when I die, I want to go due to an overdose of morphine. Morphine is the best painkiller ever. It is a godsend.
Hey, anyone who knows Kamil, can go visit him at UH. Ward 9U (orthopedic), on the 9th floor. Check for his bed number cause they might move him around. Visiting hours end at 8pm. Best to go after 4pm and leave before 7pm. They serve dinner at 6pm, and collect the trays at 6.45pm. So if he hates the food, you can buy him some stuff from the cafes down at G level. They even have a DeliFrance.
If you do visit, get food with lots of iron (blood loss), protein (tendons) and calcium (bone).
Tartar steak and milk? Well...whatever. Also, for juice, get the no added sugar shit. Cause he wants to sleep. Sugar will make him restless. He he he.
