The Crash

We had planned to take a train from Vellore to Kerala for the weekend, but we found out the day before we were scheduled to leave that the “emergency quota” train seats that were supposed to be released – and that we had been assured we could get – would not be available. Since all of our weekend plans had already been set up we began searching for alternative transportation. Our travel agent found us a 14 seat tour bus that would be able to transport all 9 of us – the 7 of us from UTHSCSA and our 2 friends from Oklahoma. While we were all a little nervous about the idea of driving, we were also very excited to visit Kerala, so we agreed and set off on our way.
Although the journey took us several hours longer than expected and the driving was less than ideal, we made it to Kerala safely and had a wonderful weekend - more to come in future post. In fact, everything went well up until a point about 80 km from Vellore. We were all fast asleep, so no one is certain of the details, but here is the event from my point of view.
I woke up flying forward into the seat in front of me hearing the crushing of our vehicle and the screams of my friends. I am not sure if I was screaming myself. The next thing I remember I was standing in broken glass looking at the back corner of a truck which was now inside our vehicle about a foot from Cristina’s head and in the seat that I had been sitting in for the drive to Kerala. I was stunned!

Luckily Dinesh was coherent enough to spring into action and take charge of the scene - I for one could do what I was told but could not think very clearly for myself. Somehow Kevin was able to get the back doors open so Vida and he as well as Claire who got out the driver's door were able to work on getting an ambulance - not as easy as one would think. By the time they got out a crowd of villagers had assembled, but none of them did anything. they just stood and stared and talked among themselves. Luckily one passerby stopped to ask if he could help and Vida asked him to call the ambulance.

Cristina had been sitting in the first "bus seat" directly behind the passenger seat which was now occupied by the corner of the truck. We think that the seat came back and hit her in the chest preventing her from flying forward. When she woke up she lifter her eye cover to see the back of the truck close enough to reach out and touch. She had quite a bit of chest pain and was having some difficulty breating but she got herself out of the bus.

Chris was on the floor unconscious immediately after the crash, but he came around within a few minutes. Swamy was initially ok, but began to have loss of vision and extreme leg pain after the crash - in retrospect likely vasovagal response but it scared us a lot at the time. Since we were concerned about c-spine and/or head trauma for both of them we kept them talking and stabilized their necks while we waited forty-five minutes for the ambulance. When the ambulance arrived there were no c-collars, so we wrapped towels around their necks and did our best to support them as they moved.

Once everyone was out of the bus all nine of us, along with our luggage, piled into the ambulance - we were not about to be seperated at this point! Luckily we were able to convince them to take us to CMC Vellore - during the wait for the ambulance Kevin had called Swamy's family friends to warn them that we were coming.

When we arrived at CMC 2 hours after our accident, they were not waiting to take us back to the trauma bay. In fact we had to track down stretchers and wheelchairs on our own. Thankfully Dr. Mathai, the head of Internal Medicine and Swamy's family friend that is monitoring my platelets, arrived shortly after we did. He talked to all of us and decided who needed to be checked out and made sure we got the papers necessary to get charts made for each of those that needed to be treated.

This was definitely an education in the workings of the Indian healthcare system. Perhapse the biggest difference between the healthcare systems in the US and India is that in India everything is pay as you go. When the ambulance dropped us off the expected to be paid, before people could be treated we had to pay to have the charts made, I had to pay before my platelets could be checked, and whenever any madication or intervention was given or any test performed we would he handed a bill to pay.

While the facilities and infrastructure are not what I would call "up to par" with the US, I feel the actual care that Cristina, Chris, and Swamy received was excellent. But then, I was not one of the patients myself and I was off taking care of other things much of the time - getting charts made, paying bills, and getting my own platelets checked ( 103,000 so stable from last week).

Thankfully we all walked away from the crash ok and most of us only ended up with minor bumps, bruises, and abraisions - a true miracle!