Letters Home: The best laid plans …

letters-home-the-best-laid-plans

This column is going to be a little different from my normal ones in that I am going to recount an accident I was involved in while traveling through Europe last month.

After spending nearly two weeks during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, my travel partner and I were finishing our sightseeing in Amsterdam after taking a riverboat cruise from Switzerland to Holland, passing through lovely French and German cities on the Rhine River.

After arriving in Amsterdam by riverboat, we arranged a few extra days to sightsee in Amsterdam (photo). The first day meant we visited the royal palace, some lovely churches, and the Rembrandt Museum — with general exploration of this fabulous city. The next day we were planning on visiting the Anne Frank house and the Van Gogh Museum.

While enroute to the Anne Frank house via a city tram/train, as I got up out of my seat to prepare to exit at the next stop, the tram driver was forced to slam on his brakes to avoid a collision with a taxi, which sent me flying across the car where I fell hard on my knees. I was initially in shock not fully knowing what had just happened, so I was able to crawl, somewhat, to a nearby seat. Momentarily we arrived at the stop where we needed to get off, but as soon as I exited the tram, my knees buckled and down I went like a ton of bricks. I was more seriously injured than I initially thought.

Immediately, a Dutch pedestrian, many in fact, came to my aid, but something was horribly awry with my knee and I could not move. One Dutch gentleman called an ambulance and stayed with us until it arrived in order to interpret in case the ambulance people spoke no English.

As I laid there on the pavement, spread out like a beached whale, I was so touched by the concern of the Dutch people in cars and on foot. Several cars stopped to ask if I needed any help, they passed water bottles to me out of the window, even an umbrella was offered, as it had started raining. Strangers helping a stranger in a foreign land in a time of need. Humanity at its best.

After the ambulance arrived, I was loaded in and rushed to an orthopedic hospital on the outskirts of Amsterdam proper. The attendants were wonderful as well, so caring, friendly and assisting. I was promptly admitted and given x-rays, where it was concluded that I had a torn tendon in my left knee and a contusion on my right knee, not to mention two stoved fingers that were turning black and blue and swelling up like little sausages.

My knees had begun to swell, too, and bruising was appearing all over. I injured my right arm, as well, making it painful to do anything with it.

The doctor informed me that while my injuries were serious and I would absolutely need surgery on my left knee, that if I preferred to return to Japan, she thought that it was possible with a full leg stint and crutches. Not knowing anyone in Amsterdam and feeling more secure returning to Japan, I opted to hobble back to Japan the best I could.

The Dutch doctor was concerned about me being on a plane for 15 hours to return and suggested I take an anti-coagulant injection several times before boarding. I had never had to give myself any type of injection before, so that was a new experience, as well as being hauled to the hospital in a Dutch ambulance.

Two things I hope to never experience again in my life!

As a matter of course, when traveling from Japan to overseas, it is customary to purchase travel insurance for such an occurrence. I am so glad I did!

I can’t imagine the cost of all the healthcare expenses without it. No one can predict what can happen, and a freak accident like that which happened to me could happen to anyone, so I recommend anyone traveling abroad to purchase some sort of travel insurance as a precaution. Chances are you won’t need it, but in the case you do need it, it can make the world of difference to you financially.

After spending the next two days in the hotel trying to learn how to walk in a leg stint and on crutches, we were ready to return to Japan. I called ahead and asked for wheelchair assistance and that was the best decision ever because the airport personnel from start to finish were all great and professional.

We flew from Amsterdam to Zürich, then Zürich to Narita Tokyo, where we had to change to Haneda airport by land (thankfully a college friend lives near Narita and offered to drive us across Tokyo to Haneda in his car as I don’t think I would have been able to get on a bus in my condition).  From Haneda, we needed to fly to where we reside In Fukuoka.

As soon as the plane landed, we were in a taxi and on our way to a Japanese hospital where I was promptly admitted. I will be in the hospital for a month for my surgery and then subsequent rehabilitation after such a serious injury. My injury, my surgeon explained, is rare in normal people but is quite common among professional athletes who do contact sports like football or rugby.

The force that I hit my knees when I was on the tram mimicked that of what an athlete might experience on the playing field when tackled hard.

So, while my New Year’s holiday ended badly, I count myself lucky in many ways. Ironically, while in Amsterdam, I was being so careful with the uneven streets and cobblestoned pavement, worried I might fall, when in fact it happened in the enclosed space of a tram car.

The moral of this story is that you never know what can happen, so be as prepared as you possibly can by purchasing proper insurance, and I am encouraged by the extreme kindness of strangers to a foreigner in a foreign land who needed assistance.

Someday I hope I am able to pay it forward to a foreigner in need that I may be able to help in a similar way as those who helped me while abroad.

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