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The Bumrungrad Hospital has wi-fi throughout the hospital for inpatients, and just seven or eight hours after the surgery Selwyn was checking e-mails. His deaf friends in Australia and around the world quickly found out about his plight and contacted him. |
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Later in the morning two nurses came and assisted Selwyn in taking a shower. |
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The doctor had said he was not giving blood thinner to Selwyn because he wanted him to be active, so while Selwyn was out of bed after the shower, he went on a wheelchair tour of the hospital. First stop was an outdoor garden on the sixth floor, and then it was down to the mezzanine. He didn't stop at McDonald's this time but promised to return. This McDonald's is INSIDE the hospital as is a Starbucks, an Au Bon Pain, and other such establishments. |
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Selwyn decided he DID want a cappucino this trip, and while I was ordering it, another AVI volunteer came looking for him and then two others who had heard about his predicament. It turned out there was an impromptu meeting at Starbucks. (L to R): Mark Morris, Krongkaew Panjamahaporn, a friend from the Thai government, Charlie Dittmeier, and Selwyn. |
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Shortly after returning up to his ninth floor room, two staff from physical therapy came to install an overhead assist bar to help Selwyn get in and out of his bed for exercise. |
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They had barely finished when Dr. Suwat came to change the dressing on Selwyn's leg. |
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We were curious to see what his leg looked like under many layers of bandaging and had expected a long open wound but found five smaller wounds. The two large ones on either end were used for inserting a 30-cm metal plate under the skin and the two smaller incisions in the middle were used for inserting a screwdriver to position eight screws holding the plate to his reassembled bones. The lower wound in the middle is where a broken bone came through the skin at the time of the accident. |
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Bumrungrad Hospital is probably the best hospital in Thailand and one of the best in Asia. It has positioned itself as a destination for medical tourism for foreigners. |
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Selwyn got excellent food from the hospital food service. I didn't qualify for that and also couldn't be out of the room for long because I didn't know when doctors and technicians would come and I would need to interpret, so two times I dashed over to this nearby 7-11 around the corner and stocked up on sandwiches and some pastries for breakfast. |
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A post script: |
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After I returned to Phnom Penh, in talking with the Maryknoll community about the trip to Bangkok with Selwyn, I found out that it was one of our Maryknoll members, Kathy Morefield, who found Selwyn lying in the street and went up to help him. Selwyn gave her his flip card with contact information and Kathy called AVI to report the mishap and then AVI called me. As Selwyn noted "It's a small world!" |
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A post post script: |
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9 January 2013
Today is the ninth day since Selwyn was hit by a motorcycle and his last day in the hospital in Bangkok. I had to return to Bangkok today for some business prior to a Maryknoll meeting starting tomorrow, and at the end of the day I visited Selwyn at Bumrungrad Hospital. He is recovering very well and tonight at midnight he will fly to Melbourne, accompanied by a hospital care staffer. He was in great spirits today and seems to be well on the road to recovery. Here he holds up his passport, preparing for tonight's trip. |
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