I quite don’t know what it is, with bus rides and me. Had a terrible experience when I took a bus from 'Bangalore' to my hometown last weekend. Bus was over loaded, smelly, seats far from comfortable, left 2 hours after schedule, was crammed with people sitting at my feet; extremely annoying. Few hours after the journey in the over crowded environment, the bus tilted half way down into a pothole and I absolutely panicked. That jilt woke up almost everyone on the bus. I sighed because nothing major happened, but could not sleep a wink all through my bus journey.
My extreme “bus-travel” paranoia started exactly 2 years ago I had a bus accident on I-95, a highway in USA, phew!!! Quite a n’mare that was. I had my forehead split (not quite into 2), but a deep gash that was mended by 9 stitches. Yes, for no fault of mine. The bus I was on, rammed into another one right onto its back side, ouch!!! It was a peaceful morning, journey was quiet. I was smiling to myself as I was lost in thoughts and was getting closer to destination NY. I was to meet up with a friend and her husband who I hadn’t seen in over 2 years.
Suddenly, the driver of the bus yells out “Oh my God, hold on”!!! I held on to my seats and wondered why he was screaming so. I could see that the bus was speeding and getting toward another bus, there was no stopping…Then in a few seconds it crashed into another…. guess he lost his brakes. Just like most accidents, this one was all over in a few seconds too. SIGH!!! I was thrown off my seat onto the aisle, but got right back on my feet to sit up. I felt some thing roll into my eyes and I wondered what it could be, so I placed my palm onto my forehead and froze for a minute. I could feel a split. My palm was completely drenched with my blood; it trickled down to my clothes; was a complete mess. I pulled out my hand mirror from my purse and looked straight at my gash, oh boy almost passed out as I could see a white layer beneath it and I freaked……..Was nothing other than my skull, brrrrrrrrrr……A chill ran down my spine. I could see black spots in front of my eyes and my palms got cold (both from fear). A passing thought – “Am I going to lose my sanity!?”
I sit there and think “Jeez, what am I going to tell my parents”?! Strange and completely inappropriate, but I couldn’t help myself from wondering how am I going to hide some thing as big as a gash on top of my face. Relaxed a bit when I figured out that it won’t be a few months before they actually see me (coz they were in India after all, and I wasn’t going home until it completely healed). That ridiculous thought apart, I needed to control the blood flow before I could start to feel faint. Right in time, arrived the fire brigadiers, cops and EMS. Quite a relief!!! The fire men handed me gauze and told me to put pressure on my wound so that the capillaries would close, hence controlling blood flow. They checked on everyone, got the alright ones out the window. The hurt few were given first aid, neck collars, gauze and whatever appropriate with respect to that passengers need of the moment. We were made to sit in the bus itself until they brought stretchers to get us moved. Dramatic…..like out of the movies. Only this was actually happening, and it was FOR REAL!!!
It was drizzling outside when they brought me out of the bus through one of the windows, all strapped up in the stretcher, with a neck brace and lots of gauze on my frontals. My luggage was some where in the boot of the bus, which I was worried sick about. I was holding on to my knapsack like it was my baby, as it had my passport, I-20, mobile phone, cash etc (all essentials basically). The fire men were trying hard to withdraw it from my hand and I refused to hand it over to them as I knew they would misplace it. After lots of reluctance, I handed it over to them, but not before grabbing my cell phone – any means of communication as all the phone numbers were stored away there. Thanks to the development of technology, my brain was dead; it couldn’t hold information such as phone numbers for example… “What’s the world coming to?” I remember thinking to myself.
Rain was falling on my face, I could not even wipe the drops off, as I all strapped up in the damn thing. They put me into one of those “EMS” ambulances. I felt safe inside, but to my awe there was some 16 year old teenager checking my BP, pulse and asking me some questions on “how I was feeling?” etc. I found out that they were indeed eligible to getting trained for “EMS”. Super cool, I thought to myself, but was scared if “first aid” could be handled by those “kids”?! There was some “Press” videoing the whole after accident episode. It actually came on news, but I obviously didn’t catch up with it.
While the “EMS kids” and I were making conversation in the moving ambulance, at the back of my head I was still digesting the whole “crash” event. Was hoping the vehicle that I was in, would make it in one piece. I was trembling from the thoughts of the poor driver whose seat needed to be sawed, in order to get him out. He suffered from multiple fractures from his hip down his feet. In my mind I could hear him repeatedly calling for help and yelping in pain. Poor chap, I thought. At the same time, was very angry for having let the bus on the roads, without having checked for brakes. Angry, scared and tired from the throbbing pain all at one time, I slightly drifted off, but was conscious.
We finally made it to the emergency room in a state hospital. Don’t quite know why they all it “emergency” service, as I was lying there for 3 hours before a doctor came to see me. The doctor inspected my gash and said “that’s not bad at all”. I said “huh?!” He said “you are lucky that although it’s a deep gash, it’s straight and not crooked”. I sighed and thought to myself “whatever, just please stitch me up”. He asked me routine questions and I answered them like a good patient. I also confirmed with him if that was my skull that he could see beneath my wound. And he said “yes, but don’t worry, we are going to take care of it”. I made sure a plastic surgeon was going to do up my forehead, so I could avoid unnecessary over-scarring. The doctor who investigated me left. He assured me that another consultant would come to finish what he had started. And so, I lay there waiting and cursing the “emergency” system.
In the mean while, I had informed my friend (thanks to my mobile), about the unfortunate accident and my whereabouts. She and her husband came to the hospital as soon as they could. She gave me a big hug making sure she didn’t hurt me while at it and said “Oh my God, after 2 years and look where I find you”. I let out a small laugh as everything hurt while I moved. She introduced me to her husband (*smiles* I know, it’s strange) and I sort of waved at him before smiling. They waited for me patiently until all my procedures were over. She asked the doctor a couple of questions too and was by my side when the surgeon arrived. She stayed on while he spoke to me and explained to me the step by step procedure of his performance. I agreed and asked him to continue but not before I said to him “Please be careful and don’t scar me too much, because my skin has a tendency for it”. He smiled and he said “I will do my best”. He was very careful indeed when he poured a solution into the gash to probably clean it up and then some thing to numb it. I felt a sharp pain and it left me burning for a few seconds. I could feel the needle sting with each and every single stitch, both in and out. After few minutes he said “almost there, good girl” and he sowed the last one. My friend was by my side through it all and he held my hand. She was pretty strong as she didn’t even flinch “brave girl” I thought to myself. Her husband waited outside anxiously, for us all to get out of there. “It’s a good thing he didn’t see the procedure” she said to me, “his tummy would have been topsy turvy”. We had one of our girl laughs at that as we slowly left the emergency room.
I was to go to a beach destination a few weeks from then and I wasn’t going to back out, especially because I had made all reservations. So, I asked the consultant and the nurse numerous questions; of course, got convincing replies to most of them. The nurse gave me tips on how to take care of it. We marched out carefully and were on our way back home. My luggage and bag was no where to be found, sigh….. and I knew it was going to be a long search. That’s another long story by itself!!!
