Makeshift Ambulance (Kla Diary)
April 14th, 2010
In one of the brief moments I was actually awake from Columbo to Arugam Bay, we encountered a typical Sri Lankan RTA. As we atempted to weave through the carnage of buses and trucks we were met with the scream of an injured girl. Her mother cradleing her in her arms, we stopped transferred the girl quickly into our van and the driver accelerated away with more urgency than ever to get the girl to hospital. We were fortunate that the hospital was only about 15 mins away. In this time we were able to establish that the girls leg or knee was broken and that she had been hit by a lowloader on her way to school. Any attempt to calm the situation was met by panic. The poor girls screams continued drowning out any other noise and her leg continued to be thrown about. Unfortunately this kind of panic where people have accidents and are just picked up and thrown about unitl they reach a hospital, most likely a great distance away, is far too common. We were helpless in trying to improve the situation through our lack of fluent Sinhalese in a situation with this much panic.
Once we arrived at the hospital we were met by even more confusion and panic with the staff running around looking confused and dazed whilst mothers with their sick children came out to watch. Once the girl was safely inside the hospital we left to continue our trip wondering what the outcome would be for this poor girl.
Entry Filed under: 2010 P4R, Kla Sri Lanka Diary 2010
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