Last week was a wonderful week in Jamaica with the love of my life! We had a wonderful time. I’d like to say it was uneventful and 100% relaxing, but it did not start out that way…. We arrived at our resort in Runaway Bay Sunday afternoon and quickly agreed that we had landed in paradise! This place was indeed another one of Gods masterpieces! When we arrived it had been raining most of the day, and was still misting off and on, but we were determined that a little bit of rain was not going to stop us! About an hour later we finally found a buffet that was opened to get some food. After a little bit of frustration at the restaurant we ate and left with a complimentary bottle of “apology” champagne. As we were walking back to our section of the resort with, the unopened bottle of champagne, we came out of the covered hallways into the open aired walkways connecting two sections of the building. We heard music playing and Gary suggested that we go upstairs for a night cap and to listen to the music for a while. As he turned towards the sound of the music the concrete walkway had a step down that we did not see and it was wet from the rain. Before we knew what was happening Gary was picking himself up from the ground holding on to his right hand as tight as he could. As you can guess he was the one carrying the bottle of champagne and when he fell that bottle busted and glass shards went everywhere!! One of the butlers heard the bottle bust and came running to see what was going on. She instantly started calling for help. It was 6:55 at this time. We stood there for a couple minutes while she tried to get help. She finally ran off to find a towel for Gary to wrap his hand in and came back still dialing the phone looking for help. She finally was able to get someone on the phone that told he that she needed to walk with us back to our room (I’m not sure why they wanted us to leave the ‘scene of the accident’, but off we went!) We got to our room and while the butler was continuing to do her best to get someone to come help Gary and I went into the bathroom to run some water over his hand and try to get a look at what we were dealing with. We knew instantly that there were two pretty big cuts. One was more on his wrist and was clearly of concern. We wrapped the towel back around his hand and waited. Finally at 8:05 someone finally showed up! The security guard took our report and decided we needed to see the onsite nurse. The nurse told us what we had already decided ourselves, that the cut on his wrist was in need of stitches! Naturally, she was not able to do such procedures in her office so we were going to have to go to the local Jamaican hospital. This is when the real fear set in… A driver was called for us, we were put into the car and sent off to the hospital with a sweet gesture of “Good Luck”! Umm.. Help? Really? We have to go on our own? Yup!
We made the 40ish minute drive to the hospital. As we were driving through the security gates into the hospital and peering through the metal security gated doors into the ER we soon realized we were in for an experience that we were not prepared for! We passed through the security area they took our cellphones, and sent us in to check with nurses. We were then sent to the registration area. We gave her some information, $60 US dollars and were sent back into the ER. Although at this point no one had looked at the wound to know what we were there for, we felt as if we were being looked at as if we were wasting the staffs time. They seemed very unconcerned with our needs and told us that we needed to find a seat and wait. I will take the time now to acknowledge that, clearly, it was not a life threatening accident and although it was on his wrist it did not cut a major artery so thanks be to God we weren’t one of the highest priorities in the hospital. However, a little more concern seemed appreciate? We waited… and waited… for Gary’s name to be called. As we were sitting in that little spot in the hallway that was considered the waiting room it his us both how incredible spoiled we, as Americans, are! Looking around it was bad as you may be envisioning that it would be. However, the other people there waiting for help were content and just waiting their turn. We humbled ourselves quickly!! After a long wait we were called to the nurses station and told that they did not have the supplies needed to do the stitches…. Umm, pardon me? I’m not sure I heard this correctly? We are in the hospital, correct? How could it be possible that a functioning hospital not have the supplies needed to do a simple procedure such as putting stitches in his hand? Again, we were humbled to the reality that this is how the Jamaican’s live. We are the spoiled ones! The ones that never question such things as going to the ER to have our hand stitched up in a extremely sterile environment, handed a $500+ bill, patted on the back and told to check in with our family doctor the following week!
The following morning the resort nurse called to check on us. We told her what was going on and she was really surprised to hear what had transpired the night before. She hung up with us and called the hospital to see if they had the supplies now for us to return. She was told that they did have the supplies so we set off on the 40 minute drive once again. When we arrived at the hospital (which was still unsettling in the daylight) we went to the nurses station to tell them we were there for the stitches. The nurse nonchalantly told us that they did not have the supplies… This is where this amiable/amiable lost her cool!! I started in on the nurse telling her that we had called ahead and was told they had the supplies, so we needed to be treated! She looked at me, unfazed, and said “I guess we used the supplies already before you got her.” Gary stopped me in my tracks before I was arrested by the securities guards standing around waiting for something to do. He calmly asked if they could at least change the dressing on the cut and we would go back to the resort. We were pointed to two chairs across the hall to wait it out a while…. Those of you that know me well will be surprised to know this is the first time that the tears ever flowed during this whole experience! All I wanted was for Gary to be treated. But as I stood there, with tears in my eyes, looking around at all of the locals in the room who were dealing with the cards they had been dealt a lot better than I was I was once again reminded that I was being a spoiled brat and needed to let go and let God!
We were finally called to a corner of the room and the dressing was changed out. At this point the cut was looking better. It had stopped bleeding, and looked as if it was trying to pull back together on it’s own. The nurse determined that she could just put steri strips across it and everything should be okay. We didn’t have much of a choice at this point, so we took her recommendation of treatment.
As we were leaving Gary and I heard two security guards ask the nurses who had made the “final call” (of death)…. This was the last reality check that we needed to know we had to change our minds and know that we were the lucky ones! We were there for a “minor” cut, and all through it clearly needed stitches we were damn lucky to still be living and breathing to get to go back to our luxury resort and enjoy our week before coming back to America!
When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.
Proverbs 11:2