A Visit to the Hospital...

Scary title for a post, ay? Definitely. I got back to my apartment at about 5am yesterday after a long and eventful night. Let me explain...

Three of my close friends were in a taxi to meet us at a bar for drinks. They were cruising down a main street, moving very fast, when a big black SUV swang over trying to do a u-turn from the other side of the road. The driver of the SUV was not paying attention at all (the way that many Chinese often drive in Shanghai; reckless and unconcerned), and he nailed the front left side panel of their taxi. My buddy Rich was in the front seat (220 pound Division 1 linebacker), no seatbelt and no air-bags...his head busted open the windshield and needless to say messed up his face REAL bad - he somehow stayed in the vehicle though. Blood was everywhere, and glass was stuck in places it shouldn't have been. The accident miraculously took place in front of a shady hospital, and luckily no one involved lost consciousness. Rich ran into the hospital and got some temporary stitches and some glass shards removed until we could arrive to take him to the international hospital for real treatment. When we got there, we ran in to see him and he looked horrible, you couldn't even see his skin behind the red all over his face, and he asked us "Guys, do I look okay?" Obviously he didn't, but there's no other answer to that question in that type of situation except for, "Yea man, you look great, you'll be fine." The taxi driver walked away 100% fine - he was the only one buckled up. Ibbi and Venice were in the back seat, they ended the day with a few stitches on the face and some bruised ribs/sprained legs. Rich needed well over 30 stitches on his forehead in the end (I sat in his hospital room while the doctor stitched him up with no drugs, it was like a military doctor stitching up a soldier on the battlefield, lots of screaming and swearing). CAT scans turned out fine, but they kept Rich overnight for some more tests. We called their parents to let them know what had happened (Imagine getting that phone call from China, Mom and Dad!). All three of them were troopers through the entire experience though. Ibbi and Rich were cracking jokes the entire time and I was encouraging them. We just wanted them to be okay - what better way to keep them positive than to maintain a sense of humor, right!? Rich convinced his doctor, who spoke very little English, that they should go out for shots of Whiskey after the stitches were over :-)

...Turns out the guy driving the black SUV was drunk behind the wheel. He accepted full responsibility for what happened, and is paying for all of the hospital bills.

It was supposed to be Rich's last night in Shanghai...Quite an interesting way to end a trip to China. Here are some pictures of Rich and his mess of a situation (he wanted me to snap some shots of his war wounds...this was after they had already cleaned him up quite a bit):

He's doing fine now, and walks around with a turban-like wrap on his head. He's heading back home on Friday now.

I've decided that I'll be riding in the front seat of the next taxi that I get into (the front seat is often the only one that has a working seatbelt), and I'll be putting that thing on!

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PMM