LIFE IS CHEAP?

                            Henry

 

Sitting one morning with coffee, my friend  Henry had a stroke. Henry has had two major strokes previously, and has lost mobility with his right side and suffers from a slight speech problem. He should be in a hospital where he can receive treatment, phisio and encouragement, not be kept in these horrid conditions.

On the morning in question, Henry had sat down and complained that he felt dizzy, I went to get his medication, by the time I had returned, Henry had collapsed and was conwulsing, I put his medication into his mouth as he had told me to do if this ever happened. Not a single Thai man did anything not even the sp called “Medic”. They stood around pointing and laughing whilst this man was dying. The officer on duty was too busy selling vegetables to give a damn. The officer asked a Thai what was going on, when he was told that Henry was having a heart attack or a stroke his reply was “oh, can you please make an announcement that there are still more vegetables for sale”. I could not believe my eyes, a man dying and people are worried about fucking vegetables? What is this? I was ashamed to be a member of the human race. After 20 minutes a wheelchair appeared and Henry was taken to the front gate where he had to wait another 10 minutes for an officer to arrive to take him to the hospital wing. 30 minutes in which he could have died. The laughter by the Thai’s, both prisoners and officers is what ate at me, I felt so hopeless, nothing I could do to save my friend and these animals have the hide to laugh at a dying man.

Even after Henry reached the hospital, there was no doctor on duty, just a officer who put him on oxygen. The doctor arrived at 12pm, 4 hours after the stroke only to tell Henry that this was caused by lack of bloodflow to his brain. Here is some tablets, off you go, you’ll be right, no worries.

Henry has had 8 more attacks in the 5 past days and only now has been taken for observation. Henry is a tough old man who has had more than his fair share of hardship, why do the Thai’s insist on making a sick mans life harder than need be?

The one thing I have learned from this experience, here in Thailand “LIFE IS CHEAP”

 

Written by Mr. P. (Prisoner here in the Hilton)