A Good Hospital Experience in Bangkok

Hello everyone! Firstly, please excuse my English as it is not my mother tongue!

I have been reading the Stickman Bangkok website for many years and what strikes me the most is that there are many stories about the bad experiences of foreigners in Thailand. As an expat, I think we should also talk about the “good experiences” we had here. No?

So, I would like very much to share with you a good experience that I had in Thailand. One that made me like and respect the Thais and this country. (Although I must say that it began with an accident.)

Firstly, a little about me. I am a Canadian, I have been living in Thailand 18 years (minus 3 years absence but, even then, I was living with a Thai). I read and speak Thai. I have been married to a Thai for 10 years and have children. (Yes, she is from Isaan! No, she was not a prostitute! And yes, she is a very good wife!)

About five years ago, I had a very bad accident in Bangkok in the middle of the night. I was driving a powerful motorcycle (a Honda CBR 400) and I hit a car head on! The shock was brutal! I was left lying in the middle of the road in shock and with broken legs. I was completely disoriented! I was just a few meters past a hill, so, the next car coming up would have probably run right over me.

Luckily, a tuktuk driver picked me up and drove me to the nearest hospital. The Huay Kiaew hospital in the Chinatown. (By the way, this tuktuk driver saved my life and, did not take me wallet or anything else from me). Moreover, he came to visit me the next day and gave me a fruit basket as a present, saying “he could not forget me”! He never asked me for anything, never told me his name and I never saw him again). (I could not ask him for his name because I was still in shock)!

Anyways, to make a long story short, I woke up and I could not move at all. I felt that my back was broken in one thousand pieces! I was unable to eat for 3 days. I had many little wounds but the most important is that my femur and my tibia of my right leg were badly broken.

I met the doctor and he was a nice guy from the Police Hospital and he told me he was a “specialist in bones”. He told me an operation was absolutely necessary. I asked him if he could do it.

He said “Yes! I do it all the time”! I said, ”Ok, go ahead then”!

I went through two separates operations (because, the first time, they did not see my femur was broken) and they put steel in both my tibia and femur. (I later read on the internet that my femur fracture (near the knee) was a very difficult operation to perform). I stayed 10 days at the hospital and the total cost was 52,000 baht only. (The bed cost with food was only 100 baht per day!). The doctor was excellent and did a very good job. (I could have ended up with one leg too short.) The nurses and the service were very good. The hospital was very clean. I also had a blood transfusion and, I had no problem! (In a way, I now have Thai blood so I must be thankful to Thais who give blood!)

So, in conclusion, I have no complaints about Thai hospitals and the Thai medical staff and I thank the doctor and the nurses for the good care they gave me! I never had problems with tuktuk drivers either (particularly this one). Is it because I speak Thai? Was I just lucky? Are there other people who have good stories like these? I would like to hear them. I see so many bad experiences stories that I wanted to contribute with a good one. Bye

Alex boy

PS. My Isaan wife (who was not even my wife then) came to the hospital the take care of me from the time of the accident until I was discharged from hospital, the whole ten days!

Stickman's thoughts:

Nice to hear a positive story. For readers who are not familiar with Thai hospitals, a close family member often stays and helps look after the patient while they are in hospital. Many hospitals have an extra bed in the room for such purpose.