AdrenalineJunkie
08-08-2004, 06:06 PM
I used to live over in China, the group i rode there with are a mix of foreingers and local chinese who ride mtn and road, organising races and social rides. Anyway, a Beligian named Siegfried who is the cheif organiser hit a kid during training, he emailed us all about the experience. Its somewhat long-winded, but it shows a very different culture to ours and i hope it opens some eyes.
__________________________________________________ ___________
Seeing as so many people have asked me about what happened in Jiayuguan, and how the bike trip from Gansu to Sichuan was, I take the liberty to tell you now in this mass mailing.
On July 22, three days before our triathlon race, Gilles, Patrik M. and I had been visiting some scenic Great Wall spots near Jiayuguan by bike, when we decided to head back to the hotel. While we did not really sprint back home, the high altitude and good road conditions did make us real fast. So it was that we were cruising at 55 kph when all of a sudden a child jumped out in the middle of our side of the road, with his back to us. We were still about 20m meters away, so Patrik and I shouted to make him aware of our presence. At this moment I made the decision to pass in between the child and the side of the road, which was bordered by a concrete ditch. This turned out to be a very painful and costly decision.
The moment we shouted, the child reacted by running back towards the side of the road, still not looking in our direction. Seeing as I was already going into that direction at high speed, I did not have the time or opportunity to change my direction, and realised that the boy and I were going to crash full on. And so it happened, I crashed right with my front wheel right into the kid.
This chain of events took no more than 1 second.
At the moment of impact blackness surrounded me.
Next thing I knew I was flying in the air (Patrik told me I flew 3-4 meters in the air), very conscious of being worried that I might fall badly and break something. When I came down heavily on the left side of my torso, I did not hear any crack, and felt some sort of relief. I immediately got up, using a few swear words that I shall not repeat, and checked to see if I had any wounds on my arms. I looked at the boy who was lying motionless halfway into the ditch (he had been thrown into this ditch, head first...), and then realised that I had best lie down. Which I did, putting up my head against my helmet, which did not seem too damaged (these things save your life!).
By this time Patrik and Gilles had stopped and gone back to look at the kid; and family members and by-standers had also come over. While Patrik tried to tell the family that it was best to get the boy to hospital as quickly as possible, they told him not to move him. Instead, an ambulance was called. The ambulance arrived about 10 minutes later, and I got in together with the father's boy, who was holding his son in his arms. The mother also got into the car.
To my shock the ambulance had NOTHING in terms of first aid; the only thing they the nurse did was open the door, close it, and sit on a stool during the whole ride to the hospital! The boy was not well: he had blood in his nose and his mouth, but we would later know that this was from a cut on his mouth and his nose.
In the hospital I basically cleaned up myself and sterilized my own wounds (very painful!), while the doctor and nurses saw to the boy. After a while they did a brain scan, and this proved to be okay. Later they must have done an x-ray, because they confirmed that nothing had been broken.
The boy's mouth needed a few stitches, and they told me that only time would tell how bad the boy was doing. It seemed that either his liver or an organ next to it had been ruptured a little, which caused the intestines to be blocked. As a result the boy could not go to the toilet, which somehow prevented the doctors from making a thorough diagnosis.
I must say that I was pretty astounded by the lack of knowledge or ways of treatment of this (locally well-known) hospital and its medical staff. At times I felt that they did not know much more about treating people than I, a 90% ignoramus.
After a while I left the hospital together with Gilles and Patrik, suffering pretty badly from a bunch of bruised hips and a very unhappy organ on the left side of my body.
The next day I visited the boy, who was doing a bit better. Luckily the parents (migrant Muslim workers) did not blame me as such, and had decided that a careless son and a strange foreigner on a superfast bike crossing paths are one of those things in life that you cannot foresee.
What happened in the next two days was also a cultural awakening on my part. To make a very long and complicated short, I was held largely resposible for the accident. This was not only because the stronger road user is always held responsible for 50% to begin with, but also because I broke a Chinese traffic law that states that bicycles are not allowed to cycle faster than 15 kph!!! Yes, my dear Mobsters, we are all violators of a Chinese traffic law!
Anyway, I ended up paying a substantial sum of money so that I could leave Jiayuguan after the race (July 25) and not have to worry about this afterwards. This may sound strange and harsh to you; the problem was that while I tried to take responsibility for the boy's full recovery (seeing to it that all hospital costs were paid until his full recovery, and then some), it was the local people (race organisers, traffic police and the parents of the family too) who felt that the payment of a lump sum would settle the matter, and avoid complications.
You can also rest assured that hospital costs for the first two days were grossly exaggerated, as is common in China when a foreigner is involved. They said that two days of hospital treatment (what treatment, he was only getting an infusion!) the costs had mounted to 7000 RMB!! Anyway, after long discussions the people involved convinced me that this was the right thing to do according to them, so I paid the sum, and they were satisfied.
When I met the father of the boy the next day, he told me that during the afternoon of the day before - probably an hour after I had paid the money - the boy's intestines had become unblocked, and that he was feeling much better! I was very happy to hear that nature, even though it might have been given a helping hand by cash, had decided to get the boy on his way to recovery, and that he would recocer completely.
__________________________________________________ ___________
Seeing as so many people have asked me about what happened in Jiayuguan, and how the bike trip from Gansu to Sichuan was, I take the liberty to tell you now in this mass mailing.
On July 22, three days before our triathlon race, Gilles, Patrik M. and I had been visiting some scenic Great Wall spots near Jiayuguan by bike, when we decided to head back to the hotel. While we did not really sprint back home, the high altitude and good road conditions did make us real fast. So it was that we were cruising at 55 kph when all of a sudden a child jumped out in the middle of our side of the road, with his back to us. We were still about 20m meters away, so Patrik and I shouted to make him aware of our presence. At this moment I made the decision to pass in between the child and the side of the road, which was bordered by a concrete ditch. This turned out to be a very painful and costly decision.
The moment we shouted, the child reacted by running back towards the side of the road, still not looking in our direction. Seeing as I was already going into that direction at high speed, I did not have the time or opportunity to change my direction, and realised that the boy and I were going to crash full on. And so it happened, I crashed right with my front wheel right into the kid.
This chain of events took no more than 1 second.
At the moment of impact blackness surrounded me.
Next thing I knew I was flying in the air (Patrik told me I flew 3-4 meters in the air), very conscious of being worried that I might fall badly and break something. When I came down heavily on the left side of my torso, I did not hear any crack, and felt some sort of relief. I immediately got up, using a few swear words that I shall not repeat, and checked to see if I had any wounds on my arms. I looked at the boy who was lying motionless halfway into the ditch (he had been thrown into this ditch, head first...), and then realised that I had best lie down. Which I did, putting up my head against my helmet, which did not seem too damaged (these things save your life!).
By this time Patrik and Gilles had stopped and gone back to look at the kid; and family members and by-standers had also come over. While Patrik tried to tell the family that it was best to get the boy to hospital as quickly as possible, they told him not to move him. Instead, an ambulance was called. The ambulance arrived about 10 minutes later, and I got in together with the father's boy, who was holding his son in his arms. The mother also got into the car.
To my shock the ambulance had NOTHING in terms of first aid; the only thing they the nurse did was open the door, close it, and sit on a stool during the whole ride to the hospital! The boy was not well: he had blood in his nose and his mouth, but we would later know that this was from a cut on his mouth and his nose.
In the hospital I basically cleaned up myself and sterilized my own wounds (very painful!), while the doctor and nurses saw to the boy. After a while they did a brain scan, and this proved to be okay. Later they must have done an x-ray, because they confirmed that nothing had been broken.
The boy's mouth needed a few stitches, and they told me that only time would tell how bad the boy was doing. It seemed that either his liver or an organ next to it had been ruptured a little, which caused the intestines to be blocked. As a result the boy could not go to the toilet, which somehow prevented the doctors from making a thorough diagnosis.
I must say that I was pretty astounded by the lack of knowledge or ways of treatment of this (locally well-known) hospital and its medical staff. At times I felt that they did not know much more about treating people than I, a 90% ignoramus.
After a while I left the hospital together with Gilles and Patrik, suffering pretty badly from a bunch of bruised hips and a very unhappy organ on the left side of my body.
The next day I visited the boy, who was doing a bit better. Luckily the parents (migrant Muslim workers) did not blame me as such, and had decided that a careless son and a strange foreigner on a superfast bike crossing paths are one of those things in life that you cannot foresee.
What happened in the next two days was also a cultural awakening on my part. To make a very long and complicated short, I was held largely resposible for the accident. This was not only because the stronger road user is always held responsible for 50% to begin with, but also because I broke a Chinese traffic law that states that bicycles are not allowed to cycle faster than 15 kph!!! Yes, my dear Mobsters, we are all violators of a Chinese traffic law!
Anyway, I ended up paying a substantial sum of money so that I could leave Jiayuguan after the race (July 25) and not have to worry about this afterwards. This may sound strange and harsh to you; the problem was that while I tried to take responsibility for the boy's full recovery (seeing to it that all hospital costs were paid until his full recovery, and then some), it was the local people (race organisers, traffic police and the parents of the family too) who felt that the payment of a lump sum would settle the matter, and avoid complications.
You can also rest assured that hospital costs for the first two days were grossly exaggerated, as is common in China when a foreigner is involved. They said that two days of hospital treatment (what treatment, he was only getting an infusion!) the costs had mounted to 7000 RMB!! Anyway, after long discussions the people involved convinced me that this was the right thing to do according to them, so I paid the sum, and they were satisfied.
When I met the father of the boy the next day, he told me that during the afternoon of the day before - probably an hour after I had paid the money - the boy's intestines had become unblocked, and that he was feeling much better! I was very happy to hear that nature, even though it might have been given a helping hand by cash, had decided to get the boy on his way to recovery, and that he would recocer completely.