Staying at a hospital in BALI! (& missing the flight)

 

After spending a week in Australia on our travel trip, we've planned to stay another week in Bali. We did as we planned and stayed in a surf camp! I've never surfed before and did not have the chance to try it on my last Bali trip in February.

The first morning, the first surf session. We had a perfect weather, the beach was not very crowded, the waves were nice. I managed to stand up a few times at the end of those 2 hours long surf sessions!

Then I thought, okay, one last wave before we go out of the water. Should not have taken that wave. While I fell of the board, I hit my feet on the board and broke my little toe!

Painful, but that was not the reason for my hospital stay.

The broken toe only kept me in the surf camp. So when my friend went to surf, I went to eat some street food instead, with a girl I met at the camp. From that day on, I suffered from diarrhea.

I woke up with horrible stomach pain on the day we had to check out. I spent to whole morning going to the toilet - throwing up & diarrhea (Sorry for beeing that honest). Plus, I got infected by my friend's fever & cough. I could not get up all day, & because the check out time was at 12 pm, I paid for another night so I could stay in my bed.

I felt worse & worse. We got a transport to the airport at 5 pm. We wanted to fly back to Australia for 1 day (6 hours flight) & then continue our trip in Singapore (8 hours flight). While driving to the airport, all I could think of was - HOW should I spend 6 hours in that tiny airplane while feeling so horrible? 

At the airport, it got even worde. I had to pick a plastic bag, empty the bag and run into a not so crowded corner to throw up, about 4 times (when there was no toilet of course).

My friend wanted to use the last chance to buy her mom some souvenirs. The shop was full of scented candles, soaps & stuff like that. You can imagine how I felt, smelling that stuff. I had to lay down some meters away from that store, in the middle of the airport. People were looking at me strange, some asked if they could help me, but I just told them that I'm ok and that I'm just sick.

When I tried to stand up to go to the security check, my knees immediately lost strength & I had to lay on the ground again. My friend didn't know how to help me, so we just waited some minutes.

I used my last energy and stood up. As soon as I stepped through that security gate thing, I immediately layed down again & then some security guys came to to ask If I'm OK. That was when I felt the worst, I could not help myself but cry. I cried and told my friend "I can't, I can't". That's when they brought me a wheelchair. I heard my friend and that wheelchait woman talking. My friend told her, she'll wait at the gate for me. The woman brought me to the doctor and told my friend "If the doctor let's her go, I will bring her. If not, you have to take your flight." I agreed with that. I knew I will get the money back from my travel insurance, but my friend will not because she's not sick.

The doctor checked on me & said, IF I can drink water, she will let me fly. But I couldn't. Every sip came out again 10 minutes later. So the doctor recommended to go to the hospital. I missed my flight & the wheelchair women brought me to the taxis.

The hospital was called BIMC. I'm not sure, but I think it was a hospital for tourists. Before they checked on me, I had to fill out some paperwork about my personality. They brought me to a backroom and wanted to give me a infusion, but because I was so dehydrated, my veins were like "hard" and the needle broke 4 times. The 5th time it worked, but the pain of my stomach was so strong that I didn't even care.

The doctors and nurses were all women. Compared to the other people I met in Bali, their English was very good! Plus, you could hear that they know what they were talking about. Inside the hospital, it looked like a total different place. You would not expect something like that in Bali. The rooms were super nice - comfy bed, big screen TV and very clean - especially the bathroom!

Even though they told me I could stay for breakfast, lunch & dinner, after they checked my blood after breakfast - with positive results, they told me that they will prepare the paperwork now so that I could leave. I did not feel much better & asked If I could stay in the bed for another hour, they agreed. After "checking out" of the hospital, they asked if I had a travel insurance, so they will give me the documents that I can forward to them. They are going to pay the $ 1'000 hospital stay back to me. 

During the night, my travel agency called me and booked another flight for me. They secured me that my Travel insurance will pay for the flight. 

So in my bad conditions, I had to look for an hotel to stay for 1 night. I just drove there with the taxi and luckily the first one I visited had a free room. The next day, i could finally attend my flight, feeling a lot better!

The good thing about this all was, i could fly to Singapore directly from Bali  (2hr 30 min) insead of Bali-Australia (6 hours) Australia-Singapore (8 hours)

I think it's been a good experience, especially because I love to travel. The next time, I know exactly what to take care of in a case like this. 

Stay safe!