Brij Lal Hospital and Research Centre, Haldwani, Uttarakhand Day three to four

Thee has been a positive move from the insurance company....they just wanted the paperwork first.  Clearly my expectation of the helicopter from the roof of the hospital, to the C130 on the tarmac at Delhi, with the full medivac team,lights and bells, was a bit of am overdramatisation of the way things happen.   The thoughts of the insurer, and correctly so, is that NJC is safe and receiving the care that is needed here.

In hindsight the only criticism could be that of the time taken to let us know all they have been doing in the background.

As of  Wednesday the attending physician, Dr Karan, looked at the leg, and with an audience of many people including the cleaner, he  cut away the dead skin and it is now draining naturally.  The is the need for further surgery to debride the dead tissue, and the will have to be a skin graft.  Dr Karan is satisfied that this further surgery is not necessary to be done here, and under certain conditions travel home first can be done.   This is contingent upon the white blood cell count coming down from 19000 to a more reasonable level where IV ab are not required. Could be four or five days.

There is no way we can continue this extraordinary adventure, this time.

The view from the hospital bed...uniquely showing something sadly lacking in most placed we have visited...blue sky

Happily, we have just been advised that the insurance company is covering and will sort out  'door to door' transport, so I now have a gazillion rupees (taken from the ATM in anticipation  of having to front with the cash here).... Let's party.....or maybe not.....

So that's the good news...everything is relative...and we're doing ok.

I mentioned a group of student nurses....they are a Godsend, they have taken a shine to Nathalie, and have used Nathalie as a case study.   They practice their English, and are very interested in how we live, and are happy to tell us all bout their world, loves, and arranged marages, their love of dancing....which they demonstrated.    They have served to take Nathalie's mind off the pain and they seem to get along wonderfully with Kiskinda or 'aunty', all the time tending to the blocked cannula, water glass, taking NJC to the loo etc.  

We have genuinely been invited to an arranged wedding in December....not sure we'll quite make it back by then.  They are all very keen to get their nursing qualifications and mostly move out of India, to the 'dream land', Australia.   

ABC went for a wander, a few doors from the hospital, past the enormous bullock chewing its cud right across the footpath, the pony carts, and death defying road crossing, to a nearby mega mart( nothing like the size of the 'mega' marts in Indonesia, to get a few supplies. It is very surprising there are not supermarket riots.  It was amazingly slow disorganised, and queues...don't really mean much.....I am learning.  Generally a bit taller and heavier than many of the locals..used politely and prudently works.  Smaller change is given in lollies.