Update from Smoggy Lima

Well seeing as it was in the bloody Star newspaper yesterday, (Friday 30th Sept 2006), I suppose the best thing to do would be to detail what happened to my lil sis here. We were on the 3rd day of the trip, and had gone to Ica from Pisco. In the afternoon there was optional sand buggy trips available in Huacachina in Ica. The sand buggys are savage! They are so much fun, would recommend them to anyone, although, maybe not if you dont like rollercoasters, cos thats what they are like. Anyway, we were also given sand boards and we were allowed to slide down the dunes on the boards.

We had all had a fews goes on the boards, and we were getting brave, so we were going onto steeper hills. We were almost ready to head back, and Hallai was sliding down on her board and had reached the end of the dune when she it a bump in the sand and fell over. She fell very badly on her left shoulder, and it snapped her neck back and the impact hurt her back badly. She says she could actually hear the crack. Anyway, she was removed by stretcher to the nearest hospital, a 5 minute drive away in Ica. This was the Regional Hospital in Ica. And my good god was it basic. I will never complain about Irish hospitals again.

She was seen immediately and we got her x-rayed and she was admitted into intensive care. After a series of tests on her and we established that there was no damage to the spinal cord as she has full movement in both her arms and her legs.

But on the Wednesday, the day staff in Ica were terrible. They wouldnt let me in to see her, they kept changing the diagnosis and then to add insult to injury, she was not given any pain relief even though I did pain for the medication. I had to buy all of the medicine for her in a pharmacy accross the street, and I mean everything, the needles for blood tests, the saline drip, the drip cord, a plastic cup for her to use to take tablets, it was unreal. And if you couldnt but the stuff up front, then she wouldnt get anything. By the end of the day, I had enough of the bitch doctor and decided for Hallai's sake it was best to move her and get her to Lima.

We organised a private Red Cross Ambulance from Nazca to come to Ica to collect Hallai and bring her to Lima. This is a 6 hour drive, not fun. And I had to go to Nazca first to pick up the ambulance, then back to Ica. Anyway, we left Ica hospital at 3am on Wednesday morning, but the bloody ambulance broke down an hour into the journey so we had to sit on the side of the road for 2 hours for another ambulance to arrive from Pisco. It was the longest 7 hours of poor Hallai's life, she was in so much pain and there was fuck all I could do for her. And there worst of it was that I was moving her against the doc in Icas advices, so I was shitting myself I was doing her more harm than good.

We got to the Clinica Anglo Americana in Lima just after 10am on Thursday morning and she has been ok ever since. The Irish consul out here from the Embassy has been brilliant, a really big help. And Hallai has improved a lot, she is able to sit up in a chair now and can walk a little bit, but is still in a lot of pain. Im just in the process of fighting with the clinic and the insurance people to get her home safely.

So yeah, not what I expected from this trip at all, but I will come back to Peru, just I will make sure I have taken Spanish classes before I do!