a case for public health

a true story in four acts
'acts' used here in more of an ira glass kind of way

act 1

sarah and i had planned to complete the maclehose trail over the long weekend. the 100 km trail, hong kong's oldest, stretches from east to west new territories, starting in the stunning sai kung country park and ending in tuen mun. saturday began with a comparably light 16 km hike through some really fantastic scenery. the weather was perfect, the skies were clear, and sarah and i were making great time despite our predictably late start.

after an afternoon on the idyllic long ke beach, we hiked a few more kilometers and by 6 pm arrived in the small village of sai wan. less than 30 people live here, and as i learned at 4:30 am the next morning, it only really survives because of the traffic coming through on the maclehose trail. a few cafes and a small hostel were placed on either side of the trail, before it continued on to the nearby sai wan beach. we hadn't planned on hosteling and so we set up camp on the beach as the sun set.

sarah and i made a delicious pasta dinner on our brand new camping stove and with a little help from our excellent mutual friend melatonin, settled in at about 8:30.

act 2

at 3:30, having slept fitfully since the winds had picked up around midnight, i was awakened by a painful bite on my calf. i sat up yelling, expecting to find an animal sitting in my lap. i found nothing, although within minutes, my leg had swollen around a large bite across my left calf. in shock, i lay down, unsure of what to do next. sarah and i spent five minutes catching our breath, trying to figure out what the hell had happened, before i walked outside to look around. my hiking shoes were about fifteen feet from the tent, but with the clouds blocking out the moon and the wind whipping around the tent, i couldn't see or hear anything. it seemed that some animal, presumably large enough to get its mouth around my calf, had bitten my leg completely unprovoked while i was still inside the tent. at this point, the bite on my leg had swelled to the size of a baseball and i was having trouble walking.

sarah and i packed up our site as quickly as possible, and by 4 we were limping our way to the village of sai wan. neither of us had any idea of what to do, as we were easily 10 km from any major road. after arriving in the village, i asked sarah to start banging on doors, which she thankfully did. the first door she tried opened to reveal eight women sleeping on four bunk beds. the women were understandably shocked, but with limited english and chinese, we managed to track down another hiker staying in the nearby hostel who spoke excellent english.

by 4:30, jonathan had called 999, and after discovering that they had never heard of sai wan (keep in mind we're still in hong kong) he managed to describe to the fire department where we were. we learned that the nearest service road was about three km uphill from the village, and i was told that an ambulance was being sent with a few people who would help me hike out. having later seen who they sent, i have to wonder what jonathan told them.

act 3

at about 6 am, five fire fighters walked into sai wan with a stretcher. soon, two doctors followed, and after them came five more fire fighters, with a wheel chair and two more stretchers. i was very surprised, because while i was unable to walk, i certainly didn't need 12 people to carry me out. while most of the firefighters just walked alongside, a few of them were particularly helpful. through a combination of hopping on one leg, awkward wheel chair-ing, and intense stretcher work, we were able to climb the mountain out of sai wan and up to the service road in about an hour. for the first time since moving to hong kong, i was actually thankful that the parks and services department has put so much money into paving hong kong's hiking trails. getting wheeled out of the valley was a welcome improvement over the first 500m of hopping.

by 7 am, i was in an ambulance with sarah, driving to the nearest hospital. i naturally didn't have any form of identification, so used my student octopus card instead. after an hour of driving on windy roads, we made it to the tseung kwan o hospital in the southeast new territories.

act 4

having been checked in at the hospital, i quickly had some blood tests taken, and was given some antibiotics and antihistamines. at this point, my leg was huge, and i still had no idea what was going on. over the course of the next few hours, we weeded out spider, snake, stork (jonathan's proposal), lizard and most other venomous animals. other likely candidates were dog or wild boar. i had to tell my story to many doctors, all of whom had trouble comprehending why i had been bitten in my sleep through a tent. i still don't really understand how it happened. the most compelling case has been made for the wild boar. i also think it makes the best story. whatever it was, though, it had some nasty teeth, because my leg was pretty infected.

throughout the rest of the day, i was given a variety of drugs, and i slept for a long time. by about ten pm, over 16 hours after i had been bitten, the swelling had dramatically decreased, and the doctors had gotten back my blood tests, which came up negative across the board. exhausted, confused and mentally drafting this blog post, i limped to the desk to pay my bill.

epilogue
the reason for my title? grand total for two fire trucks, an ambulance, 12 rescue workers, a blood test, a weeks course of antibiotics and a day in a hospital bed : 12 US dollars.

PS. i still don't know what bit me. i'm taking suggestions, though.