When I arrived at the emergency hospital, her treatment had already finished, but I knew from her what it was like. As many as 7 staff members were involved with her treatment, and their roles were seemingly strictly arranged; some only helped her take her clothes off, some just took her to the consulting room using a wheelchair,,, and so on. How inefficient it was!
I wanted to attend to her even in the consulting room, because I was interested in the consultation and treatment in Canada, but she is a woman. I refrained from being there. After the consultation, it was proved to be not serious. I was relieved to hear that.
She paid the consultation fee and was told to go to a pharmacy, where she would get some medicine. I accompanied her. She was a wonderful English speaker, but I thought I might be handy knowing more technical terms than her and naturally I wanted to see what things were going on.
At the pharmacy, I was surprised to see the pharmacists working slowly. Though no one but her was waiting for the medicine, she had to wait for a small bottle of tablets for more than 30 minutes. When she received the medicine, she was told to go to the physical therapist's clinic to get a knee brace. She was fed up. If the pharmacist had been smart, she could have got it during the time she was waiting for the medicine.
To my surprise, the analgesic which was prescribed for her contained a kind of narcotic. In Japan, narcotics are not used against benign pain. It is used for pain from malignant diseases. Additionally she had several bills from the orthopedic surgeon, the pharmacy, the ambulance, the physical therapist's clinic, and so on. What a complexity! Moreover, it was incredibly expensive. It was more than ten times higher than that of Japan. The ambulance fee is free in Japan. I heard that poor people couldn't consult physicians in the States, and I realized firsthand that it was true. Common Japanese people make a contract with a travel insurance company when they go out of Japan. Of course, Ms. O. had a contract and her injury would be fully covered. I learned that such kind of insurance was essential to travel overseas.
She started consulting the physical therapist for the last two days in Whistler. When I went out for skiing leaving her alone, I felt sorry, but there was no other way. Looking back a few days ago, the tall foreigner with his crutches waiting for a shuttle bus, whose crutches I was interested in, might be visiting the physical therapist's clinic. Finally, I could see and handle the crutches from Canada, which were produced in China though, and learn how to control the toboggan.
http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2012/03/woodrun-nanami-or-shichimi.html
http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2012/03/rescue-stretcher.html
(Vocabulary)
firsthand (経験・知識が) 実体験に基づいた, じかの; (説明・報告などが) 目撃者［当事者］による
first-hand reports from former prisoners 元捕虜自身による説明
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