Yesterday one of us four got a medical shock, but recovered quickly.
Timeline of events
It started in the gym. Me and Matti go to gym quite often as there is little else to do here. While doing foot press he joked "This is definitely gonna take life someday." After some heavy training he felt faint and lied down on a carpet for a few minutes, deciding to go to home to rest.
When I saw him next time down on the grass, after being alarmed by a bypasser, he was conscious but utterly red, dizzy and complaining about thirst and hotness. At that point, someone had already called an ambulance. He had called Sami, and soon Sami came from their common flat. The crowd increased gradually from 2 people to 20. Giving water to drink and sprinkling it on him made him better, so it was decided to wait for an ambulance rather than accepting generous offer to drive him to hospital.
The ambulance came in 20 minutes, and the drive to hospital took another 15. Luckily, drinking and sprinkling water always seemed to improve his condition. In the hospital, he started to feel ok first as long as he drank and didn't move, then all the time. After one hour they sent us back to apartment.
Today he went for examinations at 9.30, and they apparently found something as they want to keep him through the night there. I expect to hear more facts tomorrow.
Shit happens
The obvious explanation is that hard training and sweating caused liquid imbalance, but this is only part of the story. He had eaten an hour before the exercise, and he had a bottle of water with him. Also, he was an experienced gymgoer, who had also done some mistakes and felt the pain in his younger, crazier years. He did everything the correct way.
Now it seems that it was the first warning sign of something more serious: Why would they keep him in hospital if the tests didn't show anything strange? Why would a healthy young man who eats and drinks properly get such a shock in a regular gym exercise? It's shit that could have happened to anyone.
Hospitality
The locals were very helpful and did a lot for us. They realized that we may not know the ways of Indian healthcare system. Here's a short list of what they did:
- Called an ambulance.
- Came to tell me about the incident.
- Produced a water bottle faster it takes to run to apartment to get one.
- Called the doctor of the housing complex, about which we didn't know.
- Followed us to hospital on the trails of the ambulance with their own car.
- Waited there for the whole hour that we were there.
- Haggled an autorickshaw ride of reasonable price back to apartment complex.
Thank you for everyone who did it and everyone who would do the same in similar situation. Our gratitude knows no limits. Indians are masters of improvisation.
About the terror strikes
When enough people spend enough months on a foreign assignment, it is inevitable that someone dies, since immortality vaccination isn't available. The only question is how.
On my fear list, accidents and health problems go way over terror strikes. The traffic here is chaotic, one of us is already taking blood pressure medication and another just underwent an attack.
Mumbai has 20 million inhabitants while Tampere has 340000. A terror strike which kills 100 people in Mumbai would increase overall death rate as much as a robber who kills 2 people in Tampere. If some psychotic junkie bank robber killed two hostages in Tampere before getting deservedly sniped by Karhu commandos, would you cancel your trip there?
I'm still happy that I lack risk factors
Most hours of the full day we spend either at work or in the apartment complex. Neither is a "location favored by foreigners". Quite the contrary: We are the rare white niggers who draw attention wherever we may roam. In many tourist places people want to have a common photo with us. We seldom see others of our own race: In the rare days when I see a white-skinned girl I can't help staring for a moment. A strike against Westerners would be directed elsewhere.
Unfortunately, Hyderabad has also
had its share of bomb strikes in earlier years.
Let's hope that Indian police reduces everyone's risk factors by giving the terrorists and their organizers what they deserve. That will also decrese the oppression of Muslims by crackpot fundamentalists.
