Rachel’s scorpion sting and the horrifying hospital!

On Saturday, Rachel was unexpectedly bitten by a scorpion. When arriving back at our house to sleep, we were horrified to hear about the “approved” VSO hospital and clinic she was sent to. This is her story:

“I was standing up from the dinner table, very happy with a belly full of rice, when all of a sudden I felt a sharp pain in my big toe as if I'd just stepped on an incredibly thick pin.

At first I was just annoyed at getting stung by another annoying insect, but that soon turned to fear as an intense pain filled my foot and began spreading up my leg. I'm not one to cry much but I was quickly in floods of tears as my host family rubbed my foot with tiger balm and tied rubber bands around my foot and toe. At this point I didn't know what had stung me but still my brain associated this spreading pain and the fact I had rubber bands put around my foot with poison.

After calling my team leader, Hannah, for help, I was quickly driven to the approved clinic (which we hadn’t actually gone to yet as they don’t like foreigners) by one of the host families as it was the only one open and we weren't really in a position to be picky. During this drive was when I discovered that I had a scorpion sting, which thankfully in Cambodia isnt usually life threatening, however being British and not knowing anything about scorpions here (apart from needing to avoid them) really made me fear the worst.

After waiting a while at the first clinic with crowds peering in through the door, a very young nurse came in holding two injections which after some confusion soon realised weren't for my arm. I was told 10minuites for the pain relief to work but whatever mystery fulid I was injected with didn't help in the slightest. Half an hour later and I couldn't tell if the pain was the same or getting worse, either way we had to do something as we still hadn't been given anything incase it was posionous. We drove only 5 mins across the road to the provincial hospital, and I was really looking forward to getting some proper help, my heart quickly sank however when we arrived.

After being half lifted into a human sized metal tray, I was wheeled into a room next to a man who had been in a really bad car accident. It also didn't fill us with confidence as we saw rats the size of chickens running around. We soon found out that the English speaking doctors refused to talk to us as they don't like treating forigners, thankfully we had a young 16yr old girl with us who spoke quite good English and translated most of the night for us. She told us that the host families were concerned about the doctors lack of care, as he lay down for a nap in the corner. The host family was also convinced that it would be best to go home and just rub garlic on my foot as a traditional Cambodian cure for scorpion stings, something that was hard to find funny at the time.

I don't remeber having injections at the hospital as it was hard to concentrate on anything other than the pain, I only remember looking up, having a drip in my arm and being told they'd taken blood that came back without any poison traces, finally some good news. By the end of the night I'd had 5 mystery inections, an unknown blue pill and a drip in my arm and yet 4 hours later in that hospital and it didn't feel like the pain was going anywhere. I remember thinking there's no way I could cry anymore and was just so exhausted from having my whole body shake in pain and just started resting my head on my knee, clutching my toe and trying to ignore everyone standing around my bed laughing.

After the doctors insisting that I had to leave the almost empty room for other patients that may come, I was wheeled away on my metal tray into a large room with 40 other very ill looking Cambodian's. There wasn't any beds left so I spent the last two hours on my 'comfy' metal tray in the middle of the room, and you can guess who everyone was staring at... the crying white girl. I wouldn't have been able to manage the night without Hannah who was so supportive the entire night and made a human barricade between most of the people staring, although those who were able to get up made sure they didn't miss any of the action and stood directly infront, spectating me.

Nothing was happening in this room for me either and it seemed like a but of a pacience game as Hannah waited on the emergency UK medical team to ring back. They took an hour or two and at least 5 call backs to see if anyone was trying to get through to us as they were struggling to find a doctor to contact even though it was day time in the UK. After realising that the best option would be to go back to community and sleep at Hannah's house, we headed back and I think either the pain was staring to wear off on its own or the mystery blue pill was starting to work it's magic. By the end of the night I was able to walk again and actually got 3 hours sleep before making an early morning drive to Phnom Penh hospital, where I met an amazingly friendly doctor and was put on four different courses of medication, including antibiotics and yet another injection. The doctor couldn't believe the provincial hospital hadn't given me what was needed after a scorpion sting or that they were reluctant to help me because I was English. We then made the long journey back and everything is back to normal, although I'll be checking the floor very closely now.”