the loss of one's independence

The most striking aspect of that split second when the accident took place and I broke my leg, was the loss of independence I had been used, disappearing in a flash.

Since that moment, I have had to be dependent for almost everything. Without the services and help from others, in the instant of the accident, from complete strangers who came to help, I have had to depend on the goodwill of others.

In a way it is good lesson to learn as hitherto up until that point I had been pretty much in control of what I wanted to do from moment to moment and was answerable to only myself for all my actions. I chose what I ate, when I ate and also how I made simple things like the cup of tea or glass of fresh orange juice. I did all my own laundry and instructed how all my food and beverage was made.

I am now at the mercy of others, and as the room I am in does not have a TV or a bell to call for help, sometimes I have to wait for someone to come in before I can ask for help for simple things. Worse as I am not staying at my place, I am dependent on others for bringing my clothes from my place to wear and also what I put on before going to the office, and have had to put up with crushed clothes and a few more embarrassments to boot in order to get there.

I was one who was used to choosing the amount of food on my plate so I only selected what I could eat, as from the beginning we were instructed to never waste any food which we helped ourselves to. Now I have food served on a plate, and in order not to leave even a grain of salt on the plate, I have had occasion to eat out of habit and not out of need.

I cannot pop out to the store and get myself a sweet fix if i want or fulfill a craving!! These are times for reflection and hope that it will not be too long before I can take some control of my daily activities.

The worst thing at present is my inability to sleep continuously as I had been used to due to the very uncomfortable position I have to get into due to the right leg still being painful and not yet operational without pain. I take a few pain killers prior to bedtime, and it has helped a little.

Most of all I want to get back to my place, my things my surroundings, dogs and fresh milk in the morning!! Tea tastes so much better with fresh milk and spring water! I will not be able to drive a vehicle for another 5 months so until such time I will have to compromise and put up with some discomfort.

I have to make a trip to the Minneriya Police station to make a statement as the statement made at the hospital had not got to them. This is essential both for my insurance payment, as well as the police prosecution of the driver of the vehicle that crashed into me. Until that latter case in the Polonnaruwa courts is completed and Judgement ruled in my favor, I cannot take a private prosecution against the state or ministry to claim some kind of compensation for the pain and suffering as well as economic cost of the incident.

Till then I am batting on hoping the pain in the leg reduces, the problem being that once the numbness after the operation wore off, some pain arising from the surgery raised its ugly head. I see the doc in a few weeks for the follow up and hope by that time it disappears.

return to remunerative employment

Anyone who has followed my blog over a period of time would be clear on one thing. I am running a subsistence agriculture based enterprise purely on my ability to put in the time and effort. Therefore it does not take a brain box to realize the devastating effects my accident would have had on my enterprise.

I have been able to survive purely due to the help I have received from family, as well as the cheque I received from my Colombo employment for the same amount as if I had worked there on the usual days of the week that I am there for the month of February.

It was imperative therefore that in order for me to meet my expenses, I manage to go to the office as early as possible, in order to meet my commitments. I have to depend on a lift to the office in a vehicle as well as the services of an attendant though I can call on the services of a taxi when a vehicle is not available. I am able to fortunately go all the way up to the 32nd floor of the WTC East Tower on the service elevator from the loading dock without having to go to the main entrance as it is on different levels and I cannot use escalators etc.

While it is very tiring to stay in one place, at least being at a desk and being able to work is a huge advantage. I am not able to put my foot down for 3months or drive for six, so I am not able to operate my previous enterprise and therefore take a loss on that, but at least being able to get some partial relief will definitely help at this moment.

I am pleased to report that though I have trouble sleeping due to the inability to turn without pain and awkwardness, the wounds have healed and the operating scar that was over a foot long is barely noticeable now barely 5 weeks on to the operation is an indication of the skill of the surgeon and the person stitching the operating cut.

I know many of my friends all over the world are following my progress through my blogs, and so I know that they will give me license to inform you all this way rather than write individual mails, as it is still a little tiring to sit at the desk and write. So thank you all for the numerous emails, prayers and wishes for a speedy recovery. Thank you

the state sponsored slaughter of innocents appears to be finally yielding some outrage

If you have been reading the past few blog entries you would have noticed my appeal for right thinking people to protest against the current slaughter on our roads by uninsured vehicles of the state, mostly of the defence forces including the Police of which the Ministerial Security Division is the chief culprit.

These MSD vehicles have the worst record of the slaughter having injured more than 500+ and killed more than 100 since the end of the war, with no recourse to them for compensation. The stories of people who have been thus affected are tragic, with livelihoods lost and average hardworking productive people being reduced to penury and begging with no recourse to the law for redress. ( In a civilized country, if you do not have recourse to the law for redress, it is effectively a Human Rights Violation)

I have appealed to a leading publisher to gather around 100 true stories arising out of these accidents, so that they may be highlighted in the press and the public made aware of the real risk they are in due to this large scale breaking of the norms of decency, while driving at excessive speeds mowing down pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.

Only a few days ago, a back up police vehicle for the protection of the wife no less of the IGP (Why the wife of the police chief needs an escort is beyond me!!!) killed a motorcyclist near Pelmadulla, which resulted in the city of Pelmadulla ( full praise for people's agitation) rising up in demonstration which forced the police to remand the driver. Otherwise he would have gone free without even a summons!

In my case, the totally unroadworthy police/MSD escort vehicle which was an old Toyota high sided blue 4wd vehicle, which skidded into me was abandoned by the convoy of the Ministry of Justice at the site of my accident, and the occupants were removed in the Minister's other vehicles without giving a police statement. The police had to tow it to the Police Station, and they had the gall to ask me to pay for the tow!! when I only paid to tow my vehicle to the Police Station. That police vehicle after a lapse of over a month is still lying in the Police station in Minneriya, (you can go there and look at it today) unclaimed by the Ministerial Security Division, and the driver has NOT gone to the station to surrender his licence and as he was clearly the offender, not even taken into custody, pending a magisterial enquiry. They are hoping time will allow them to sweep it under the carpet. My license though is with the Minneriya Police for the purpose of their enquiries, what Justice is that?

Is this the Justice we expect in this country from the Minister of Justice? Old Royalists reading this should castigate him for putting their school to shame, as he has not even had the decency to of a phone call to enquire after my health! It goes to show it does not matter what school you went to anymore in SL the morals of the leaders is that of the gutter!

This practice must stop, as all the MSD contingent that give protection to MPs and various forms of Ministers have special radios that start crackling not when there is a threat to the VIP but when there is an accident, which is about 5 times a day. It is now a sport for the MSD security counting the road kill and injured (maybe even placing bets in true SL fashion of the day's tally), as they have nothing to do except travel around with the VIP feeling important, scrounging meals from every host the VIP visits ( I had to feed 10 security once when a VIP visited me!)

This practice must stop immediately. The back up vehicles which are not roadworthy anyway should be withdrawn and each VIP should just be given their standard two security personnel. We can then at a stroke of a pen save innocent lives, with no threat to the VIP security (their un-roadworthy vehicles are a greater threat to their own personal safety anyway)

There was an article in this Sunday's Times which said that moves are afoot to try and get all those hitherto uninsured vehicles of the state into the insurance ambit, so that those injured killed or somehow affected will have some redress and recourse for compensation. Its high time, please enact the appropriate legislation, so that the most important requirement is for all vehicles to follow the road rules and speed requirements, and know that they will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law if they flout it. If they know this, then there will not be this kind of owning the road mentality, driving in a way with no regard to other road users, and they would be more careful knowing they could be imprisoned, and action taken personally against them.

How about taking personal action against the minister as he is vicariously is liable for the actions of those under him. You can bet things will change in a jiffy!

the process of making an insurance claim resulting from my accident

For information of interested readers I would like to give a progress report on my insurance claim as a result of the accident I had. My Tata Cab was fully insured (comprehensive)

On the night of the accident I had asked my staff in Minneriya to contact Ceylinco VIP my insurer to come and look at the damage of my vehicle that had by now been transferred to the Minneriya Police Station. A rep had come and taken the requisite photos etc. and gone away.

Once I was released from hospital I contacted my agent informing him about the accident and the need for the claim, and upon investigation he said that there was no record of it!! SO there started 3 days of stalling on their part saying that they could find no record of the event.

You can understand my disgust on this and told them to look into their records as there was definitely a person who came from Hingurakgoda and took down the necessary details.

I had then to resort to contacting the Managing Director of the Insurance Company, known to my sister to tell him about this and only after he intervened and got one of his staff to pursue this did they discover what had happened due to some inability to match the incident with my policy as there was some human error in matching of numbers!!

Once that was investigated and I made my request by email about the facts of the accident, I was emailed an offer letter condemning the vehicle with a once off payment of Rs 800K in full settlement of all claims, on condition I submit some paperwork to them along with the damaged vehicle to their yard.

I then had the unenviable task of arranging for the vehicle to be transported from Minneriya to their yard in Sidduwa. That became a problem as I had to find a vehicle with a hoist to load and unload the vehicle as there were no hoists at the yard that contains all these condemned vehicles. Surely one would have thought that the least they would have is a hoist to be able to unload these vehicle that are constantly being brought to this location.

Today Sunday I was able to get my staff member in Minneriya to arrange for the vehicle and load the truck on to that for transport tomorrow to the yard. The total transport cost that I have to bear is Rs25,000 to get it taken there before I am able to make my claim from the insurer. I was also told by the police that I have to make the payment for the transport of the damaged vehicle from the crash site to the police station, a matter of about 2km for which I have to pay Rs6,000. I am sure there is a small case of overcharging there, but that is out of my control as they probably have an understanding with a local person for such events and have to pay whatever charges they present you.

I have to send my letter of acceptance of the offer from insurance along with the vehicle ownership documents to the insurance company tomorrow in order to get the claim settled.

It goes to show that there is a lot of work involved even to sort out an insurance claim, even though the ads from the insurers make it all sound so easy easy. I really dont think there is much difference between the insurance companies, it is just a hassle they get you to go through. I might also note that this is the first claim i have made on my cover since I purchased the vehicle a little over 6 years ago. The problem is when I am immobile, I have to take care of all this remotely, depending on many people to carry out my instructions, hoping everything is taken care of as it should.

the orthopedic clinic- thursday consultation

It was my first clinic visit. In fact it was my first outing since being discharged from the National Hospital on Tuesday, February 8th. When the doc saw me and signed off my discharge, he said that my wound namely the stiches were healing well and that I should under no circumstances put any weight on my injured leg for three whole months until the fused bones have time to heal and grow.

I was asked to come to his clinic in a couple of weeks to have my stiches removed and the healing process inspected. His clinic days are Thursdays and Saturdays, and I chose to get there early this morning anticipating crowds. I was not far wrong, as even being there before 8am I was lucky to be able to find a place to sit. Once I sat down and Sagara went to get me on the waiting list, more and more people turned up with various leg injuries in wheel chairs and crutches and the like.

It seemed that he was about to see over 200 patients in the just the morning session. I was wondering what my wait would be, when I was mercifully spared the agony, as my aunt a physician, walked in and got me in straight away to see the surgeon. I saved a wait of hours there. The doc saw me only for a minute, removed the plaster covering the stiches, said it had healed sufficiently for them to be removed, and looked at the xray, bent my leg and found it fully operational to his satisfaction, and asked me to come in a month, with an x ray for him to review the progress.

I was then taken to an ante room, where the nurses asked me to lay flat on a trolley and they expertly with little fuss removed the zillion stiches with little pain and then cleaned the wound area and bandaged me asking me to remove the bandage in 5 days and from that point I would be ok to bathe the wound area.

I got a date for the next visit at the counter and off I went. This seems to be the daily regimen of the clinic as different surgeons have different clinic days here. In the consulting room, the boss was at a desk at the end and a whole lot of other juniors were in a series of about 7 desks all seeing to patients where the level of referral depended on the need of the hour as some patients are not on the first visit like me, but on follow up visits.

What struck me was the efficiency of the patient care, albeit with little bedside time due to the workload, but as there was NO administrative delays for record keeping or payment etc, it seemed a pretty focused affair purely on the patient care and follow up with instructions for the next follow up.

I am glad I have been able to get the services of the physiotherapist who began my regimen less than 24 hours after the operation, to come home to work on me and even the doc was pretty startled at the level of progress when I showed him I could lift my leg and bend it to the same level as the good leg.

Again all this was a free consultation, all part of the expert and highly creditable service of the National Health care service in Sri Lanka. Thank you doctors, nurses and all the ancillary staff for every thing you have done to get me back on track as soon as possible.

I mentioned to the doc that I feel that there is a tendon or muscle that jumps unintentionally, to which he said it should correct itself once I begin to use the leg and walk and get the muscle tone back on the leg.

What a relief to get out of the house being kept cooped in. Now I feel confident to go to the office on Monday, for a half days work at the WTC. Apparently as I will be in a wheel chair, I can use the service lift to get straight up to the 32nd floor from the car without having to navigate any more obstacles.

More for next time.

A stay at the Colombo National Hospital following a serious traffic accident ser

The St John's Ambulance that had been sent to pick me from the Polonnaruwa hospital, deposited me at the entrance to the accident service at the General Hospital at around 6am on Monday, January 31st. All the transfer papers( a necessary requirement as the first point of admittance was another hospital) and the X rays were handed over and preliminary checks were performed.

It was a quiet morning there and I was immediately sent to X ray of the Chest and Head in case some other injury the body had been overlooked

I was then taken to the accident service ward for casualties, ward 72. There were patients on the corridors and the ward was packed. I was given some pain killers and left to be seen by an orthopedic specialist at the normal times for the rounds being about 8am.

During the course of the morning a zillion doctors saw me, as they are all curious to know the new cases. Dr Banagala accompanied by a gaggle of Senior House Officers came and it took him a few milliseconds after looking at the X ray to refer me to surgery.

So now is the wait to be slotted into surgery. His theater days are Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays

Timeline of events of accident

Accident happened little over 15 mins from leaving my agricultural property in Raja Ela Hingurakgoda almost opposite the Eastern Command HQ in Minneriya at 1pm on Sunday January 30th 2011.

I was on my way to Godagama Meegoda Farm loaded with some produce including the much demanded Oranges from Ratmale. I was driving with my man Friday Sagara in the other seat.

When taking a corner at low speed, and having given a wide berth on the dry pavement to the oncoming convoy of a cabinet minister, his last vehicle, a Blue Ministerial Security Division uninsured vehicle whilst trying to corner coming in the opposite direction, skidded right into me on my side of the Tata Pick up I was driving. I was trapped in the vehicle with the engine running, and four burly guys from the Minneriya Wildlife Department not too far away, having witnessed the accident, stopped their vehicle as soon as they saw the accident and yanked me out of the passenger side, I was conscious and in excruciating pain . they thought the cab will catch fire as the engine was still running.

Without another moment to think they bundled me into their vehicle and drove me and my passenger the 25mins to the nearest hospital, namely Polonnaruwa general. Their prompt attention was most welcome and appreciated above and beyond the call of duty.

I was able to remember my sisters home number and relayed the news via the mobile of the rescuers. Upon arrival, I was met my the gurney and wheeled in pain to the X ray room where the xray was taken and put into a ward.

In the meantime the info of the broken femur was relayed to my sister who decided to try and arrange for an ambulance to come to Polonnaruwa to take me to Colombo, with the alternative being using the hospital ambulance to take me to Kandy. As this hospital is only permitted to refer to Kandy, this was in hindsight the best course.

The ambulance came by 10pm and I got the to accident service at the General Hospital Colombo by 6am. Monday morning. I was dreading the journey with the painful leg, but the two guys from St Johns Ambulance were superb completely covering the leg in some silica cushion and then blowing up some balloon round the leg to reduce the knocking and strapped me in smugly.

I told them not to drive too fast as there was no rush, so they a super job keeping me comfortable throughout. The cost of the service to transport me was RS 18,000. I was given a pethedene pain killer injection before leaving to reduce pain too.

I forgot to mention that I had a cut on my head that I had not even noticed, and had to have a few stiches put in at Polonnaruwa, and the pain was moving me from one bed to the other for transport etc within the hospital, sheer agony.

In the meantime, I had lost my phone with all my numbers at the accident, and I understand the Cabinet Minister had turned back once I had been taken to hospital to review the damage and wondered how one survived such a wreck. The vehicle had been towed to the Minneriya police station where it still is today.

As I am known in those parts, people known to me had seen the accident site and informed people I know who had further gathered at the site and some came to the Polonnaruwa hospital, and fortunately was able to borrow a phone from one so I could be in communication. The speed with which they had gathered at the hospital amazed me, as they have no means of transport and are in hard to reach village of Ratmale where my lodge is. They had also brought a sarong and two pillows, the basic needs of hospital stays in SL.

from my hospital bed - to all those who were worried

I will go into detail in a more opportune moment. My sister just brought me a notepad and i am struggling to use it in this awkward position and will try to be brief before i get too agitated.

Today is Saturday 7.30pm. I am in a paying room in class 1 ward in the National Hospital Colombo. I was shifted here at noon from Ward 76 the main Orthopaedic ward a very short distance away. The surgery took over three hours on Wednesday morning. The team was under the eminant surgeon Mr Banagala FRCS. It performed with a injection to the spine where only below the waist was numbed so I was completely conscious throughout but did not see the op as there was a screen but Icould here the team discussing the op. I will relate the surgery chatter when I am more comfortable. My femur was broken in two and it was quite tough to fix it with plates and screws etc. As the bone was hard I think one of the tools broke. That may thanks to years of drinking fresh milk!

Anyway the team was happy with their effort and I can only hope that after considerable physio I recover fully. I am so grateful to and proud of the health service in Sri Lanka and this hospital especially and all the doctors and nurses and physios as well as the attendents who have looked after me so well during this very trying time.

I expect to be released on Monday, to begin an intensive course of physio to get movement in my limb as that is a very important and urgent part of the recovery.

I thank the well wishes for wishing me a speedy recovery and promise my readers that I will eventually get back to my routine once I am able to drive and that may be six months. I have still to contemplate how I am going to get through this period especially after the repeat floods yesterday and day before for the second time in a month while I have been lying in bed. I have not been able to assess the damage at this stage.

So long for now

A Narrow Shave...

I am a guest poster.

Ranjit's trusty Tata was slammed into by a convoy of a cabinet minister. Ranjit has a broken femur and some stitches on his head. He is to undergo surgery tomorrow morning. Pictured above is Ranjit in the general hospital in Colombo.

He was transported to Colombo in a long ambulance journey from Polonnaruwa. In my opinion he is lucky to be alive as his vehicle was destroyed.

Considering the terrible turn of events he is in good spirits. Hopefully he will soon be able to tell us all the whole story.

Let us wish him the best on a successful surgery and a speedy recovery.

A proposal for the long term relief of communities devastated by floods

The flooding in the rice bowl of Sri Lanka rendered around 1M people temporarily without shelter with various degrees of damage to their personal property as well as their crops. Similarly the ongoing flooding in the state of Queensland in Australia has completely devastated communities, who have lost most of their movable belongings in their homes and much of it still being waterlogged.

The essential difference between the two unrelated catastrophes is that the Australian losses have been insured for the most part. In Sri Lanka, even I have not covered any possession for damage caused by flooding. In Sri Lanka, the loss is mainly to the agricultural crops, where many people live hand to mouth. They have lost personal possessions, but the value of them is not as high as in Australia. In Australia the home contents are covered by insurance, and many people will be able to replace much of their damaged goods, once a proper inventory is taken and a claim made. In Sri Lanka, it is up to the government to determine what if any can be given. There is talk of giving seed paddy and fertilizer, but remember that is for the next crop, Yala, to be sown from March onwards, with little immediate relief.

The anxiety is higher in Sri Lanka, even though the severity of loss is greater in Australia. This is a timely opportunity for insurance companies to stake a claim to coverage of all these areas, using this tragedy as the prime example of what can happen. It is estimated that the cost of the flood could be Rs50B, but this loss will not be compensated, and therefore those suffering this loss will just have to bear it.
Living amongst subsistence farmers, I find it hard to see a way out of this rut, where there is little hope of getting out of the debt trap, and the local money lenders, and banks being the beneficiaries of the tragedy. In this instance the rich in the village will get wealthier sometimes at the expense of the poor who may make desperate choices out of sheer necessity, such as mortgaging their property or pawning their jewelery to make ends meet. So what is the solution?

If we are to learn from this tragedy, it is one to impress on the people the futility of subsistence farming, and instead provide other employment opportunities, so that farming can be carried out in larger units. Employment in the temporary area of road building is one to consider as a short term fix, so that people will have a means of income. A proper assessment of alternatives can then be made. When I look at the situation in Polonnaruwa, the urgent need to dredge the silted tanks is a long term project that can employ people for a long time and will have long term benefits both of adequate water for agriculture, but also provision of local jobs.

The current floods in Polonnaruwa and the ongoing relief & rescue operation

My earlier entry was of my personal experience of the first day of the Polonnaruwa district flood, and how it affected me and my property. This is a follow up to it.

My home was completely underwater for less than 12 hours during the worst of the river swelling and bursting its banks due to the various sluice gates being opened of nearby tanks or reservoirs. It is now a question of salvage what I can and wash down and dry the place up with no help from sunshine.

However the more severe consequences are further downstream as the water eventually flows down to the Mahaweli River, and the river basin is completely flooded. The water level having risen 20ft has therefore gone into the hinterland, drowning the paddy fields for at least a kilometer outwards from the riverbank. The destruction to homes is more permanent and the extremely slow response from disaster management who were caught napping yet again is regretful.

Today is Thursday and only now once the BBC reporters have come to report the destruction and is shown in Sri Lanka as well where those have access to those channels can we actually see the moving images of the destruction, which while shown to some extent on local television was less graphic and less serious as those shown in International TV channels. Was this an attempt to hide the truth and also avoid blame for the slow response? I don’t know.

In my personal circumstances, after I had been able to save some of my property, they could not be protected overnight as they had to be left out on higher ground in the open. Well a few important things such as my nearly new HaySprayer to spray the paddy and other crops was nicked, a great blow to me as it is not cheap. Then a male calf also succumbed to too much rain, and had to be buried. Today we had the person in charge of the fertilizer distribution, on the property to survey the damage, and report to her superiors who each property has been affected.

In the overall context the need for disaster preparedness is more evident, as many people had to be housed in schools, while their possessions left behind were fair game to thieves. This lack of protection for individual property, where poor steal from other poor people is a fact, that can be addressed only as part of the overall morality teachings as young children. It is difficult to do when the examples set by those in power who steal from the rich and the poor alike seems to be admired and not punished.

It is important that respect for private and public property be ingrained into the psyche. Finally I all I can wish is that those people who are affected be immediately assisted especially with regard to their urgent needs.

A new experience of being flooded out as a result of the recent incessant rains

I went to bed on Saturday night around 9pm after eating some Maggi noodles (easiest to cook) as my farm hand in Hingurakgoda was in an alcoholic stupor and nothing could wake him up, and my man Friday, used the inclement weather to sleepover at a neighbor who has electricity and thus TV. In a nutshell I was alone with the nearest neighbor over a screaming distance away in case of emergency.

The heavy rain started around 11pm, and as I sleep on the verandah, I could not escape the light water spray on to me. Nevertheless it was freezing, another very unusual occurrence in these parts, and I managed to sleep soundly completely bundled out in the open. Waking up at about 3am I shone the flashlight to the river in front and saw that the water level was about two feet below the level of the verandah and went back to sleep. Once I woke up again at dawn around 5.30am the water level was at the verandah, and as it had happened earlier, I thought it was not unusual, until a neighbor came to check on us due to the water level, which had by now covered the bridge close by. I was told that the Giritale Tank was so full that it was unable to take the load, and the spill would be cut about two feet which would send a wall of water downstream, and I was directly in harm’s way.

We had a process to go through, first to move the water pump tractor to higher ground, end then everything in sight out of the way. By this time both the farmhand and the errant man Friday had been summoned to help along with about 4 locals, and others were making there way in from neighboring houses on higher ground, to see the once in a life time rise in flood waters, also being asked to help.

The speed with which the flood waters kept rising surprised us and we realized that soon the paddy store would get flooded, and soon thereafter the adjoining room where the fertilizer is stored. In the end once we began removing the paddy and fertilizer, the water had come in and soaked some beyond salvage, and in the meantime the recently plucked coconuts were floating down river along with some pots and pans and some personal items like shoes and slippers that missed our gaze. In the end I had to get my vehicle out of harms way once I had it filled with wet paddy sacks hoping to take it to Godagama to dry, as there was no chance that there would be any sun for a few days here. Sodden paddy would immediately sprout and render it useless. My home was under 6ft of water at its worst.

Eventually the journey back to Godagama took over 8 hours arriving at 2am through flooded roads and other mishaps such as a flat tire. I was able to carry on my normal routine as usual on a Monday to deliver my produce a little late.