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.
