Announcement

I stayed just one night in Bangkok. In the next afternoon I found myself in the return flight back Hong Kong.

In the middle of the journey, the pilot made an unexpected announcement:

Is there any doctor or medical profession on board? A passenger fell sick suddenly and need some urgent advice.

I do not want to tell you what I did – or what I did not do. Nonetheless, a old story came through my mind.

Here you go:

************************
It was shortly after I took up the academic post. After attending a conference in the States, I was on a flight back Hong Kong together with FW – a nephrologist from another hospital.

It was a long journey from Chicago. Five or six hours after we set off, I was half asleep after filling up my empty stomach with some suspicious semi-solid that United Airline labelled as lunch.

Suddenly, there came an announcement: Is there any doctor or medical profession on board?

My Glasgow Coma Scale was too low for me to make any response. Peeping through my half-opened eyes, I realized FW was getting up from his seat and waving at the attendent.

In no time I was completely comatose again.


I regained a certain degree of consciousness some twenty or thirty minutes later – just the right time to see FW coming back from his unexpected urgent consultation.

Seeing that I could open my eyes, he gave me a friendly nod, and, then, he took out his small suite case and searched carefully.

After a few minutes, he found what he needed. It was a small box. He took it with him and went away again.

(To be continued.)