I want to tell a little about the hospital is some more details, for those that have heard rumors or for those just curious.
The hospital is part of the Bangkok Group from Thailand. All the top staff are Thais they have brought over. It appears all the 2nd tier staff are from the Philipines and the grunts are mostly Khmer, with a few of them being nurses.
The hospitol is very modern and appeared quite clean by all standards. Another nice thing was it is rather small, less than 50 beds in total, so the care was frequent and attentive. They will expend to a 200+ bed facility next year.
My ortho surgeon, Dr. Bountha was very professional. He showed me all the hardware, sealed from Germany, before the process, and explined why and where it would all go. He was very patient with my questions and very understadning of my need to smoke
sorry, but we all have our vices, and Marlboro is mine. He was fluent in English, French, Thai, and Khmer. 9 months ago, he removed a disc from a freinds back and still no issues from that. It healed well and Sean is quite happy. Others had told me other operations and procedures done by this man and they were all very very positive. During the aftercare, he was kind, gentle, and extremely attentive and infomrative, always telling me the why and what of what was going on, from meds, dressings, procedures, etc. He never jurt me or rushed our time and he always came when promised, 4pm, everyday.
The nurses were all beyond fantastic, no fault at all, zero complaints.
Wifi was super fast and available all the time. I never turned on the TV.
Food is usually an issue in most hospitals, worldwide. ESP so for farang in Asian hospitals. Well, here they do it different. There is no cafeteria, there is no food on site. Everything comes from outside, and anytime you want to eat, just press your buzzer, nurse comes in with a selections of menus, and you choose from Asian food, French food, bakeries, Starbucks type coffee shops, pizzas, anything you name, and so many amazing things you never heard of from the small designer boutique cafes that have pushed the brothels of old out of Toul Kork and made it a respectable area of PP for a nice change. Passion fruit blintzes, veg smoothies, hamburgers, all at your bed in about 10 minutes. Oh and the prices...un real....Chateua Briand, $6.50.....Aussie sirloin, with veg and fries, $5. Cheeseburger bacon w fries, $3.50...and on and on and on...seeing as you are a captive audience, they could really sting you on the food..but no way, it was so cheap it felt embarrassing. Plus I never ate anything I didn't like. Food for me is important, and in this situation even more so. They really had it down on this one, too.
Finally....around the 6th day, I had stopped sleeping and stayed up all nights out front smoking, chatting with friends that live across the way. They knew I was not happy and was refusing to stay in my 4 walled "cell". I am not a TV guy, I cannot sit around, and I was really chomping to leave, purely for personal reasons, the staff was all great. They thought I should stay til 10 days in order to fly safely, but there was still and issue as to who would escort me. I could have someone fly over from VTE to help out but....the lovely Tom, pictured, came to me and said as a favor, not for money, and sure not for a commendation, as this was total top secret, she would meet me at the airport the next day, on her day off, shoot me full of morphine, as she was a licensed RN, escort me to VTE on board, and fly home the next day in time for night shift at the hospital.
All of this, top secret, as she said she would be fired if anyone found out as it was against policy. But she said she could tell how much I missed my wife and family at home and wanted me to be with them. So she arranged a nanny for her 2 year old, we bought the tickets, and she met me at check in after the hospital stff dropped me off. All very James Bond and stuff...too crazy.....we did as she said, landed in Wattay, she gave me another shot as it was quite rough to fly, and voila....I was home on the sofa in no time. She spent the night with us at home, gave the wife instructions on how to take care of the wound, what to look for, how best to move me, etc. and flew out the next day. Needless to say, she got a good tip. But sad part was, I can't even write a letter to say how great she was, as it was all under the table. So it would seem she really did it from the heart. Priceless.
All in all, I know others like me would have the same first, gut reaction.....get to Thailand, get to Thailand...well, in Laos, yes, I would say so. But if you find yourself wounded in Cambodia and think it may be an option, I can't recommend the hospital at Royal Rattanak enough.
They get a 10/10 in my book with no complaints.
Oh, and they even had a discount card that gave 1st night room free, %50 off after that, a %'s off of evertyhing else while you were there. In the end, I got about %30 off the total off 12K they charged. PLus free ambulance escort to hospital.
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