The Great Wall of China10. The Ambulance

The paramedics were far less impressed with the scene in front of them. They must see traffic collisions every day. Paramedics in China are not the same as paramedics in the United States. They are not even called paramedics. They usually have a doctor and sometimes a nurse in the ambulance, but in general, they have little to no training in emergency medicine. The doctors are fresh out of medical school, putting in their time until they can move on to a residency somewhere. The ambulance is transportation and basic first aid. In an emergency, you want an American ambulance any day, even though it is outrageously expensive. In China, they can't perform any medical procedures, but the ride is free.

After they strapped Amy onto a gurney, I told one of them that there was a scooter driver somewhere in the intersection. He looked at the traffic and said, “不是你的問題.” (That's not your problem.) I could not tell if he meant that some other ambulance was going to go that way or if he thought it was none of his business either.

Someone else asked me what hospital I wanted to go to. Ambulances in China are not required to take you to the nearest appropriate facility. They take you to your favorite place. I have no favorite hospital in Beijing, or any city, but I knew that Chinese hospitals often concentrate on one subject more than others. I did not want them to take Amy to a place that specialized in gynecology. There are a million medical terms that I don't know in Chinese, so I used a phrase you never want to use when shopping. 钱不是问题. (Money is no object, basically.)

Both Amy and I have health insurance in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is in China, but not everything translates. The government in Beijing controls the government in Hong Kong, but Hong Kong issues its own passports, visas and money. The passports and visas are different from Mainland China, but “中華人民共和國” is stamped right at the top. What I would learn later is that some hospitals in Beijing honor Hong Kong insurance while others do not. Fortunately, the closest hospital to the accident accepted Hong Kong insurance. Even more fortunately, it was an internationally accredited hospital with doctors who studied in various European countries. Amy had a few broken bones. A Chinese doctor who only studied in China could have patched her up. The international aspect would end up doing me a world of good.