Samu In The Emergency Room

What haven't we done on this vacation in Aruba? We got sunburn doing Kenpo, lost for an hour and a half looking for a restaurant and now we can tack a trip to the emergency room up there as well. It was about 10:30 at night when my husband and I took a bleary eyed three-year-old to Dr. Horatio Odouber Hospital's emergency room for a busted lip.

We thought he would be okay - he had cut a small gash on his bottom lip when he tripped on some stairs. There was a lot of blood, but cuts to the lips and mouth tend to bleed a lot. By the time he woke up an hour later however, crying in pain, Grammy's bed looked like a scene from the Godfather. There was blood smeared everywhere. We called the house doctor who told us to go the hospital. Doctors have their diagnosis down don't they? If you're sick, it's a virus; if you need attention after five pm - go to the hospital.

So we jumped in a cab that cost us ten U.S. dollars, which took us a quarter of a mile to the nearest hospital. I must say, it was a clean hospital and the only bloody patient was our "Sippy" Samu. Other than him, there was a kid who looked like he had been puking all night and an old woman with an ace bandage wrapped around her head. I'm used to New York hospitals with their victims of hit and run accidents and homeless drug addicts accompanied by the police. Being that this was my kid's first trip to an emergency room, I'm glad it was in Aruba.

One hour and one-hundred-thirty dollars later, Samu's lip was all glued up and ready to go. Thank God Grammy threw us a couple of hundred dollars in cash. It didn't even occur to me that we would have to pay since I'm so used to just showing up with insurance cards. It may have been the reason we were in and out of there so quick, now that I think about it.

The next day, we had dinner at the Italian restaurant, Papparazzi. The Maitre D' looks at me and says, "Hey, didn't I see you at the hospital yesterday?"

"Yes." I say and explained why we were there.

Apparently, she had seen us as we were leaving the hospital. Her son was just brought in after being in a motorcycle accident. She claimed they waited until four in the morning for attention - a far difference in the service we received. She said her son was fine and laughed, revealing a whole other story behind it.

As she seated us she said, "Yes, I remembered seeing you there and thinking, oh they send our guests here? Ha, ha, ha."

Ha, ha, ha, indeed.

What's your favorite emergency room tale - I'd like to hear it.