2008 MANY STORIES ONE VOICE ONLINE COLLECTION

Paul Burdett, Age 39, South Africa

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MEDICAL BLUNDER OF NOTE - A TRUE STORY 

by Paul Burdett

 

My name is Paul Burdett. I have my own small business selling plastic-ware and live in Pinetown, near Durban on the east coast of South Africa.  Addington Hospital is a large, general, public hospital that overlooks the warm Indian Ocean in Durban. I am an outpatient of Addington and go there whenever I need medical attention.  

 

Soon after my twentieth birthday, long before I got my Pathfinder, I went to Addington to see the doctor. He prescribed some medication but when I went to collect it there was a long queue so my mom suggested I go for a ride on my motorised scooter along the beachfront while she waited in line at the pharmacy.  I was riding along, enjoying the hot sun and watching the surfers when all of a sudden a lady jumped out at me and grabbed my scooter. The next moment there were three doctors around me.  They thought I was having a seizure and while I was trying to tell them I am cerebral palsied they rushed me into Casualty at Addington and injected me with Valium. As I was still fighting, trying to tell them I had C.P. they gave me  another injection of Valium!  Hours later when my mother eventually found me I was “lights out.”  I woke up – two days later!