Happy New Year...
Sorry for the tone, I'm just not feeling the festive mood today. I woke up to a horrible news by my cousin's roommate. Yesterday I was supposed to meet my cousin for lunch, kind of like a farewell lunch, since he's leaving Kursk to Moscow to catch a flight to KL today at 6pm. But somehow we cancelled lunch and I sent an SMS asking him to have a safe journey, and take care. I can only imagine his excitement to finally be able to go back home (just in time for the New Year celebration in Kuching) after 8 months being here in Russia.
This morning, his roommate's sms woke me up, and I immediately leapt forward when I read what he said- 'Your cousin's been involved in a car accident. The whole van that they took caught fire and burnt'. My initial reaction was- this can't be happening! The journey from Kursk to Moscow takes approximately 8 hours, and to catch their flight to Bangkok at 6pm in the evening, their van picked them up at 5am in the morning. Halfway through their journey in a village called pskov, their van had a head-on collison with a car which was halfway through overtaking another car. And from what I heard of it, the accident was a pretty bad one.
The driver and passenger from the other car died on the spot. In the van that my cousin and 5 other Malaysians were in, the driver was seriously wounded and unconscious, his son who was sitting next to him was the one who dragged him out into safety. He then proceeded to pull open the door to the van and pull out some of the students who were inside. Out of the 6 Malaysian students, 2 were thrown out during the collision, my cousin, who received some cuts and bruises, helped some other students out. 2 students suffered fracture of the leg bone, one suffered a shoulder dislocation, another one an ankle dislocation. While my cousin was still in the van, disoriented from the collison, one of his friend already mentioned that the van was on fire. The fire eventually spread to the whole vehicle and all their luggages and items were burnt.
However, thank God that all our Malaysian students are now doing fine, but I really feel sorry to the 2 Russians who lost their lives.
(it just turned 12am here in Kursk- Happy New Year...)
I honestly couldn't even imagine myself if I was in the same situation as they were. From being excited, knowing that you are hours away from the comfort of your home and your family- to being in an accident, suffering injuries, and for 3 of the students, they are stuck in a hospital 3 hours away from Kursk, in the city of Tula, awaiting their release before they can be continued to be treated here in Kursk.
And in my 5 years here, this is the first time that our Malaysian medical student here in Kursk got involved in such a terrible accident.
When Lowell (my cousin) arrived in his hostel by taxi from Pskov, I went to pay him a visit, to check on how he's doing. He appeared fine, except he suffered a bout of headache and had to take some pills for it. The worst thing was when I found out that he hadn't received any medical attention at all from the moment of the accident. No doctors asked him anything, no one measured his Blood Pressure, no X-rays were done even though he had bruises on his head and suffer from joint pain. Immediately I asked the guard of the hostel to call an ambulance and me and his roommate took him to the hospital to have an X-ray done.
4 X-rays later, the doctor said he suffered from concussion. For his injury I was asked to get him some antiseptic solution, and for his headache some painkiller. I invited him and his roommate for a dinner at my place just in case he was hungry but he declined.
Anyway, after the whole ordeal, I really felt drained. Right now, from my windows I can see the fireworks display at a distance. Nearly all of my friends, including my roommmate is out in the city square, celebrating the new year with hundreds of foreigners and Russians alike. I just can't find the energy to walk there, what more to say celebrate the new year?
What about the rest of you? I hope that your New Year celebration was better than mine. I can assure you I have never been so shocked or surprised in my life.
Well, hope you all have a Happy New Year...
This morning, his roommate's sms woke me up, and I immediately leapt forward when I read what he said- 'Your cousin's been involved in a car accident. The whole van that they took caught fire and burnt'. My initial reaction was- this can't be happening! The journey from Kursk to Moscow takes approximately 8 hours, and to catch their flight to Bangkok at 6pm in the evening, their van picked them up at 5am in the morning. Halfway through their journey in a village called pskov, their van had a head-on collison with a car which was halfway through overtaking another car. And from what I heard of it, the accident was a pretty bad one.
The driver and passenger from the other car died on the spot. In the van that my cousin and 5 other Malaysians were in, the driver was seriously wounded and unconscious, his son who was sitting next to him was the one who dragged him out into safety. He then proceeded to pull open the door to the van and pull out some of the students who were inside. Out of the 6 Malaysian students, 2 were thrown out during the collision, my cousin, who received some cuts and bruises, helped some other students out. 2 students suffered fracture of the leg bone, one suffered a shoulder dislocation, another one an ankle dislocation. While my cousin was still in the van, disoriented from the collison, one of his friend already mentioned that the van was on fire. The fire eventually spread to the whole vehicle and all their luggages and items were burnt.
However, thank God that all our Malaysian students are now doing fine, but I really feel sorry to the 2 Russians who lost their lives.
(it just turned 12am here in Kursk- Happy New Year...)
I honestly couldn't even imagine myself if I was in the same situation as they were. From being excited, knowing that you are hours away from the comfort of your home and your family- to being in an accident, suffering injuries, and for 3 of the students, they are stuck in a hospital 3 hours away from Kursk, in the city of Tula, awaiting their release before they can be continued to be treated here in Kursk.
And in my 5 years here, this is the first time that our Malaysian medical student here in Kursk got involved in such a terrible accident.
When Lowell (my cousin) arrived in his hostel by taxi from Pskov, I went to pay him a visit, to check on how he's doing. He appeared fine, except he suffered a bout of headache and had to take some pills for it. The worst thing was when I found out that he hadn't received any medical attention at all from the moment of the accident. No doctors asked him anything, no one measured his Blood Pressure, no X-rays were done even though he had bruises on his head and suffer from joint pain. Immediately I asked the guard of the hostel to call an ambulance and me and his roommate took him to the hospital to have an X-ray done.
4 X-rays later, the doctor said he suffered from concussion. For his injury I was asked to get him some antiseptic solution, and for his headache some painkiller. I invited him and his roommate for a dinner at my place just in case he was hungry but he declined.
Anyway, after the whole ordeal, I really felt drained. Right now, from my windows I can see the fireworks display at a distance. Nearly all of my friends, including my roommmate is out in the city square, celebrating the new year with hundreds of foreigners and Russians alike. I just can't find the energy to walk there, what more to say celebrate the new year?
What about the rest of you? I hope that your New Year celebration was better than mine. I can assure you I have never been so shocked or surprised in my life.
Well, hope you all have a Happy New Year...
happy nw year!
Lynn Wei: Have a blessed new year yourself too!
Lynn Xuan: Yeah, it's traumatizing and straining. But my cousin's doing better, Thank God, I boiled some porridge for him this morning, don't know if he wants to take it or not.
Actually that day we did hear Mr. Raymond Sim telling us about this accident and I didn't know your cousin was involved till I read your blog.Hope he gets well soon.