Oh dear.....

This is not a funny post, this really happened.

I was conducting the 'free speaking' time of the Oral English class; this happens during the first 15 minutes of the class and allows those courageous enough, to stand up, talk and tell us any interesting story they want, an opportunity to practice English without pressure.

As I was doing my little encouraging pep talk before they started to speak, I suggested that we all pay attention as I was sure that many students had interesting stories to tell as we had just come off a holiday weekend.   I smiled and gazed lovingly at all my dear students.  My gaze fell upon a guy who was sitting up straight but had his eyes closed, as if sleeping.  So I said, "and of course this is not the time to sleep", "Henry (the name of the student), how about you tell us about your holiday?"  The student next to him poked him and he opened his eyes, smiled and gave me 2 short sentences,.... I forgot what he said.  As I turned away another student had her hand up, I indicated to her that she could tell us her story.  I listened intently but kept my gaze wandering around the room.  I looked over to see how Henry was doing and .......

His head and upper shoulders had fallen back on to the desk behind him....OMG!! He had passed out.  For how long? Did I catch it just as it happened?  Had he fallen back and the students behind him just thought he was taking a nap? Why didn't anyone signal me? I have no idea.  I of course ran over, stated very clearly that someone call the ambulance.  His pals raised him up and he sort of woke up.  I asked 3 more times had any one called the ambulance yet - no.  Incredible.  I insisted in my strongest tone, without raising my voice, and finally I saw 2 kids (in a class of 60) calling.  Henry, told me that he was ok and that he was sorry to have interrupted the class and I should go back to teaching.  He and his pals walked out to the hallway and he sat down.  I went out and asked how he was doing, after confirming with the class that the ambulance was finally called.  Henry said that he felt the situation coming on, he had a headache and was sitting there with his eyes closed to ward off the pain......you remember, it was the time when I woke him up to ask him to tell us a little story. Arrg.  
Henry said that it has happened before and he has been to the doctor and no one knows what it is.  Arrg, again. 

I went back into class as there was nothing I could do until the ambulance arrived.  The ambulance arrived 1 hour later.  At this point Henry had walked over to his dorm to go lay down.  I can't even tell you how unhappy I was that it took 1 hour for the ambulance to come, heck if he was having an epileptic attack/ heart attach/etc. he could have been dead by now.   We called Henry at his dorm and he did not answer at first, so I tried to send the ambulance to the dorm.  We called again and Henry answered and said he was fine.  The ambulance people were really really mad and I had no idea why.

Tony told me later.....they had no-one to charge for the ride as they were not taking anyone back to the hospital.  And FYI, the ambulance is just a fancy van.  No doctors, trained medic, and no machines or meds available - these guys were drivers and looking to get paid.

All in all a stressful time.  I just don't get why no one "knew" what to do.  I know why I don't know the correct procedure here - I am not from here!  But seriously, why wouldn't Henry want to go to the College Infirmary? Why hadn't anyone shouted out when Henry fell over?  At the end of class I asked his pals to please check on him later that night and the next day.   And I also suggested that if it happened again it was a serious problem and he should go to the hospital. 

Of course what I do know about the medical system here is that you must prepay to go to the hospital.  They will let you into the waiting area and if you are bleeding profusely or can see you are in a dangerous situation (to be interpreted by the doctors) they will try and make sure you don't die.   But you must hand them at least 10,000 RMB CASH to get admitted.  That would be in USD $1,538.00, the reason is, if you don't pay the hospital the doctor is liable for your bills, he must pay them before he can work in the hospital again. 

I guess that answers the question as to why no one wanted to call the ambulance, certainly none of the kids had that kind of money on them.  It costs between 6,000 and 10,000 RMB to attend university so to go to the hospital is a staggering cost to them!