Back from a vacation trip that Murphy didn't want to happen

My parents have been going for the last 6 years to Spain on vacation, back to the village where many of my childhood vacations have given me really great memories, together with my mom study friend that has property there.

This month they'd go for the 7th time and it was clear for everyone that it was probably the last time they'd do this.  But Murphy probably thought it was already a last time too much.

* On March 22 Belgium was shocked by horrible terror attacks. The explosions also happened in the departure hall of the airport. Afterwards it was unclear until a few days before where their booked flight would take off and whether we could use the booked assistance for them.   In Brussels Airport strict ridiculous (because ineffective and inefficient) ever changing security measures didn't allow my sister to accompany my parents to check-in etc...
But fortunately we got news that their flight would leave from Lille (Fr) and that they would get assistance.

* In the airport, their Belgian friend feels unwell. She also gets some assistance and when she seems to have an extreme high blood pressure she is brought to the nearby hospital.  And so my parents leave alone on their trip, after they've had contact with some other Belgians at the vacation destination who promise to come and pick them up.

* After we got news that my parents had arrived well in Spain that first evening and we see that their iPad had been connected to the wifi well, all news get silent  until the next noon.
The news was not good: after their arrival they had all gone to a restaurant for dinner. When they returned to their vacation apartment, my dad stepped out of the car in a wrong way and fell and couldn't get up anymore.  He broke his hip and was brought by the emergency services to a hospital 40 kms further.  Their unpacked suitcases were brought by their Belgian friends the next day.

So the previous weeks were hard as we tried to help our parents who had a difficult time to communicate with the nursing staff, who had to arrange medical care with the insurance companies, who wanted advice from the neurologist who treats my dad's Parkinson's disease and knows the details of his neurostimulator etc... There was no wifi in the hospital and my mom slept most of the nights in a seat in his room.  All we seemed to be able to do was phoning several times a day. Very frustrating. After 6 days my dad had surgery and a week ago he finally got repatriated with my mother.  Pheww that was a relief.

He has started previous week his revalidation in a hospital in Ghent, which will take many weeks for him to learn back to walk (on stairs).

Comments

Popular Posts