Part 6 –

 Escape from Crete

and Flight Home

WARNING! This episode contains graphic descriptions of personal and medical issues that may not be suitable for all viewers. 

Viewer discretion is strongly advised!

Then one day a doctor from Germany showed up, sent by the insurance company to ‘escort’ me back to Vancouver.  Of course the hospital was reluctant to release me, as I was not deemed ‘fit to travel’, by their doctors.  When I met the doctor, he asked if I wanted to go home, I immediately said ‘Yes”!  I’m not sure what transpired after that, but I suspect there was a short ‘battle of the minds’ or an argument betweeen the various medical experts over jurisdiction all about me.

In any case, the insurance doctor won, and I was told to prepare myself to escape, as we were flying home asap.  The doctor, Dr. Stefan Klose, was a pleasant young man, trained as an anesthesiologist, who ran his own company called Amtras, an air ambulance and medical escort service out of Frankfurt Germany.  He was very efficient, had already rented a large van to transport me, Diana and all our luggage, to the airport.  He also arranged to pick up our luggage which we had stored at the hotel in Heraklion.  After Diana had settled our bill, I was wheeled out of the hospital in one of their wheelchairs, and helped into the waiting van.

We were finally on our way home!

Whoops, hold on, not so fast!  We arrived at the airport and pulled up into a loading zone close to the entrance.  Stefan jumped out, and came back to help me out.  No wheelchair at that point, but only about thirty feet or so to get to some benches in front of the airport, where I could rest while he returned the rental van, and found me another wheelchair.  Of course, by this time, I was so weak I could hardly walk, and that thirty feet to sit down was barely possible.  It was a hot day, which did not make it any easier, but with a lot of Stefan’s help, I managed to struggle that far and collapse on a bench.  Diana was having a fit at this time, trying to get out of the van to tell Stefan I could not walk!

I sat there, totally exhausted, sweating, panting, trembling and almost ready to pass out.  Diana came and was horrified, and thought I was having a stroke or some other serious medical event.  Stefan was apologetic, but he was in so much of a a hurry to get me out of there, he did not realize I was that weak and in poor shape.  He told me to stay there while he returned the van and got me a wheelchair.  By the time he returned, I had to find a washroom, quickly, I said.  We barely managed to find one, which saved the day, as Stefan indicated that if I had a serious ‘accident’ the entire trip would have to be cancelled and start again.

While we were waiting on the bench outside, some Greek men on the next bench saw that I was in distress and asked Diana if they could help, offering us a bottle of water.  They were so kind and considerate, really concerned about me.  Just another example of Greek “Philoxenia”, or kindness towards strangers.  Something I’ve written about before.

As I tried to recover on the bench outside the airport terminal, Stefan carried on, arranging our flight information, getting tickets and reservations through British Air from Heraklion to Heathrow, then on to Vancouver from Heathrow.  I was useless for anything at this time, barely conscious of what was happening, but still looking forward to be going home.  Stefan arranged it all, and before long, we were loading on to BA flight BA0553 from Heraklion to Heathrow.  I was afraid at one point that they might make me climb up the stairs to enter the plane.  No, they had a neat bus to transport wheelchairs out to the plane, which was waiting some distance from the terminal building.  Once close to the plane, I was elevated up to the back door of the plane, and as it opened, an attendant came out with a narrow little wheelchair, perfectly designed to run down the aisles between the seats.  Very clever, I thought, as I had never seen these vehicles before.  I was wheeled into the plane down the aisle, and deposited into my seat.

We were barely seated on the aircraft, and Stefan opened his metal medical case and proceeded to take my blood pressure and check me over thoroughly.  A rather uneventful flight, but as we approached Heathrow, it began to rain, and I could see many angry looking clouds in the distance.

Touchdown, we eventually came to halt, several times, waiting our turn in the queue to get to the terminal to unload.  As it turned out, too many planes had arrived at the same time and had been delayed or held up in some way, causing many connections to be missed, including our own.  We were trying to connect with BA 0085 from Heathrow to Vancouver, but as we sat there in the queue, our departure time came and went, and our flight took off without us.  British Airways blamed this delay on the weather, but I felt it was just a sheduling issue, and had very little to do with ATC regulations, as our flight to Vancouver took off at the correct time.  Airlines should have a schedule that allows for slight delays because of a local rain shower, and more than one aircraft lining up to disembark.

So our poor doctor/escort had to earn his money by rescheduling the three of us on the same flight, the next day.  Just to make it even more complicated, the doctor and I had to go first class.  Nothing else was available, so we were stuck in Heathrow overnight.  When he first checked, it looked like we might be stuck for two or three days, as the flights were all booked.  So, there we were, in Heathrow, no place to stay overnight, so again, our doctor/escort, Stefan, had to earn his money once more by finding us a hotel room.  As it worked out, the Sofitel Hotel chain had a large hotel situated right in the airport, so he booked a couple of rooms for us. 

How to find the Hotel?  It was in the airport, he was told, but Heathrow is a monster airport, and we had to walk miles it seemed to find it.  I didn’t walk, I was being pushed in a wheelchair by a BA assistance person.  Unfortunately, on our way to the hotel, Diana was not helped, as they could not find her a wheelchair for a long time, and she had to walk to entire distance without assistance.  She was also in weak condition and was exhausted by the time we did find the hotel check-in, and before too long, we were shown to our rooms.  On the return trip the next day, they managed to find her a wheelchair and she was able to do the distance in comfort.

Stefan, our doctor, had all his gear stowed in a small carry-on, together with a small metal case which held all his medical equipment.  He was totally equipped to handle most medical emergencies with his patients.  Shortly after we got onto the plane on the Heraklion flight, he turned to me and proceeded to take my blood pressure, and some other tests as I was sitting in my seat.  I suppose my medical ‘event’ at the Heraklion airport had concerned him and he wanted to make sure I was OK for the flight.

As soon as we arrived at our respective rooms, Stefan came to our room to check on me again, do some tests and make sure I was OK before retiring himself.  We learned his room number and had strict instructions to call him any time during the night if I was having problems.  At one point, we did call him with an emergency call because my catheter had worked loose, causing some concern and a lot of discomfort, if any of my readers have experienced that problem.  The doctor commented at that point that I was likely to suffer a urinary tract infection before long, because of all this messing around with my catheter.  Sure enough, I suffered that shortly after we arrived home and I had to go on another set of antibiotics.

Our hotel room was nice, but very hi tech and we couldn’t figure out how to turned up the heat, as the room had the AC on until the room was frigid.  A call to the front desk didn’t help as they told us a ‘technician’ would be there shortly to help us.  Also, we could not figure out the TV system.  And there was only water in the mini-bar, no wine, spirits or even juices.  So this super deluxe room was practically useless and very uncomfortable.

Once in, we called my niece Jackie and her husband Martyn in the Cotswolds to tell them we were delayed in Heathrow for at least one night, maybe more.  They were both surprised and pleased we were there, so Jackie made immediate plans to come and visit us in the hotel.  Martyn could not come as he was dealing with his own medical problems at the time.  The next day, she drove the over two hours from her place near Stroud to Heathrow, fought her way through traffic, parking problems and the long walk to find our room.  It was such a treat for us to see her, as she knew what I had been dealing with on Crete, a trip they had both planned to join us before their own medical issues intervened.  We sat in our cold hotel room, waiting for the ‘technician’, who never did arrive.  We also never managed to figure out the television as well.

We received a call from Stefan to inform us we were booked on the BA 85 flight to YVR, so our time with Jackie was limited.  Before long, we had to pack up and say goodbye.  Jackie walked with us for as long as she could, as it could be a long time before we see her again, and we had a long trip ahead of us to return to Vancouver.

British Airways Flight BA0085.  When Stefan mentioned we were going first class, I was pretty excited.  Unfortunately, Diana had to go coach, there were not enough first class seats.  I had always dreamed of going on a 9 to 10 hour transatlantic flight first class, something we had never done, never could afford, so I was looking forward to the comforts and luxury I was about to experience.  Yes, the seats dropped down into a bed situation, you were in your own little cubicle, wide screen TV, lovely food, wine, etc.,very private, and I had a small opening window arrangement to the cubicle next to mine where Stefan was sitting.  All I had to do was open the window and summon help if needed. 

The flight was not enjoyable, it was still long, tiring, and halfway there, my catheter gave me trouble again and I had an emergency call to Stefan.  There we were, the plane was in almost total darkness at this point, and Stefan is crouched down, working in the darkness with a flashlight on my privates, wrestling with my catheter.  I suppose the entire scene looked quite suspicious, but I was long past being embarrassed by all this, and I suppose Stefan was used to this kind of thing as a medical escort doctor.  Eventually, he gave up on the catheter and decided we had to go to the washroom.  So a call to the flight attendant, returned with the little narrow wheelchair they use on the plane, and wheeled me over to the washroom.  We eventually abandoned my catheter in the trash can, and returned me to my seat for the remainder of the flight.

Before long, we were approaching Vancouver, and we all began to gather our stuff to leave.  Stefan had the biggest job, arranging for an ambulance to pick me up at the airport and transport me to Richmond Hospital Emergency Department, which is close to the airport.

Arrivals, Customs and all the usual red tape suddenly disappeared as my medical escort handled everything.  As I was being wheeled out, two jovial young men greeted us in the arrivals section and loaded me into a waiting ambulance.  A much more comfortable ride, and a much shorter one, as the Richmond Emergency was about five minutes away from the airport. 

Said goodbye to my two ambulance attendants, and Hello to my family!  Our son Danny and his wife Anne, who had been working tirelessly at home, trying to get the insurance company to help me, were both glad to see us.  Of course, once our doctor turned me over to the Emergency department doctors, another series of tests, blood work, X-Rays, Ultra-sounds, and other monitoring procedures began, just to make sure I had arrived alive and in reasonable shape.  That was questionable, as I still could not walk, Danny had brought a wheelchair for me, and at home had a light-weight walker device, and several other built-in assists in the house to help me.

Welcome to the Canadian Medical System, not the fast treatment I received on Crete, so after seventeen agonizing hours, I was finally released.  During this time, as I napped on a cot in the ER, Danny tried to stretch out in a chair and catch some sleep.  Diana was exhausted and had already gone home with Anne.

So Danny loaded me up into his car, and we finally headed off home.  When we were about halfway home, my telephone rang, and I answered automatically to hear someone from our insurance company ask “Well Mr. Kent, how was your flight home?”

I will not even attempt to tell you what I said in reply to that.

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