It never rains but it pours

As the Dutch saying goes, Een ongeluk komt zelden alleen (misfortune never comes singly) which seems to be the case with my colleague, Mrs. Nelly's (not her real name) family.

In the beginning, her 13-year-old son broke his arm as the result of a nasty fall when maneuvering on his skateboard. Thinking that the injury was not so serious, she took her son to a dukun (indigenous medical practitioner) but when the teenager's condition did not improve after a few days she wisely consulted an orthopedist, who took X-rays of the fractured arm.

Hospital expenses are expensive nowadays and this visit cost Mrs. Nelly about Rp 8 million. Not long afterward, the domestic help came down with dengue fever and she had to be admitted to the hospital.

The treatment lasted for a week and it cost the mistress Rp 1 million.

But when the maidservant was back again with the family, the boy and his sister were also afflicted with dengue fever. So these two children, too, were hospitalized.

Apparently the anxiety and busy days of going back and forth to the hospital have made Mrs. Nelly sick and, at first, she was worried that she might also suffer from this apprehensive disease. Nevertheless, the doctor advised her to take a rest and absent herself from office work.

However, when she could not get rid of her feverish feeling after two days of lying in bed, she asked for a second opinion from another physician and he diagnosed that she was also afflicted with dengue fever.

Well, there were then three people from the same family staying at St. Carolus Hospital which was already crowded with dengue fever patients.

A. DJUANA

Jakarta