It never rains but it pours

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