Scary Roads

We spent the afternoon in our trauma rotation where we were interviewing a patient who damaged his spinal cord back in August while diving off a pier into shallow water. He is paralyzed from the waist down. It was pretty sad to hear about his case knowing he has virtually no chance of ever leaving the hospital and will most likely not last very long.
So I dont' know if anyone has heard about the crazy drivers in St. Vincent. I personally thought they were crazy in Grenada, but this is no comparison. While in Barbados a person we met said "Grenada, the people aren't very nice and St. Vincent has bad drivers". Surprisingly she has it dead on. Glad to know the reputation is accurate. The roads remind me of the Amalfi coast near Naples just not sheer cliffs on the side. Here there are no lines on the road and open ditches 3-4 feet deep on either side. Most of the time you are trying to avoid the oncoming vehicle which are usually driving on your side and avoid the ditch and pedestrians. Drivers, passengers, pedestrians and the roaming wildlife are all targets!
So on our drive home we were behind a reggae van (used as the busing system here) and a little boy, about 7, darted out infront of the car to cross the road. The van hit him head on and the kid went flying into the concrete ditch. There was no way the van could have stopped. The poor little boy flew at least 15 feet and left a massive dent in the front of the van. I was driving so julie and jenna ran out to help but some other driver from the other direction jumped in and grabbed the kid. Hopefully it didnt' cause more damage. He was pretty badly hurt, broken bones, breathing problems and big cut on his head. His cousin, a little girl about 7 or 8, was crying thinking her "favorite cousin" had died. I called for an ambulance, but when it finally came about 20 minutes later it just drove by with someone else inside. The police came strolling by about 25 minutes later, having no clue as to what had taken place. They marked the scene and took our names and we go back tomorrow to give our statement. From the people around the scene this is a pretty common occurence. There is barely enough road for two cars to pass much less pedestrians to walk. Someone told us of two brothers who were waiting for a bus right across from where this accident was and that one was decapitated and another had his chest crushed. This must explain why the little girl thought her cousin died. Poor thing. I am just thankfully that we weren't the ones to hit the boy. That would be pretty hard to deal with. I just pray he is ok.
Tomorrow we are scheduled to go in to see hernia surgery at 8AM. No class since it is a holiday here. Not sure what holiday but I'm not asking, it means I dont' have to sit in lecture for four hours. Not sure what is planned for this weekend, probably just doing lots of studying and sleeping in.