Epilogue from Graeme Brace yourself its ugly

On the last Day we were in Vanuatu, Saturday the 15th we went to Erakor Resort to say good bye to the staff there, as most days we had gone across on the ferry to have a drink.

On the way back while waiting for the ferry Denise slipped on the jetty steps and badly cut open her knee on a bolt used to fix the hand rail. With help from the resort staff we stopped the bleeding and got her on the ferry back to the other side where we got a taxi to the private hospital in Port Vila.

The nurse there, Anne then cleaned the cut which went from one side of her knee to the other just below the knee cap and called the on duty doctor. The doctor Basil Leoboro just happened to be a Surgical Registrar set to cleaning the wound after giving heaps of local anesthetic and then telling us that this is normally done under General anesthetic as they don't have facilities for any big accidents and normally medivac people back to Aussie or NZ.

No Entenox for pain so Denise just gritted her teeth and dug her nails into my hand as he washed it out.He then stitched up the cut, I haven't counted the stitches but there must be 25 to 30 in there.

After he was finished he drove us back to the resort (service!!!!!), where they got us a wheel chair and I took Denise back to our room with all the Aussies asking her if she wanted them to beat me up for what I had done to her!!!!!!!

After a sleepless night for Denise (PAIN) into the wheel chair and off to the airport and onto the plane where Denise was sick (yes you can vomit into a bag!), passed out, then was put on oxygen after the plane had taken off. My many thanks to the crew who were fantastic.

Then into Auckland and another wheel chair and home what an experience it really restores your faith in humanity with all the help we had from beginning to end.