Illegal Racing Menace

It was our usual weekend activity to go 'karaokeing' at our club. Almost all of us were present and counted for except for one lady. She promised to come by 9.30pm but it was already 10.30pm and no sign of her. Little did we know that she was lying inside her car with an injury at the neck about 700m from where we were.

When the lights turned green, she made a right turn at the t-junction and as she was turning, this motorbike with a pillion rider smashed into her car at the driver's side. The motorbike rider didn't stop for the red light. By the time she was taken to the hospital, she started feeling numb from the shoulders down. An MRI was taken which showed one of the discs at the neck area (c4-c6) had moved forward, probably due to the whip-lash effect on impact, and was touching the spinal chord. The surgeon advised an operation to remove the offending disc and replace it with an artificial one.

All of us visited her to give her support during this time of pain and uncertainty. I told her I was removing her form the karaoke list for awhile and when she was well agian she will be reinstated. She tried to laugh but the collar support 'thingy' was obstructing her. I thought it best not to crack any jokes and moved to the end of the bed. The operation was successful and we went to check on her again. The colour on her face was coming back and she was looking better. We estimated she would take about 1 month to be able to stand up on her own.

Last week she suddenly became listless and looked depressed. After some blood tests were carried out, it was found that she was lacking in potassium and sodium. The hospital staff took the necessary remedial measures to correct this problem. Three days ago during the night she had a mild stroke. Yesterday, she was still not responding to anyone. She has lost a lot of weight. When I visited her during lunch time, the hospital technician took an x-ray of the chest area. They still don't know what's wrong with her. A lot of tests are being carried out.

All this because of some youngsters crazy about speeding, taking part in illegal racing along the main road! The two guys had some fractures on their legs and would most probably be racing again in a month's time. The lack of enforcement has caused a lot of pain and disrupted the normal healthy living of many a law abiding citizen. When will we get an efficient and responsible police force? When are they going to do something concrete about the illegal racing along our main roads?

For now we can only pray for her to get well.