From hospital bed to full nomad (Part 1)
I have decided to write my story, as I am approaching the first anniversary of an event that has undoubtedly changed my life.
It all started in June 2021. A late summer evening, me and a buddy of mine were finishing up some work at our favorite Wework. I spent most of my year in Paris in 2021, so I was often hanging out late at the Wework 92 Champs-Elysées, a personal favorite.
We had no plans that night, even though it was Friday night, and the weather was very nice. We were calling around to see what other friends were doing that night, when one friend suggested we go to the notorious Arc nightclub near the Arc de Triomphe. It sounded like a nice idea, I had never been, we had a contact to get in and there were rumors that Travis Scott was supposed to come by and perform. That was enough for me to make my decision. We packed our stuff and headed out for dinner, where we would later go to the arc.
Drugged at the Night club
It is now 10PM, the sun is still out. We are waiting for our contact to arrive in front of the Arc. Entering this venue can be quite difficult and reserving a table is needed to enter. We decided to get a table starting at 1400€ (here about 250 per person). Once we were in, we were served two huge bottles of Vodka and soft drinks as mixers.
As the night goes on, we are half way through the two bottles that came with the table. I need to go to the bathroom at this point, so I leave our table and head upstairs to the bathroom. At this point I am feeling in good shape, and I came right back to our table.
When I returned, to my surprise, there was a new group of people standing around where I was drinking. The table next to us was apparently looking for some extra mixers for their side, which we kindly gave to them.
I had left my glass on the table before I left to go to the bathroom, and my drink was still there, sitting on the edge of our table. Without any hesitation, I pick up my glass and start sipping again…
Five minutes after is when things start to change for me. I was getting this strange feeling, something I had never felt before. I was slowly losing control. My vision was blurry and tunneled. I was starting to hear less and less the music that was blaring behind us and I was starting to feel very dizzy.
At this point, I turn to my friend and ask him to escort me to the exit. I had apparently said in a very polite and rested manner : “I am not feeling well, can you please take me to the exit, I need to go home now.”
My friend walked me to the back door of the club, while I was having a harder time walking straight, the bouncers had noticed me and wanted to kick me out. There was no need, I was heading out by myself.
Once we get a taxi to stop, my friend puts me in and gives the taxi my address. The door slams closed, that would be the last thing I hear that night…
Waking up in the Hospital
I opened my eyes. This time, the light was blinding me. I look up and I see a TV monitor with numbers and graphs changing rapidly. I was in a hospital bed, in an ICU.
I also see a clock next to the screen, reading 10:22. I feel lost. What day are we? Where am I? What city did I fall asleep in? Am I alive? Of course, these are questions I would have liked to ask, but when I opened my mouth to say something, nothing came out. A tube was lodged in my mouth and deep into my throat. I tried to move my arms. That too didn’t work. I was strapped to my bed with both arms. There was literally nothing I could do. The only option available for me was to wait and hope that someone comes into my room soon.
I look down to my wrist (where my watch was supposed to be). Nothing. Gone. No watch. I start to squirm around in my bed to feel my pockets. My phone was gone. Ok, how bad can it get. What happened last night? Was I aggressed. Is anything broken? At this point I was ready to hear any explanation.
At 10:28 I was saved. A nurse noticed I was awake from the corridor and notified the doctor. It was becoming unbearable to keep this tube in my mouth. The doctor enters the room and starts to remove the tube from my mouth. The second it is out, only one sentence comes to my mind
I’m sorry.
I immediately thought of what the doctor could have gone through the night before. I felt so embarrassed to be here showing how irresponsible I was the night before.
I’m sorry, I’m so embarrassed right now. I’m not the kind of person who ends up in this situation.
That was the one and only thing I felt like saying.
The night before, when I had left the table to go to the bathroom, someone took that opportunity to drop something in my drink (GHB, or the rape drug). The effect was immediate, and caused a complete black out.
How did I get to the hospital?
You might think at this point that I was brought to the hospital by the taxi driver, once he saw an unconscious human being in the back of his car.
No… The taxi driver dragged me out of his cab and threw me on the pavement. He then took off to find another client. (And yes you can call yourself a citizen even after doing something like that).
Maybe we do need to teach civics and moral values to the people coming from non-civilized countries.
At 1 AM, there was an emergency call as I was found flat on the pavement unconscious. An ambulance came and brought me to the closest hospital.
Later on, I spoke to one of the nurses that brought me in. She told me that on that night, there were two unconscious patients that were brought in. Unfortunately the other person did not wake up. It could have been me…
To be continued…
