Sasha has lived and worked in hotels in Phuket for the last two years, and the August 9 visa run was not her first. But she certainly hopes it will be her last.
“We left at 6.45am from Chalong circle. I can’t really remember the accident because I was sleeping, but I do know that the driver was driving very fast.”
The impact of a collision hurtled Sasha from her slumbers. “Somebody told me the driver had crashed into the side of another big bus. When I woke I couldn’t breathe, and I kept slipping in and out of consciousness. I didn’t know where I was...”.
The visa bus crashed around 30 kilometres from the district of Kuraburi. Sasha, along with a few other passengers, was transported to a local hospital. As Sasha’s condition was deemed serious, a Phuket International Hospital ambulance was dispatched to pick her up.
“Unfortunately, when they [PIH] found out we didn’t have any personal health insurance they told us they couldn’t treat us and I was sent to Vachira Hospital instead,” Sasha recounts.
Although Sasha was X-rayed as soon as she arrived at Vachira, and it was quickly deduced that she had suffered a spinal fracture, the treatment and the operation that she needed was not immediately forthcoming.
“I was in hospital for four days before I was treated. They [hospital staff] kept telling me that they hadn’t received any money from TVR yet, so they couldn’t do anything.”
On August 13, Sasha had had enough and decided to take action, “My friend contacted the Russian Embassy and I think they applied pressure to the company to make them pay up. It worked and later that day, I finally had the operation.”
The total cost of the operation was around B350,000 and Sasha stayed at the hospital until the 19th.
This was not her decision though. “I didn’t want to go home because I knew I couldn’t look after myself, but I had to leave.”
TVR did pay a further B5,000 baht for a Thai nurse to visit Sasha’s small apartment in Chalong and to clean and take care of her, but that was just for the first few days. Now Sasha is alone, she has lost her job and is likely to find it very difficult to find other work in her present condition.
“I don’t know what I will do, but who is going to hire me with this back brace on and my eye looking like this?”
Meanwhile a TVR spokesman, who asked not to be named told The Phuket News that the driver of the visa run bus is back driving on visa runs again.
“Accidents can happen anywhere,” he said, “You can’t predict them. No one wanted this to happen – everyone understands this. Our company’s service is safe and we have insurance.”
Although Sasha is quite literally getting back on her feet, she remembers the fear she felt in those first few days after the operation, “I had a huge pain in my back and couldn’t move my body at all, I felt nauseous just to move.
“It was worse because I didn’t know what had happened and if I’d ever recover. Fortunately my Russian friend Danier, who was a physician in Russia, went to speak to the doctor.”
Danier said, “Sasha found it difficult to understand the doctor, but because we are Russians we can understand each other well.”
Danier returned with Sasha to Vachira Hospital for a routine check-up on August 28 and was pleased with the feedback, “There was a slight fracture to her lower spinal bone but it’s not a big problem and the blood vessels in her eye will be back to normal in around three weeks’ time. She will be okay.
“She just needs to take it easy for a while and do a little bit of exercise and gradually ease herself in; perhaps walking a little during the first month or so and then swimming in the next few months, to gradually build up her strength,” he said.
One positive that Sasha has gained from this horrific experience however is that she has quit smoking, “I couldn’t smoke in hospital and so I just stopped. It’s good really,” she said with a smile.
Another slight positive is that Sasha doesn’t need to worry about her visa status, at least for now... “When I was in the hospital, they stamped my visa and I am okay until September 12.”
After that date, however, she is unsure as to what she’ll do, but it probably won’t be hopping on another visa run bus any time soon, “I don’t know, I hope the hospital may get my visa stamped again. If not, I don’t know what I will do.”