Dealing with Medical Emergencies while Abroad

Disclaimer: It was not me who was the sick party in this situation, I was just the one who, through the circumstances, was put in charge of dealing with it

One thing that no one ever expects to encounter when studying abroad is a medical situation. Now sure, of course you have to get health insurance as part of any study abroad program, but you never expect to use it. I know that personally I decided to hold off on any “routine maintenance” appointments such as dentist appointments for when I went back home as it was easier than trying to figure it out in Germany. However, there are always circumstances that you cannot control medically speaking. While I never personally had any major instances regarding medical emergencies (of course I did become ill multiple times this year, as is normal for anyone), but I did get to accompany a couple of people as they had medical issues, causing me to experience the German health system and also have the experience of dealing with a medical emergency abroad, in a language that is not my own.

One of the situations that arose this year was one time that my boyfriend was visiting me, about a month ago. We had been visiting Stuttgart for the day and were on our train back to Tübingen. The train we were on was the IRE (Inter Regional Express), a train that often goes very quickly and it is not always the smoothest ride. My boyfriend had not been feeling very well earlier that day, but I had dismissed it as a result of being tired from traveling and I had planned to go home and just have a relaxing day with him, taking a break from running around. However, those plans all came to a halt when we stepped off of the train. He looked at me, told me he was not feeling well, and then made his way over to a bench where he proceeded to pass out for about thirty seconds. Now, of course, I was caught off guard, as I was not expecting to have to deal with any situation like this.

I knew I needed to figure out something to do, so I looked around for help in the immediate vicinity. Thankfully there was a Deutsche Bahn employee who was just stepping off of the train. Having gotten the attention of the employee, I explained briefly (in German) what had happened, before the DB employee called an ambulance. At that point my boyfriend had woken up and we needed to wait for the ambulance to show up. At this point, a few DB employees were standing around us and were offering help such as to give him water and just trying to asses the situation. The entire time I was translating their inquiries into English for my boyfriend, who only speaks minimal German (although, understandably, in that moment he had forgotten all of his German). Once the ambulance came, the decision to take him to the hospital was made. I was taken along with him, as I was the responsible party for his well being.

Once we got to the hospital, we spent several hours there before he was released. The official explanation for why he passed out was due to a combination of motion sickness, dehydration, and food poisoning. He was back to normal a few days after his experience, but it was a learning experience for me. I had never had to figure out what to do in any situation like that before, even in the USA. It was a test of my ability to stay calm in a crisis and also of my German language ability. While thankfully everything ended up okay in the end, it was certainly one of the most memorable experiences of my year abroad.