Travel and Health
How My Award-Winning Conference Ended Up in a Hospital in Boston
The worst part manifested as an aftereffect when my wife saw my bandaged face at a tender moment in a crowded airport.
One moment, we shine with euphoria, and the next moment, we face the darkness, finding ourselves on the ground suffering.
I visited the United States multiple times for work and pleasure. However, I had never experienced such a dramatic one, including pain and pleasure, that I briefly described in this unforgettable story.
While one great position produced outstanding results, two other effects gave me grief to a traumatic extent. This two-decade-old experience was coded uniquely in my memories and meticulously analyzed in my intimate journal.
In 2001, I conducted a successful research piece for a breakthrough technology initiative. It was published and patented. After reading the research outcomes, a prominent technology manufacturing and services company invited me as a keynote speaker for a prestigious conference held in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2002.
The conference venue was a five-star integrated hotel chain hosting thousands of visitors. Everything was meticulously planned months before the event. However, plans never guarantee results. Here is my unusual adventure in lovely Boston, which resembles Melbourne, my hometown in Australia, in its orderly manner.
My Salient and Dramatic Adventure in Boston, Massachusetts, the United States, in 2002
I flew from Melbourne to Los Angeles Airport in first class, which took 18 hours. Before 2008, all my sponsored flights to the US were luxurious first-class or business class. However, we lost this privilege after the 2008 economic crisis as companies had to cut travel costs. Only senior executives for multi-million-dollar deals were eligible for luxurious flights. I was not one of them.
My first challenge started at the LA airport. After the September 11, 2001, sad incident, security in airports was at an extreme level. As a technology professional specializing in cybersecurity, I understood the situation well and distinguished precaution from paranoia. I supported the rigor of security personnel during my trips in those years with empathy and compassion.
A female officer kept looking at my face during passport control at LA airport. First, she said, “this photo does not look like you”. An extremely pedantic Australian passport department authorized only a month-old photo. Then she said you don’t look like an Australian. This provocative and inflammatory statement confused me and caused me to react irrationally.
I unpleasantly challenged her by asking what an Australian looked like and whether she could draw me an image. It was another huge mistake when I said she did not look like an American as she looked Asian to me. These insensitive remarks and unnecessary confrontations were my biggest regrets caused by my emotional immaturity on those days.
This poor communication annoyed the officer so badly that she made my situation more miserable. Finally, she said my name did not sound Australian either, so this passport needed further investigation. So, she took me to a room where two male officers first stripped me off, just leaving my underwear. They even checked the underwear subtly. Being stripped in an airport was the most humiliating experience in my life.
It took two hours when the sponsoring company executive called the airport authority to rescue me. They did not believe anything I told them. In hindsight, my emotional maturity was not in place yet. I could have handled the situation much better if it had happened at a later stage of my life. Empathy was lacking because of the paranoia of the staff members associating every foreign name with terrorists.
Going from LA to Boston was a breeze on a business-class flight. I was greeted and treated beautifully in the reception of a five-star hotel with an executive suite. It was a privilege that made me grateful at the time, so I quickly forgot the trouble at the LA airport.
As a keynote speaker, I was one of the first presenters in the morning. Since I prepared for the conference for several months with the help of numerous mentors and communication coaches with multiple rehearsals with the interested audience in Australia, I was very confident. Memorizing the content by heart, I presented it by adding emotions and special effects that appealed to the audience.
As it was my best presentation, seeing a standing ovation was not a big surprise. Such tremendous acceptance from the audience put me in a euphoric state and made me very grateful. In addition, several technology executives wanted to connect with me after the conference by giving me their business cards. I added them to my diary during the breaks. I was excited to collaborate with these influential thought leaders. Such a collaboration was my main goal for this conference.
The lunch in this luxurious venue with great companions went well. I attended several other presentations after lunch. The dinner was served even in a bigger venue. The food was distributed to hundreds of visitors by many kitchen staff. The gigantic trays were allowed five to six porcelain plates I had never experienced in Australia.
After waiting for more than 50 people in my line out of at least 20 lines, I grabbed two plates, one including protein and fatty food and the other for salads for my ketogenic diet, which included smaller in volume. I didn’t follow my customized diet on those days. After a few steps, an overweight and tall person slipped and fell over me with his massive food tray. I found myself lying on the floor with a person of around 150 kg.
As I fell facedown, I did not see three other people who fell on him, which exceedingly increased the massive weight over my body. I felt a sudden pain in my face, neck, arms, belly, and legs, but my primary focus was on my breath. I felt like I couldn’t breathe properly.
People usually get a fight or flight response when they face danger, but my amygdala creates a freeze response. I cannot scream and run from danger like many other people. I either freeze or fight within my capability. In this instance, metaphorical fighting was impossible as I could not do so. I couldn’t scream either. But gratefully, two brave and athletic men pulled me out from under the three heavy men. I forgot the pain and did not even notice bleeding with the relief of breathing until I tasted the salty flavor of my own blood in my mouth.
As my vision was blocked by bleeding, I couldn’t observe the reactions around me, but I heard a lot of noises that I hadn’t heard before. Most of the words registering in my mind were “oh my god”, “oh no”, “god please”, “what is happening here”, and “please help” screams from the people around us.
Even though I told them I was fine and tried to smile a bit, the caring people knew that I was not okay from my look. The face was covered with blood, and the clothes were covered with greasy meals spilled over. They created an emergency by calling the medical professionals of the venue, applying for first aid, and calling an ambulance.
Before, I had never been sick in the US and didn’t need any medical intervention. This was my first visit to a hospital. During the admission, one of the questions was whether I had health insurance. I didn’t have one from the US. The monetary figure they told me about scared me first. It was impossible for me to pay it myself. However, fortunately, travel health insurance was covered by the sponsoring company. It was a huge relief. Gratefully, they handled it elegantly without causing me any additional stress.
The care from the hospital staff was remarkable. However, what impressed me most was the sponsors of the event, who spent their precious time keeping my morale high in the hospital. The next day was the award night. It was such a desire for me to attend it as I was hoping to get an award and make a speech in front of this audience. I even memorized such a speech months before as scripted by my communication coach.
The next day, the sponsors revisited me. They said we have a surprise for you. They asked the hospital staff to bring a video player to the bedroom with a TV, which I never turned on. They recorded the gala night. To my surprise, my presentation was selected as the best speech of the conference by the audience’s votes. I couldn’t hold my tears of joy for recognition of my hard work for many months.
Several medical staff members of the hospital gathered around the room. They watched the award presentation, which was given on my behalf by the company’s president and accepted by the sponsoring executive on my behalf. The speech made by the sponsoring executive brought more tears to my eyes. The way they framed my success and the eloquent words they used were beyond my vocabulary at the time.
I heard another standing ovation from the visitors and medical staff in the hospital for the award presentation. After congratulatory statements, the sponsoring executive asked me, “What are your thoughts?” This question was like a supercharging elixir surging through my brain with a sudden energy rush. As I cannot correctly talk when lying down, I abruptly jumped on the hospital bed in my pajamas and cited the memorized speech. I still cannot explain where that courage came from. Finally, my dream was realized but in a setting that I would never imagine.
After a few days, doctors said I would be able to travel back to Australia. They organized a special trip for me to the airport, giving instructions to the flight personnel to look after me. From Boston to Los Angeles, there was no first-class flight available, but the business class was comfortable enough. However, from Los Angeles to Melbourne, they provided me with a first-class cabin, giving me privacy. I needed it for this long flight back to my country. It took a total of 26 hours from the destination.
Sleeping on an airplane has always been an issue for me. On that long flight, I decided to take a potent sleeping pill prescribed to me before by my family doctor for special occasions to reset my sleep regime. This high-dose medication made me almost unconscious shortly. I remember when a hostess asked me whether I would care for breakfast or a drink two hours before arriving in Melbourne.
I politely declined and got back to sleep. However, during this sleep period, my wounded face felt so itchy that I could have screeched the healing wounds harshly. The blood on my face panicked the caring hostess, but she managed to stay calm and composed. A few crew members covered my face with white surgery clothes.
When I arrived at the customs, I called my wife to pick me up as she was excited to see me. However, she did not know anything about my adventure in the US. As our house was close to the airport, she arrived at the airport until customs clearance and baggage collection happened.
As I was feeling exhausted and itchy on my face, I unintentionally scratched my face in the crowd of baggage collection. I did not notice any bleeding due to the roll bandages. Who could have known that it would cause another disaster? I walked through the exit lines where hundreds of visitors waited for their loved ones.
I saw my wife and waved toward her, but she did not respond to me. I forgot to tell you that the sponsoring executives bought me a new suit as my previous one was badly ruined in the accident. As my attire was different and the rolling bandages covered my face, she did not recognize me. She was still looking for me from the flooding queue.
I approached her, calling her name. She looked at my face, and the next moment I found her on the floor, eyes closed and lying down. She fainted when she saw the blood in white rolling bandages hiding my face except for my nose and eyes. This terrible look must have created a shock in her. I knew she couldn’t handle blood. I should have checked myself in the mirror before seeing her and cleaned the bloodstains or put on new bandages in hindsight.
People seeing her on the floor started screaming and calling triple zero, the Australian emergency number, including ambulance, police, and fire departments. However, first aid people in the airport were quick enough to wake her up and bring her consciousness back. The staff was so caring that they quickly cleaned my face and changed the bandages on my face too.
When she got conscious while waiting for the ambulance, she kept asking what had happened to me and whether I was okay. When the ambulance arrived, paramedics checked carefully and notified us that there was no need for her to go to the hospital. She was healthy. It was just a temporary situation. Paramedics kindly took us home in the ambulance. We left the car at the airport, which I picked up by the next day by going to the airport by taxi.
Conclusions
In addition to the dramatic situation in the airport, it took my wife many days to get used to my wounded face. I had to hide for a few days in a separate room. The next day, my family doctor gave me a medical certificate for a week as she believed it was not a good idea to go to work in this weak position.
After a few therapy sessions for the traumatic incident of my wife, she was okay to talk with me. But ironically, only after a month was I able to tell her the entire story with ups and downs. This trip left an everlasting impact on my memories with mixed feelings.
We both laughed and cried at the same time when I was narrating the entire story. It was a mixed and intricate story completed with multiple sources of information provided to me. The input was from the sponsors, written email feedback from the audience, and the award night presentation, which summarized a filtered version of my story for the audience.
Life is full of surprises, but not all surprises are pleasant. We may shine with euphoria for one moment. Nevertheless, suddenly, we face darkness the next and struggle for survival. Yet, despite all, it is worth living with pain and pleasure. From my experience, acknowledging and embracing pain can speed up recovery and make us more resilient in life.
After two decades of gaining new capabilities, when I review this incident in my memories, I think my approach to the entire event would be different. Learning from mistakes is a human virtue.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life. If you enjoyed this story, you might also check two other dramatic travel stories, one that happened in Singapore and another in Amsterdam.
My Australian Wife Refused to Revisit Amsterdam After Two Dramatic Incidents
I dedicate this story to my wonderful friends and colleagues living in Boston, the United States, who supported me immensely.
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