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To cut to the chase, since I really don’t post in QP, just last week one of my cousins who resides in Malaysia (read, a country which is situated south of Thailand, north of Australia), was involved in a pretty totaled automobile accident, where he was riding in the rear passenger seat of a van, and it collided with another car, causing it to flip around several times. He was rushed to the hospital and is still currently in critical but stable condition.

He reported that he couldn’t feel anything below his neck, so he can’t feel his hands, his feet, nor his torso. The doctor said he’s now a quadriplegic, and will have to go on life support to help him breathe. I heard that he also can’t swallow properly, so now the doctors will have to cut open a slit in his throat to tube feed him, with tombstone pizza jokes, aside, that’s very unnerving.

He's in his late twenties, and he was one of, if not, one of my closer cousins when I was just a little kid in Malaysia, and he played with me quite a bit. I’ve made trips back to Malaysia, but I think the last time I’ve actually seen his face was probably 5 years ago. I did make a trip there about late last year, but he was busy and I couldn’t see him.

My parents are planning on making a trip there early next year to visit him, which I may also go along, depending also on my schedule as well. I don’t think he has access to a telephone, god if I know how the hell the hospitals are run in Malaysia, but most of the communication is done through his family who writes to us via email. I just heard last that he really, really feels like total shit right now. The rest of his life will basically be a vegetable.

So, my question is, what the hell goes through your mind when you get news like this. The reality of it is that everyday we hear how people get run over by cars, or their house burning down, or getting cancer, or whatever, but it doesn’t really hit you until one of your family members gets it. I feel terrible.

I don't know if this is advice column material or QP or whatever the hell. Mods, do whatever is appropriate.