The Cairo Museum

We met our tour group in the lobby of the hotel on the morning of our first full day in Egypt. We were so close to the Cairo Museum, we walked there as a group. It was a beautiful day and we were anticipating the beginning of a great adventure. What we got was the start of a nightmare. Just outside the museum while we were waiting in line to get in, my wife suddenly stated that she was going to faint. It didn't appear to me that she fainted. Her arms went straight down to her sides, she threw up, lost her bladder and her knees buckled. A guard from the Museum came quickly to my aid and he brought us inside to a nurse. She gave my wife orange juice and cleaned her up. She sent me back to the hotel to retrive clean cloths to change my wife into. The nurse speculated that my wife may be pregnant. I explained that there was no chance because she had a hysterectomy a few years earlier.

My head was swimming. A funny walk, a collapse in the London airport and now what appeared to be a seizure. I asked the nurse if she could get us an ambulance, but both she and the guard did everything that could to avoid calling for one. She said we should just go back to the hotel and let my wife rest for a while. I couldn't get any more help there so I agreed to take her back to the hotel. I figured I could get the hotel staff to help. I lost track of the tour group. I didn't know, if they knew, what had happened to us.

Back outside the museum, she had another fainting spell. I caught her and began to yell for help. The guard and the nurse had come outside and were watching us. When they heard me yell they came running over to us. I insisted they get us an ambulance. They tried not to, but I started to yell for help again. The guard said he would get an ambulance and a few minutes later one arrived. And so did the police.