Ouch!

South Lanta Medical Clinic 

I heard the crack and I hoped I had not done it again!

This morning chasing a wild cat out of our restaurant, I stepped back awkwardly and fell to the ground. The pain seared through my ankle and I feared I had broken my ankle again. Sixteen months ago, I had fallen down a small hole in the road and due to the ineptitude of a private hospital, it had taken a month to properly diagnose and nearly 3 months to fix it.

So I was reticent to visit another clinic and hospital because:

1. Koh Lanta has only one very basic hospital with old x-ray equipment,
2. Many clinics here, love nothing more than over prescribing and charging a small fortune for basic treatment,
3. The nearest hospital I trust is 3 hours away.

So I waited until 2pm, the pain never weakened and the swelling did not reduce with icing.

So I decided to have an x-ray done on the island, as I knew some of the clinics now have one and take it from there. A friend recommended South Lanta Medical Clinic. I had not even opened the door of the car and the staff were grabbing a wheelchair, I was immediately greeted in English, registered, assessed by a nurse and a doctor. Within 10 minutes I was in their x-ray room, in 20 minutes they had confirmed I had refractured the ankle and in 40 minutes i was in a cast, paying a surprisingly small bill.

This is one of those rare occasions where I can review the exact same treatment from a large, expensive hospital and a small, local clinic. Let's just say their professionalism at South Lanta Medical Clinic won me over, I will be recommending them to my guests and hopefully I won't be needing their help again! Else my husband really will divorce me!