I don't know anybody who deserves to get chopped up and fed to a hungry plant (part I)

Gather, my children, around the fire for an epic tale of action, drama and socialized medicine. Many of you have heard whispers of this story, an evil accident which claimed the face and sanity of one. Some of you may have witnessed the wounds, others can vouch for the scars, but none can comprehend the full ramifications of life without liability insurance.

"But I know all about liability insurance" you claim with gusto, "I have it it for my car." Well, my friend, do you have it for your person? "What individual would need to get liability insurance? J Lo's ass perhaps?" Two years ago I would have had the same response, but learn Reader-san, from my mistake.

Let me take you back to the time before time (April 2007) when the sun was shining and life was nothing more than one big techno party. Biking along in one of the few days without rain, she checks behind her, puts out her left hand to make the turn and WHAM.

In the air she thinks "So, this is what it's like to get hit by a car"; on the ground she thinks "This looks like that scene in Fight Club where he stares down at a pool of his own blood"; hearing sirens she thinks "No no! I can't afford an ambulance, I'm fine, let me get up"; and when the driver asks her if there is family or a boyfriend he can call she says "My colleague is on the way."

Bystanders stop and offer to lock her bike to a bridge; witnesses hand her phone numbers; someone finds her Oakleys, magically uninjured. She's whisked to the hospital, and while checking for spinal injuries they ALREADY KNOW she's allergic to Penicillin because electronic health records are a beautiful thing. They clean up her face, take a brain scan and make her wait for 2 hours (which for the ER ain't all that bad, to be fair) before stitching her nose and putting on a temporary cast.

Frankenstef emerges. (I can't claim to have made that up, sadly, I'm not that witty. Thankfully, it's a better nickname than Dog Ate My Face.)

Despite the following week of hideous ugliness that was not captured on film by monarchical decree and five weeks of a wrist cast (can't stop me from hittin' Ibiza, baby), Frankenstef recovers, looks surprisingly normal and all seems well in the hamlet of Amsterdam. The ambulance was less than €250 (ahem, those were actually my total costs...jam!), the shitty bike still clunks on and the nose did not have to get re-broken to heal straight. No one sues because it isn't America and Frankenstef considers the matter closed, moving on with life, surprised at how wonderful it it is to be taken care of by one's temporary country of residence.

Spring becomes summer. Summer becomes Autumn (though it it seem like it's always fall here). And then in October the mail arrives. The insurance company of the taxi that HIT ME kindly requests the name of my liability insurer and my policy number for damages.

echt?

It seems the battle, once thought to be buried, has only just begun (albeit, a non-violent fully bureaucratic battle). Stay tuned for Part II: Frankenstef vs. the Red Tape...