Brain Injury/Car Accident in China

My name is Nicholas French, and I am originally from Pennsylvania. Please share my story with anyone who has or is planning on traveling abroad. I hope that it will not only provoke thought but also it will help others prevent a similar experience. Over the next few months, I  hope to use this as a forum to draw attention to several issues that my experience has exposed for me. I am sure that your family, friends and you will find them of interest, so please share them with others.

I moved to China in August, 2009 to teach English and Spanish.  I taught more than 7,000 students of all ages from 3-60 (levels pre-school to PhD candidates). Most recently, I worked at Beijing Jiaotong University. I truly enjoyed teaching  and saw myself building a long-term career there.

On July 23, 2017, I was hit by a car while crossing a street in Beijing, China.  I was knocked unconscious and suffered a traumatic brain injury, but fortunately the driver called for an ambulance. They took me to the hospital and put 200+ stitches in he lacerations on my head, nose and mouth. For whatever reason, the hospitals refused to admit me, claiming that they "did not have authorization" to accommodate foreign citizens.
 
I was finally  able to convince one of my student’s parents to help me find a place, and they admitted me on July 31, 2017. I stayed in there for about 11 days until I realized that they were not giving me any treatment and that other people had contagious ailments. Consequently, I asked to be discharged, so that I could get treatment as an outpatient. Prior to my first outpatient appointment, my employer said she was going to terminate  my contract and work visa, so I should come back to the United States.

I came back on September 1, 2017 and have been going back and forth to the doctor. While I was blessed to not have any broken bones, recovering from a traumatic brain injury has been a huge burden. You never realize how intricate and indispensable  the brain is until you lose part of its capacity. It took me an entire year just to draft this message.  I started trying to write, type, dictate it probably a hundred times. Many  basic functions like this  are now quite challenging. Part of the problem is that to the eye, I appear to be okay; my lacerations have faded into noticeable but tolerable scars.  I am also receiving therapy to help me to readjust to the new me.

Now, I am facing a situation where I cannot even start to think about working or continuing my education because of some of the medical issues with which I am dealing.  The doctors know so little about the brain that they are not even sure how long it will take to recover or really how to explain so many of my symptoms. I also suffer from chronic pain throughout my entire body. Consequently, I have not slept well for the past year. The doctors have me on medication that they hope will start to help with the sleep problems. My life goals have had to be put on the back burner in order to attend to my urgent medical conditions. 

In China, car accidents have a statute of limitations of 365 days. That means before July 22, 2018 I must bring a civil suit in Beijing or else the responsible people and insurance company don’t need to pay me anything.  The issue is that I must  go back to Beijing to initiate the process. The lawyers charge a retainer of $2,000-4,000. Since this has to include so many convoluted regulations for how foreigners can sue in China, I need to get a capable attorney who has experience dealing with accidents for foreigners in Beijing.

I spent $4,000 on my Chinese credit card for the time I spent in the hospital in Beijing. In addition, I had to borrow money from others to take care of other medical and living costs. My private student loans are also in default because I don’t have the ability to pay. It seems apparent to me that a law suit would be the only way for me to be able to proceed. In short, my life has been turned upside down; however, I believe that things can and will get better.

Since this happened in China, Chinese law is the only way to resolve this situation. I have reached out to every governmental, non-governmental and media organization that I can think of to ask for some type of support or to at least draw attention to this issue; however, the truth remains that as a sovereign nation, China has its unique laws. Unfortunately, the standards for receiving compensation are extremely high. As a result, even if I sue, I will likely receive less money than what I have lost. Chinese law supports compensation for victims of car accidents based upon their recovery not based upon the severity of their initial injury. Nevertheless, I strongly believe that not pursuing legal action would be a huge mistake. That is the only way to try to get a sense of closure to this chapter of my life, so that I can work on getting back to my normal life.

On a positive note, this experience has been quite enlightening. I see how broken our healthcare and insurance industries are and how inept our State Department and other governmental institutions are. These are all full of passionate people who probably aim to do good; nonetheless, many unintended consequences of their decisions have caused many systemic defects. I hope that one day I can help to fix these issues. While it has been a tumultuous year, I am confident that I will  fight my way back. Please continue to keep me in your thoughts and prayers, and if you feel led to do so, please make a donation. At the very least, please share this with your friends so that we can have a discussion about the risks of traveling abroad. Thanks again.


Nick

To help you better understand and visualize what my life was like before and after the accident, I would like to share a few pictures. 


On the Great Wall of China in 2011 

Visiting the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, the location of the Chinese Imperial Palaces in 2012


I rewarded a few of my Spanish students at Beijing Haidian International School for their excellent presentations


My first graders at Beijing Haidian Foreign Language Experimental School

Another first grade class during open house at Beijing Haidian Foreign Language Experimental School


Last day of class with one of my Ph.D. classes at Beijing Jiaotong University.


In September, 2014 I was honored to be one of around 3,000 foreign experts to be invited to the 65th Anniversary of the People's Republic of China Reception at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing China.  





Some of my students and I after their excellent presentation in my Ph.D. General English course.


I was recognized on the Beijing Jiaotong University website for my teaching of the Ph.D. students at the university in 2016.


Me teaching a lecture to undergraduate students and members of the faculty at Beijing Jiaotong University. 

Please note the picture below of the driver (left), the vehicle owner (right) and myself (center) taken at Peking Union Medical College Hospital International Emergency Department.