Greetings from Macau,

I raced in yesterday's Quadthlon and, due to severe dehydration and exhaustion, I received medical treatment from your staff.

Unfortunately, yesterday is a day that I'm sure I will NEVER forget because of all the bad things that happened at the finish line. However, I also know that I will never forget the care, friendliness and extreme professionalism that I was treated with by both the medical staff and organizers alike.

As a symbolic token of my appreciation for your staff's effort, I decided to donate my prize money cheque to your institution.

"Dear Medical Team

This note must definitely be placed in the "better late than never category", for I have been intent on sending you a heartfelt thank you note for 2+ years!  

I kept intending on having a photo printed and mailing the photo and note to you -- and for that reason have had your contact information nearby my desk for ages, and in two countries yet.  So, I have finally decided that I had best simply send an email note with a photo attached -- so that I will finally send you the much-overdue note of appreciation.

In mid-July 2007, you flew into Colombo airport with your air ambulance team to evacuate my then 6-week old twin son, Jason, who was very ill with a platelet count of only 10,000.  He had just completed 2.5 hours of bumping around in an ambulance from the hill city of Kandy.  He was in very bad shape: weak, traumatized and with a critically low platelet count despite infusions of platelets.  We really thought that we were going to "lose" Jason.

I will never forget how quickly and efficiently you received Jason into your care, and how I saw your air ambulance take-off before I had even left the parking lot of the the Colombo airport.  My wife accompanied Jason, you and your team to Bangkok airport, where Jason was taken to hospital.    Thanks to you and your team's capable and compassionate care however Jason made it to Bangkok in a stable condition and within 10 minutes (literally) of having been admitted, the specialists there had identified his condition as Immune Thrombocytopenia, and noted that he would be fine soon.

He was given just 5 cc of IVIG (Intravenous Immuneglobulin) and within hours he was rebounding.  Three days later he was released from the hospital, and two weeks later we flew him back to Sri Lanka.  We had to monitor his blood count until he was six-months old but thankfully the condition never returned, and should never bother him again.  Ever since that time he has been a very healthy and robust little boy and the soul-mate of his twin brother Justin.

I don't think I need to explain to you how much it meant for Jason to survive and to be able to grow up with his twin brother, and his older brother.  It is a blessing that we never forget and appreciate every day.  So please accept our most sincere (if terribly belated) thanks for the important part that you and your team played in enabling Jason to overcome his medical emergency of July 2007.  It has meant the world to us.

I attach a recent photo of Jason and his twin brother Justin, taken on a small island off of Makassar, Indonesia, where we now live.  Jason is the one on the right side of the photo.

I wish you and your team all the best with your important work and once again thank you for your first-rate medical care and genuine compassion.

Sincerely yours,
Bill Duggan"