Driven to Despair

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A couple of weeks before leaving Libya, I bumped into a British friend, Les, who worked for an oil company. He looked terrible. I asked what was wrong and he told me the following story.

One morning he noticed a stray kitten near his house. Being British, he immediately tried to rescue the animal. It bit him on the hand, drawing blood. He washed the wound, stuck a band-aid on it, and went to work. Later in the day he mentioned to a colleague what had happened. His colleague was horrified and told Les that he should check right away that he hadn't got rabies from the bite. Some other colleagues overheard the conversation and all agreed that Les was at risk from rabies.

After work Les went to see his (Egyptian) doctor. The latter pointed out that the only way to tell if the kitten had rabies was to kill it and them do tests on its brain. Les set off immediately to look for the kitten - but, of course, he couldn't find it. So back he went to his doctor to see what else he could do. The doctor said that Les needed to get a series of fourteen rabies shots spread over two weeks. And this needed to happen before any symptoms appeared. Once any symptoms appear, full onset of the disease is inevitable - and it is usually fatal. The first symptom is a headache.

"Okay, you'd better give me the first shot now, " Les said.
"Sorry," said the doctor, "I don't keep the vaccine. In fact, you can't get it anywhere in Libya. I wouldn't worry too much, though. After all, God willing, you might not get rabies."

Not being a Muslim, Les wasn't willing to leave matters in the hands of fate. He spent the next day reading up on rabies and becoming more and more worried as he learned more about the disease. Cats, he read, often carried rabies. And a bite from a rabid cat was much more likely to result in infection than a bite from a rabid dog.

After two sleepless nights, he asked for leave from his job, booked a flight to England, flew to London and rushed over to a major teaching hospital. There he saw a specialist and immediately started receiving the series of rabies shots. A few days later, he got a cable from his employer telling him that he had to return to work right away or lose his job.  
"That's fine, " said the specialist. "I will give you the ampoules containing the rest of the vaccine and your doctor in Libya can complete the series of shots when you get there. Don't forget, though, that the vaccine needs to be kept cool. If the temperature goes over X degrees, the vaccine won't work"

Les flew back to Tripoli the next day, carrying the ampoules in a vacuum flask. 

All was well until he reached the customs desk at Tripoli airport. The customs officer opened the flask and saw the ampoules. 
"What's this?" he asked. 
Les explained. 
"Where is your permit?"
"What permit?" Les asked.
"Your permit to import medicines."
"I don't have one."
"Then I have to confiscate the medicines."

Les argued for an hour but to no avail. He rushed down to town and returned to the airport with a Libyan colleague. The Libyan colleague argued with the customs officer, and then with the officer's superior, and then with the superior's superior. They refused to budge. Worse yet, they were so offended by Les that they had an immigration officer seize his passport.

The following morning Les managed to put a call through to the specialist in London and explained what had happened. The specialist pointed out that Les had already missed one rabies shot and therefore would need to have a whole new series of shots right away. However, as Lee explained, this was not going to be possible because he was now unable to leave Libya. 

To cut a long story short, by the time I saw Les he had spent two weeks trying to get his passport back but hadn't succeeded. Now convinced that he was doomed to die from rabies, he had borrowed a gun from a Libyan friend and had decided to shoot himself at the first sign of a headache. 

I never saw Les again and I often wonder what happened to him.
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I never saw or heard from Les again, and I often wonder what happened to him.