A decade ago, I had an experience that left me profoundly grateful to Singapore’s healthcare system. During a work trip to the island state, I was suddenly taken ill and succumbed to a rare variety of meningitis. In many countries, I would have died but two extraordinary things occurred. First, a work colleague had a strange premonition that something was wrong and came to my hotel room, where she found me sliding into a coma. Second, the colleague then had me rushed to a local hospital, where Singaporean doctors identified the problem with astonishing efficiency and then took a bold medical gamble to save my life. (Essentially, they injected every type of antibiotic they possessed directly into my heart because they did not have any tailored way of treating the rare strain of meningitis I had.)
10年前的一段經歷讓我對新加坡的醫療體系大為感激。在這個島國出差時，我突然生病，患上了一種罕見的腦膜炎。換成在許多國家，我恐怕早已撒手人寰。但發生了兩件奇跡。首先，一位同事突感不祥，于是來到我的酒店房間，發現我漸漸不省人事。然后，這位同事急忙把我送到當地一家醫院，新加坡醫生以驚人的效率查出癥結，采取了大膽的療法，挽救了我的生命。（實際上，他們是把手頭所有種類的抗生素注入了我的心臟，因為他們并沒有醫治我這種罕見腦膜炎的專門方法。）