Accessible Travel

Our last night in Mallorca took an unexpected turn.

We took the train from Palma to Sóller and then the tram to Port de Sóller. We had a late lunch at a wonderful restaurant with beautiful views of the port and sat outside under an umbrella. The food and service were excellent.

Before making the trip back to Palma, we all decided to use the bathroom. That's when we discovered that the bathroom was not accessible. The restaurant is located in an old house, and the bathroom requires climbing a flight of stairs. My daughter and I each took one of my mother's arms to help her up the stairs. She doesn't necessarily need assistance with stairs, but she can become unsteady, so it felt safer to have someone supporting her on either side. Despite having two people supporting her, we had almost reached the bathroom when my mother's sandal caught on a groove in the floorboard. She fell forward, hitting her face on the floor.

At first, we didn't realize the extent of her injuries. There was a lot of blood, and because my daughter and I had been holding my mother when she fell, all three of us were covered in it. We looked like we were in a horror movie! My mother quickly said she was fine but I could see that her forehead was split open above her eyebrow. We also later discovered that the skin along the front of her right shin had been torn away.

Thankfully, the restaurant staff immediately sprang into action. A man who worked at the restaurant who seemed to be in charge, grabbed a medical kit, comforted my mother, and began cleaning and dressing her wounds. He was incredibly calm and helpful. The woman who had been waiting on us and other staff members quickly joined him. They called an ambulance and helped carry my mother downstairs.

The local emergency responders arrived and determined that, because my mother had hit her head, she needed to be transported to a hospital in Palma, approximately an hour away, for further evaluation.

The man who had first helped my mother had done such a thorough job cleaning and dressing her wounds, the emergency responders told me they didn't need to do anything further for her other than checking her vitals. While we waited for transportation, the restaurant staff continued checking on us. The woman who had waited on our table came by every few minutes between serving other guests, and the man who had bandaged my mother stayed with us. Two local police officers also remained with us.

Everyone was incredibly kind. They knew how stressed we were, not only because my mother had been injured, but because we were supposed to fly home early the next morning. They did everything they could to keep our spirits up. I want to thank the entire staff at Só Caprichos for taking such good care of my mother and for being so kind to our entire family during what was a frightening experience. I highly recommend Só Caprichos if you are visiting Port de Sóller. 

I'll describe what happened next and what we learned from the experience in the Medical section.