A crowd of anxious passengers waited in long lines at the normally calm Zurich airport on Saturday, July 11. I was among them, apprehensive that I might actually miss my scheduled flight to Washington DC that afternoon. A new EU system of entry and exit requirements had created summer travel chaos. Even Swiss organisational efficiency was failing.
A stern airline official told me I was in the wrong line. I stepped a disconsolate few steps back. That was the last I remember until I came to in an ambulance. To my astonishment, I was told I had collapsed with an epileptic seizure and was being rushed to the main hospital in Zurich. Swiss efficiency had returned.
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