Friday, November 21, 2008

A sad case . . .

So sometimes work just sends you home depressed. Here is what arrived one day ---
You send your 2 1/2 yr old little guy down the street with your sister to pick up some bread. On the way back, just outside your house, your 2 yr old decides to randomly dart out into the street for no apparent reason. Your standing on your doorstep, too far away, but you see the truck just a moment away --WHAM -- your kiddo is smashed by the truck, then he somehow fits under it . . . as the truck drives away, never stopping. Your child is not breathing and is bleeding from all over his skull. Not good! A part time paramedic is working across the street as a construction worker and heard the screams and immediately came over and started CPR. The kiddo got a pulse and started breathing again. EMS brings him to our hospital where he codes again -- but again, his heart comes back, and we have now intubated him (put a breathing tube in).
Well, he sustained about a dozen skull fractures, and his femur was sticking out, and he had some other broken bones as well.
Needless to say, something like this coming in sure makes for a crappy day. How depressing. There is no awesome ending, it just sucked. This little guy is now home after a long critical care hospital stay and multiple surgeries. He is breathing on his own, but pretty much completely unresponsive to anyone around him -- in a coma. Will he ever get better? I don't know, but I sure hope so.
The horrible person that didn't hit the brakes . . . well, he got home, and after an hour or so it was really bothering him, so he told his wife what he accidentally did, but that he didn't stop. She called 911 and he was arrested, with the poor kids blood on his bumper.
Well, ever since this day, Hattie, who is 2 1/2, is even more very closely watched when we are on our walks taking Sophie to and from school and during the almost daily trip across the semi-busy street to the pool.
What a nightmare and I sure shared some hugs with this poor pt's mom and sister. May this, or anything like it, never happen to any of you.

1 comment:

Rachel Rowell said...

Stuff like that freaks me out. I have a hard time whenever a ped trauma comes in. I avoid them like crazy. I don't think Linz really needed to hear this story though! There's no need to make her even more nervous about your kids!