This is the voicemail we all fear. I was checking mine Thursday at 7:30 p.m. on the way home from the kids haircut appointments and this is what I hear. I call back Mom, hoping it’s a joke. It’s not. He was heading down 64 in his pickup at 6:30 p.m. when a car slid through an intersection on the black ice. T-Bone. He calls my Mom, who is still in her office at work and says, “I’m hurt, I’m hurt, call an ambulance.” She calls 911 and insists the ambulance take him to the hospital we both work at, it is a Level I Trauma Center. They say no, they are taking him to the smaller town hospital that is closer. She waits in her office, unable to drive the 60 minutes until she calms down. Sister Stephanie is informed, she is on her way to the ER. When he arrives and my Mom finally gets an update she is told, by the treating ER doctor, that Jim is alert but has a probable broken pelvis and multiple extremity fractures – both legs, both arms and his left hand. Devastation. This is the update I am hearing as my car is heading to the small town hospital treating my broken step-father, all three children in the backseat. Devastation. My girls are crying. “Will PaPa be okay?” I struggle with how to answer. “I hope so.”
My next update comes five minutes later. Mom is hysterical. The small town hospital can’t handle him, he needs a Level I Trauma center. Jim is being transferred. I turn the car around and begin heading to his new location. Thankfully, Aunt Teenie Weenie calls me and asks where I am, where am I going? I’m in a stupor. “I’m just driving. I don’t know.” She calmly tells me to go get Jeff from work, take him and the kid’s home and head to the hospital slowly and carefully. This is what I do. I arrive at the ER around 9:30 p.m. to find my Mom, Sister Stephanie, Boyfriend Brian and friend Logan sitting, waiting. He’s not there yet. A short time later, my Mom makes an inquiry with the front desk. The small town hospital wouldn’t drive him, he is too critical. Weather and icy conditions did not allow the helicopter to get him. Our hospital had to send a trauma team in their own ambulance to pick him up. Devastation.
To make a long story shorter, we finally are told at 12:30 a.m., after many tests, that he has no broken bones. He is held overnight for observation. We are relieved. Then we are angry. Why were we told he had a probable broken pelvis and multiple extremity fractures? This is apparently explained by the fact that Jim was hit by a car 20+ years ago and broke both arms and both legs. They “looked” at his extremities and diagnosed fractures based on the deformities he has been living with for years. I have always been under the impression that is what radiology is for since x-ray vision is still in beta. The first ambulance’s insistence to take him to the small town hospital delayed his treatment by 5 hours. The accident was at 6:30 p.m.; he was finally given pain relief, treatment and properly diagnosed at 11:30 p.m. It’s hard to stay angry, because he is okay. But, for several hours on Thursday night, we were devastated.
My next update comes five minutes later. Mom is hysterical. The small town hospital can’t handle him, he needs a Level I Trauma center. Jim is being transferred. I turn the car around and begin heading to his new location. Thankfully, Aunt Teenie Weenie calls me and asks where I am, where am I going? I’m in a stupor. “I’m just driving. I don’t know.” She calmly tells me to go get Jeff from work, take him and the kid’s home and head to the hospital slowly and carefully. This is what I do. I arrive at the ER around 9:30 p.m. to find my Mom, Sister Stephanie, Boyfriend Brian and friend Logan sitting, waiting. He’s not there yet. A short time later, my Mom makes an inquiry with the front desk. The small town hospital wouldn’t drive him, he is too critical. Weather and icy conditions did not allow the helicopter to get him. Our hospital had to send a trauma team in their own ambulance to pick him up. Devastation.
To make a long story shorter, we finally are told at 12:30 a.m., after many tests, that he has no broken bones. He is held overnight for observation. We are relieved. Then we are angry. Why were we told he had a probable broken pelvis and multiple extremity fractures? This is apparently explained by the fact that Jim was hit by a car 20+ years ago and broke both arms and both legs. They “looked” at his extremities and diagnosed fractures based on the deformities he has been living with for years. I have always been under the impression that is what radiology is for since x-ray vision is still in beta. The first ambulance’s insistence to take him to the small town hospital delayed his treatment by 5 hours. The accident was at 6:30 p.m.; he was finally given pain relief, treatment and properly diagnosed at 11:30 p.m. It’s hard to stay angry, because he is okay. But, for several hours on Thursday night, we were devastated.
1 comment:
I'm so glad he's ok.
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