sammyb blog: November 2008

It all starts with this little guy. Anyone know him?

So, last Saturday evening I was in the house working on something that I cannot remember now. I started thinking "Where are Drew & Pete?", as the house seemed quieter than normal. I began to look around the house. Upstairs. Downstairs. Garage. No Sign. I looked in our backyard. No sign. I then looked in the front yard. No sign either.

Then, I thought I heard their voices coming from the neighbors backyard. Sure enough, there were the 2 culprit monkeys swinging from the neighbor's Japanese Maple tree. Our neighbor was actually in the backyard doing some landscaping. I asked him, "are these 2 turkeys bothering you?" He replied "Nope. Not in the least. Looks like they are having a fun time though". I agreed. We spoke a little more, and in the meantime, I kept reminded the boys (especially Pete) to be very careful climbing on the tree.

Just a few moments later, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a little body start to tumble through the branches and leaves and slam head first onto a large rock below the tree. It was Pete. He had lost grip and fallen. I immediately rushed over to him, and picked him up holding him close. I had one hand on his back rubbing him, and the other on the back of his head doing the same. I kept telling him "Its OK buddy, its OK". The next thing is what frightened me the most. I pulled his head back to make sure he was really OK. The next thing that I saw was not the normal fair-skinned face of my little Pete, but that of a red-stained bloody face & hair. I said "Oh... my.... gosh!" Pete then saw his hands, arms, shirt also splattered with blood. It ran down into his mouth, and he started to spit because of the awful taste. He then realized how serious this was.

I stood up, and ran with him to our house to get to the kitchen to clean him up. The first person I met at the back door was little Emily. She was shocked and she jumped quickly out of the way to make room for our emergency. She started screaming. It got Natalie's attention. She then came into the kitchen, screamed, and ran out of the room. Chrissy was also there, and she began screaming too. I quickly told all of them to calm down & stop, as I didn't want to alarm Pete any more than he already had been.

I grabbed some towels and starting putting pressure on where I thought the bleeding was coming from. Meanwhile, Natalie is frantic. She is telling me to get out of the house, get in the car, and go to the ER. At that point, I did not know the severity of the wound, so I agreed. I quickly got into the car, and started towards the ER. I called my Dad (Dr. Jim Blaine) to ask his opinion on what I should do. he asked, "Was he unconscious at any point?" The answer was no. He then told me to go ahead and come out to his house.

I changed direction and drove out to his house. We arrived there within about 10-15 minutes, which the entire time I was asking Pete questions to make sure that he was OK and to also keep him awake. We got there, and my Dad was working on a light fixture outside by the garage. I quickly grabbed Pete and started towards the front of the house. My Dad didnt budge. I thought he had seen us, so I said "Dad, we are here". He says "OK, be done in a minute". Meanwhile, I am thinking "What in the wide world of a sports is a going on here? I have a bleeding kid here".

But, of course, this is the non-panic personality of my Dad, the ex ER doc of 12 years, talking here. We got inside and put Pete on the kitchen counter in plenty of light. Dad gets on the magnify glasses and begins to look over Pete. He looks at a few things,

pushes here and there, asks Pete if this hurts or if that hurts, but is still unsure of the diagnosis, as he cannot see past some of the blood. So, he recommends that we get him in the shower and rinse of his head so that we can further see the damage.

We put him in the shower and rinse him off. We find 2 cuts. One is on his forehead and is pretty small. It bleeds a little, but doesn't seem to be that big of an issue.The other cut is on the top of his head, and it is still bleeding pretty continually.

Once we get him out of the shower, we placed him on the bathroom counter so that Doctor/Grandpa can examine the wound. He finds out that it is about an inch long cut that is about a 1/4 inch wide.

Grandpa Blaine asks Pete if he would like to get in the bathtub. Little Pete thinks that is a wonderful idea. So, I start the bath, we put in some bubbles, get him some toys, and just keep an eye on him. A few moments later, to help the bleeding stop a bit, we poured cold water on the wound, and kept an eye on it to see if the bleeding would subside. It did. It was then determined that pete would not need stitches.

The next question that I had was what I needed to do overnight once I took him back home. My Dad told me to wake him up every 2 hours and check on him. Well, I didnt know what to check for, and was a little worried that I would get him back home, and he would have some sort of complication from the head injury. I asked if he could stay the night and be watched over by Dr./Grandpa Blaine. My Dad agreed. I was pleased & Pete was tickled that he got to spend the night at Grandpa's house (and Drew & Emily weren't there, which made it that much sweeter for Pete).

On the drive home, I thought about the decision that I made to turn and go to Grandpa's versus going to the ER on a Saturday night. I think it was the best decision that

I could have made, because Pete was in the care & comfort of a great doctor & a wonderful Grandpa within minutes of getting hurt. The alternative would have been a very long wait, a cold Emergency room, a possibly younger & less experienced doctor, probably stitches (from what my Dad says), and a little bit of an ER bill. I am so thankful that I have a Dad (and Pete has a Grandpa) that's a Doctor.