View Full Version : Scary Accident
M.Elston
04-04-2002, 09:04 AM
Hi Everyone,
Today on our way home, we came across a teenaged neighbor girl of ours that had just rolled her new car into a revine, while trying to avoid hitting a critter. I called 911, and made my way down to her car. I was OK until I found she was crying and telling me that her back hurt. I about peed my pants. I think I could have taken more blood, broken bones- anything -easier than that simple cry about her back hurting. I looked up the hill and my DD15 stood there whiter than a sheet. She too had heard. Soon the emergency personel arrived, and I backed off, but wanted to be in there directing them to be careful, and all.
The good news is that she is OK, and after spending the night in the hospital, is just banged up and sore. For a few minutes I thought I was going to vomit thinking about all she and her family would have to go through if she had broken her back or neck. It just proves that the ecperiences of a new SCI are never very far from the front of our minds, even after all this time.
M.Elston SCI Mom to 15YO incomplete L2-3
marmalady
04-04-2002, 12:23 PM
Yikes! I'm so glad everything was okay. Those of us who have experienced or are family members of tragedies like this can't help but be affected; add in the 'mom factor' and it's quadrupled!
On the other hand, my favorite show on TV is "Trauma - Life in the ER". People are starting to call me a trauma junkie!
_____________
Tough times don't last - tough people do.
Wise Young
04-04-2002, 01:42 PM
The sinking feeling never goes away. It occurs in every doctor as well. Wise.
I'm a mum who's still fairly new to the whole SCI thing in that my son (19) was injured last September. I can only imagine how you must have felt being with the girl at that time and knowing all you know. She was very lucky by the sound of it.
When I was travelling to the hospital daily in the early months I remember getting very anxious at young people who were crossing the road without looking properly or kids who were cycling on the roads without helmets .... I wanted to protect everyone from danger.
And Marmalady - I too now watch medical trauma type dramas where I was never interested before! Ambulances also sound different to me now from how they once did. Before the accident I always used to say "Someone's having a baby" whenever I heard one rather than imagining the worst. I don't seem to do that anymore. Now I'm IN the ambulance!
Oh God, I sound like I'm anxiety personified here! I'm not, I'm pretty together, but like M. said in her post, our trauma experiences are never that far from the front of our minds ....
Mum
Life is what happens to us while we're making other plans. - John Lennon
Sci Mom
04-04-2002, 04:17 PM
What a relief that it was nothing worse! My daughter's third anniversary was just last Sunday; brought back all kinds of memories. She was injured in a car accident, too. About 18 months later, she was in a SECOND car accident. Her level is T11/T12, and she said while she was waiting for the EMT's after the second accident, she realized she couldn't move her arms. She was convinced that she had a second, higher injury. Thank God it was just being banged up...but now that I've had two of those phone calls, do you suppose I'm done?? I'd say I've had my share, wouldn't you?
marmalady
04-04-2002, 04:18 PM
I think we all have more or less symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. I can't stand the sound of an ambulance, and for about a year after my son came home from rehab, I turned off everything in the house that 'beeped'. Couldn't stand the sound, reminded me of all the beeps in the hospital.
_____________
Tough times don't last - tough people do.
LauraD
04-04-2002, 07:22 PM
I'm glad to hear that everything was o.k. for your friend. I can only imagine how you felt. I know every time I see an ambulance, hear a siren or medflight, I just cringe. I met an ambulance one day and when I later talked with the lady who was driving she said she could see the look of horror on my face. I always think of the families of those involved and pray that those who were involved are o.k.
Today they were asking if anyone was interested in EMT classes when my daughter made supper with her fellow Girl Scouts for the local EMT's. I just said that even though I am so thankful for the wonderful people that were there to help my children the day of the accident there is NO WAY that I could do it.
I am with you Marmalady I have become a "trauma junkie" Isn't it amazing how you HAVE to watch those shows now.
about the tv shows. I used to never miss ER, and now I can't look at it. It makes me kind of cringe to think of myself using that for "entertainment". I guess hanging out in the ER of a major trauma center/county hospital for 8 hours while they tried to stabilize my husband was enough for me, forever. I'll take the West Wing now--no chance I'll be suddenly forced to sit in the real white house anytime soon!
Marmalady: As you are with beeps (God those beeps, I remember them well), I am with our front doorbell. I'm still set on edge sometimes when it goes, as our trauma here started with the police at our door at 4 in the morning. I still have occasional nightmares which just seem to involve doorbells ringing and nothing else.
Sci Mom: Two accidents? That is too cruel! I'd had some bad stuff happen in my life prior to my son's accident and so understand the feeling of 'having had my share'. Part of me now feels like 'Well if there are any more horrors due to come my way then bring them on because if I can deal with the last six months I can deal with anything', and part of me feels 'Nooooooooooo, pleeeeeeeeease no more, I can't take it' - depends whether there's a PMS in the month!
Laura: It's weird, I think I could cope with doing EMT (emergency medical training?) now more than before the accident but that's possibly because the outcome for my son has turned out to be so much better than it was first thought it would be, and I've kind of seen both sides of the coin (we were told there was little hope of him surviving). Even if I had the time though, I don't have the ability for such training.
Kate: I felt similarly about hospital dramas in the earlier months after my son's accident and had to turn them off but I seem to have gone almost full circle now. I'm not fascinated by them or even view them as entertainment though - they're more real to me than that ... I'm in the trauma room with them! What does that say about me? Have I totally lost it?! http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/eek.gif
M.: Thanks for putting up your original post. I find it comforting to be amongst the company of other similar-boat mums for the first time. I've talked to one or two at the unit but it's been fairly fleeting.
Mum
Life is what happens to us while we're making other plans. - John Lennon
p.s.
>>> other similar-boat mums AND DADS if they're out there.
Mum xx
Life is what happens to us while we're making other plans. - John Lennon
M.Elston
04-05-2002, 04:47 PM
Hi Everyone,
OK, I'm unmasked. I'm a 'Trama- life in the ER" watcher, also. I didn't say 'fan' because it is almost like a fix, and I don't view it as entertainment, either. I do watch it less than I did a few months ago. perhaps the trama is receeding some.
Worse than me is my 8yo daughter, who watches those shows with something bordering on obsession, and will tell anyone who listens that she is going to be an orthopaedic surgeon, so she can fix people who break their bones. Also that when she is the Doctor, no one will get hurt like her sister. (My daughter was spine injured during surgery)
My older daughter copes with this by denial. She won't talk about it, gets peeved at us if someone asks her to be careful with her gait, won't go to the hospital to see anyone, and puts up with the pains and problems rather than take the drugs that could help. (nothing dangerous to her health, or I would insist)
Maybe we should just readjust our definition of normal even more?
~Cheer!
M.Elston SCI Mom to 15YO incomplete L2-3
Hubby's dad was an EMT (at that time a fireman/first responder) while hubby was still in rehab dad had to respond to a classmate of hubbys from high school who hit a bridge. Ended up avoiding the SCI part but the TBI was awful. Dad still says he doesn't know how they made the 200 mile trip to the 'city' hospital, but they did. 30 years later the guy is still here but quality of life is really poor. This is one case I still don't know if his survival was a good thing.
I think Dad is still trying to recover from it