Oh, the Joys of Parenthood

Let me tell you about the wonderful day we've been having.

I get a call from my wife this morning around 9AM, explaining that the nurse from Brenna's school has called and asked that someone pick Brenna up. Apparently, Brenna cut her leg on something in the bathroom. OK, simple enough, but as my wife pointed out in the message she left, it was a little odd to get a call over a cut.

Sure enough, when my wife finally gets there, it's not a cut. It's something closer to what one would get if they took an apple corer to one's upper thigh. There was a chunk ripped out of her leg, right under where her butt would be if she had one (she's a skinny rail, for all that she eats!), and from my wife's description, it had been bleeding like crazy. Brenna's pants had a near-perfect circular hole in them, right above the wound, and there wasn't another mark on her.

So...by the time I got to the hospital to meet them there, the wound was dressed and Brenna was acting like she had barely bumped her knee (kids!). Quickly enough, I got the story. Brenna and a friend had been washing their hands, when Brenna noticed that her knees were dirty. So she hopped up on the sink, sat on the side edge, and turned to get water from the faucet. Well, then she slipped. Fair enough, but there's also a completely unexplained pipe jutting out of the wall, about a foot off the ground and three feet away from the sink...with a small 1/2" diameter pipe section pointing straight up from where something is clearly meant to attach (what, even I can't figure out, and I'm a frickin' chemical engineer!). So when she fell, instead of just hitting the ground, she landed squarely on that pipe section with her upper thigh.

By 11AM, the field dressing came off, and I finally got to see the wound. Now, I've seen worse. I've helped deal with worse. But in none of those cases has it been my daughter. Even so, I was OK...until the doctor came in to start with the stitches. As I'm holding my daughter's leg still (my wife opted for holding her arms and head still as she screamed for mercy), I got a full view of the doctor injecting novocaine directly into the wound, thus getting waaaaay too good a look at how mangled and bloody it was in there.

Understand...I've watched my wife give birth twice. I've seen blood and afterbirth, and I've stayed resolute and on my feet through it. I've had my knee blow inside out three times during college, and I stayed conscious every damn time (even when I really didn't want to). Hearing my daughter screaming, her wound gushing blood, watching her getting stitched up...I've never been so close to hitting the floor. I was having the cold sweats so badly that my work shirt (I didn't bother changing) was literally soaked through front to back. The only thing that kept me going was the fact that she needed me to hold that leg absolutely still, and damn it, that's what I did!

Thankfully the doctor was also trained in cosmetic surgery, so after he was done, it looked a million times better, and it's easy to see how well it's going to heal. She'll still have a scar (in a spot a little too provocative for my tastes, damn it), but it will be small enough that it might even disappear as she gets older. I was duly impressed.

Brenna was home by noon, and even walking (gingerly) on the leg. She's resting at home until Monday. I'm very, very proud of her...she's gotten past the experience, and she's not letting the pain get to her so far, despite the fact that it has to be intense. She's pretty heavily medicated, though, so she should be all right. My concern now, of course, is infection...we're going to be keeping a very close eye on the progress of the healing, needless to say, but I'm always worried about that.

The accident took place between "morning care" and actual school. The "morning care" group (local YMCA) has already let us know that they intend to pay everything not covered by insurance. So it's really just the school that we have to deal with, and they are already crapping themselves. My wife and I already went there and put our technical know-how to work. We took pictures of the pipe and sink (close-ups, with measuring tape for reference, wide-angle to show relative perspective), we've bagged and tagged the pants she wore (still complete with bloodstains)...the only thing we're missing is a picture of the wound itself, which would have perfectly matched the shape and diameter of the pipe.

Of course, we have the report from the hospital and YMCA, both of which give enough detail to match what we noted from the shape of the wound and the pants. See, the hole in the pants is oddly shaped...a perfect circle, but there's blood on only one side of the circle, and the other side is deformed inward. And that's what the wound was like...the pipe jabbed in, and then her momentum tore it out towards one side, which caused most of the damage. It's also why the doctor could seal it up so neatly...all the pieces were there, just torn apart.

Point being that in terms of the legal steps we're about to take (to ensure the obvious safety issue is addressed and get our due compensation), it's very easy to piece together how it happened and that Brenna wasn't doing anything weird to cause the accident. In fact, the evidence points to the fact that we're damned lucky she didn't land on her back, chest, or head...the damage would have been a lot worse and life-threatening. As it was, the principal foolishly admitted that older kids use the pipe in the wall to climb up said wall...and the nitwit demonstrated for my wife to suggest how the accident happened! (And of course, the evidence proves otherwise.)

So this has been a rather interesting, harrowing, and all too bloody day. I can only hope that Brenna has a swift recovery and can get back to her usual running about in a week or so. My wife and I might take a bit longer...