I was so glad for the fact that I didn’t have a lot of meetings today at work…I thought I’d be able to get a ton of work done, especially on a couple of complicated layout projects that needed some extra time and focus. The morning was spent getting the monthly enews (33 different versions/languages) finalized for distribution but after lunch, I was going to hunker down and chip away at those projects until they surrendered.
Except, I got a phone call at 1:20, and it was a young woman whose name I didn’t hear at first, calling to tell me that Martin had had an accident and they were on the way to the hospital by ambulance.
“What?? What happened??” I said.
“He fell out of a tree, and his shoulder is dislocated,” she told me.
Urrgh… “Okay,” I said, “I’ll meet you there.”
I shut down my project, my computer, grabbed my phone and purse and told my boss I was leaving. As I headed toward the elevator, I dialed Anders to let him know and just then the elevator door started closing on me, whacked into my arm and my phone went flying. It hit the wall of the elevator and then the floor and went black. “AAAAGH!” I cried, and snatched it up off the floor. I could hear Anders saying Hello? Hello? and realized it was still working, even though I couldn’t see anything. So I told him what was up, and then hoped I’d managed to actually hang up.
The hospital is right down the street from work and I actually beat Martin there by a couple of minutes, even with parking and walking from the garage the emergency room. They brought him in on a gurney, shirtless and covered in a blanket, his right hand clutching his left arm to hold it immobile.
Once we were settled in the room, I got the full story. They were in the middle of a water fight, which he’d been telling me the plans for the day before. 7 or 8 of his schoolmates were with him, and they were at a friend’s house after school had ended for the day (short days this week as the last official school day is Friday) after lunch. The friend has a tree house and Martin and his accomplices were up in it firing water balloons down on their hapless foes.
On his way down from the tree house, he slipped on the ladder and went down sideways, hitting his shoulder first on the ladder (and then, said his friend, on a fence) before landing in bushes 2.5 meters (15 feet) below. The kids freaked out, thinking first he was dead, and then realizing he couldn’t move, they called 112 (which is the European 911) and after a Q&A from the dispatcher requiring several tests on Martin: can he wiggle his fingers, is he conscious, etc., they sent an ambulance.
They had to cut his t-shirt off him, and he managed to come away without his shoes or socks and with soaking wet clothes, but hey! First ambulance ride!
We were only in the room for about 10 minutes before the doctor came in and talked to him, and then another 15-20 minutes before he taken to X-Ray. Then we waited about half an hour for the results to come back: not dislocated… broken. The arm, right where it meets the shoulder. The doctor told us we’d get a call-back next week and they’d make a decision then as the break was borderline for requiring an operation…I assume to put pins in or something. Meanwhile, here’s a sling and some painkillers…you’re free to go.
In and out of the emergency room in 2 hours! Unbelievable. We made a stop at the pharmacy which took another half an hour and then home where, of course, he managed right away to figure out how to hold the Playstation controller and play without moving his arm.
At least he won’t have to get a cast. And I might get a new iPhone out of the day. Silver linings.
