Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Playground fall

John went to a special needs camp all last week. We were pretty nervous about sending him, but he seemed to really like it. That is, until Friday. The group was playing at a playground that had a pretty high play structure. Of course John was at the top. Nobody seems to know what happened, but someone mentioned that he was pushed from the top and fell about 12ft down. His head and face hit something on the way down.
They said he was acting "stunned" so they called the paramedics. They put a neck brace on him and drove him to the ER.
Unfortunately I was in an all-day meeting and Yoshie was at the zoo with Maya so we couldn't be reached. They were able to reach my mom who got in touch with my brother who I think called the front office of my work. I finally got called out of the meeting and was able to call the camp director. All she could tell me was that John had a bad fall, was in a neck brace and on a backboard and that I needed to get to the ER ASAP. Scared me to death. And, traffic was horrible. Then, there was construction at the hospital. Three ambulances passed me while I was waiting there. I'm guessing John was in one of them. Thankfully, Yoshie had come back to the car for her phone so I was able to get in touch with her. She actually got to the ER about the same time as the ambulance.
When I got there, they were holding him down and cutting off his clothes. He had a big lump on his head and a bruised face but didn't seem to be in any horrible pain. I think he was a lot more upset about being held in place. They did an x-ray and CT scan. Both of those were fine, thankfully. Soon after that we were sent home. They said he likely had a mild concussion and we just have to watch him carefully for awhile.
His face got a little more swollen on Saturday, but has since gotten much, much better. He also was favoring one arm and his shoulders were crooked. This required another set of x-rays on Monday. Those also looked OK, so we're hoping that it is just some muscle pain that will go away soon.
We did keep him home from camp this week. We're still decided whether or not to send him back next week.

CT Scan:



Looking a little beat up: