Chapter 2, How to Survive Accident-Prone Children? How Do Your Children Survive Being Accident-Prone

One late afternoon, I went to the grocery store, leaving my two boys with their father.

I returned home in time to see my four year old lift one end of the couch and then drop it and double over crying, I rushed to him, and picked him up in my arms, thinking he had ruptured himself from lifting the heavy couch. He told me in Sign Language that it hurt. With Brett in my arms I went to the bed room door to check on Wally and found him fast asleep.

I rushed to the kitchen door and told Bill, 'I am taking my baby to the hospital!' All three just sat three, (Brett's father, grandfather with his girlfriend) with a dumbfounded stare.

Soon after I had gone to the store, Bill's father came with his girlfriend.

At the hospital emergency room, they took some test and told me they believed it was his appendix and he was admitted and an IV was started right away which Brett tried to rip out of his hand.

From the hallway, I heard a woman telling someone, "I'm the grandmother why can't I go in? She gave him a pound of candy that is why he has a stomach ache." I hear this woman telling whoever she is talking to.

Is she talking about me? I am thinking. I wasn't there when she came to my home. Why is she telling someone that? Why does she hate me that she would say that? She does not even know me. And why isn't someone telling that woman, it is his appendix? But, they did not allow her in the room. And, I could not leave my baby's side; he would rip the IV out.

They came quickly and gave Brett anesthesia and took him into surgery. Then the doctor came to tell me that Brett would be okay, and they got his appendix out just in time, that it was ready to burst.

While Brett was in recovery, I went home to see about Wally and found a bag of candy under the edge of the couch. Bill said his dad's girlfriend gave it to the boys. I sent Bill with the candy to his dad's place and told him to tell him that I never ever want that woman near my babies again, ever. That was the first and last time I ever saw her.

Did you ever get an ominous feeling when a phone rings? That is the feeling I got when the phone rang at my desk. It was the school calling.

By September Brett had recovered nicely from the his operation in March and was placed in a special education class in a main stream school at four years old. One day at recess Brett was hit by a baseball and I was told he had a cut in his eyebrow, and needed to be taken to the ER.

Billy! Brett's father, my husband at that time had kept the car. I had no idea where he was going and when I was unable to find him, Ted, a co-worker was kind enough to take me to Brett's school and then take us to the hospital emergency room and left us there.

Brett got stitches in the cut in his eyebrow. Again I tried to locate Bill, without any luck. I called my friend Jackie and she picked us up from the hospital and we went to my babysitter and picked up Wally.

Wally loved Jackie and called her Jackie in the box. He was in the back seat and poped-up behind us standing in the car to talk to her, at the same time Jackie made a sharp turn and Wally lost his balance and fell against the car door lock, which cut the back of his head and we were closer to a different hospital and that is where we took him.

The ER doctor told Wally to lay face down so he could stitch the gash in the back of his head. Wally did as the doctor told him and he did not cry. He was so quiet the doctor thought he passed out, so he said Wally and Wally raised his head and said "what?" Lay back down the doctor told him. The doctor told me "I wish all little kids I see were like Wally."

ChI still could not find Bill, so.. Jackie who had been waiting with us, took us home and we ate supper, I gave the boys their bath and put their pajamas on them.

And the front door burst open and Bill was standing there covered in blood. He mumbled that he thought his jaw was broken. I called my neighbor across the hall, who, came over to stay with the boys while I took Bill to the emergency room. That would be the third emergency room in one day. The saying is, the third time's a charm.

His jaw was not broken; the blood was from a bloody nose. How he got that and why he thought it was broken is for another time another hub.

Bill and I were divorced, and all was calm and quiet for a while. Brett had been accepted at the Illinois School For The Deaf in Jacksonville Illinois, a residential school, the same school where Actress Marlee Matlin graduated. I had a babysitter for Wally.

Jacksonville, Illinois is approximately 250 miles south of Chicago. I would drive him to school about once a month and sometimes they had a charter bus that would bring him to a Holiday Inn, parking lot and the parents would pick the kids up there.

One particularly cold and snowy day, I was notified that I would have to pick Brett up at the Gray Hound station in Down Town Chicago. The weather was so bad that cars were sliding into each other, and traffic was snarled up. I was about fifteen minutes late and I thought that surely they would not leave if any of the parents were late. The bus left, I was told by security. In a panic I thought surely they would not leave a child in a bus station by himself.

After searching and searching for some sign of Brett and looking for a phone to call the bus company. I heard "MOM" and there he was by himself, sitting on his suitcase. I told him I was sorry I was late. He signed back to me, "I knew you would be here!"

I reported the bus company to the school the next school day.

Even after nearly biting his tongue off, because of his running, my son Wally continued to run everywhere.

My landlord became my babysitter after his wife passed away, his wife had been my babysitter. George/Landlord called to say that Wally did not come home from school. While I was still on the phone with George, one of my co-workers told me I had a call on the other line. I took the other call, it was the hospital, they told me they had my son needed to do a cat scan, and needed my permission to do it.

When I arrived at the hospital and went into the emergency room, Wally asked how did you know I was here?

I told him that the hospital called me.

All these years later Walter (no longer Wally) and I were reminiscing, I asked Walter how did they know to call me?

He said I haven't got a clue.

Wally said that he ran the shortcut through the park like always and jumped over the park bench and one end was loose and it popped him in the head and that is the last thing he remembered until just before I arrived at the hospital.

The ER nurse told me that someone called the police and told them there was a little boy unconscious in the park and he was brought to the hospital. The cat scan was normal so we went home, it was too late to go back to work.

The following day when I went to work, I went in early to file a claim with my insurance company. I was asked 'this is for Wally? What about Brett?' I told her, he is in school in Jacksonville. I know, but didn't you get the message, The Illinois School for the Deaf called yesterday, collecte and the Receptionist refused the charges, but she told me this morning, Arlene the personnel Manager said.

In a panic, I called the school and spoke with the principal and she told me that everything was fine, Brett had fallen off playground equipment and they thought his arm was broken. Miss Mills said you gave her power of attorney in case of emergency, and she signed for the x-rays, the principal told me.

Thank God, I had given Miss Mills the POA. Brett's arm was not broken but I had to file another insurance claim for the x-rays. But, sometime during this same time frame Brett got the tip of one of his fingers cut off.

You may be thinking, how can this stuff happen? But, it is all true; my time lines may be slightly off but this is factual.

At age 16 Wally wanted to visit my brother here in Texas, once he got here he wanted to stay, and my brother said it would be okay if he wanted to stay with him, under the condition he would finish school. I gave my permission.

I don't know why I thought the accidents would stop.

I have to gather more information, for More stories

The motorized Dirt Bike

The hand injury - Catalytic converter

Swinging from the Monkey Bars

The Accident

Broken Foot

Not all bumps and bruises lead to sore endings

The Dirt Bike, not motorized