Blog Number 285

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

I am trying to piece the last week or so together in the correct order.  Some day ran into each other and some event are a little unclear as to what day they actually occurred upon originally.  I do remember Tuesday afternoon just after 3 PM very clearly though.  I received a phone call from "a concerned citizen" that my wife and kid (he was unclear at the time that there were 2 kids in the accident) were in a bad accident.  He stressed to me that this was not a fender bender.  Since our cell phones have Indiana area codes, he was trying to explain everything in great detail but once I assured him that I was 10 miles away he just told me to get here fast but that the kids appeared to be fine and the wife was bleeding a lot and was going to be taken via helicopter to the hospital.  I received a second call from him minutes later (from another phone number, he had borrowed someone's originally as his was left in his car) giving me an update.  I assured him I was 20 minutes from the scene and would get there as fast as I could.  He handed the phone to a paramedic who updated me and then he passed the phone on to the fire chief who gave me more details.  Eventually I had to give permission for the daughter (who only had scratches) to be taken to the hospital with her brother.  I arrived on the scene after the wife was gone but before the ambulance left with the kids.  I jumped in the back of the ambulance and did not even get a chance to look at the scene at all so I have no memory of it.  The kids were relieved to see their dad but were still quite rattled from the event.

We left shortly and were on our way to the local hospital (about 2 miles up the road).  The son was strapped down on a stretcher and had a neck brace on (as a precautionary measure).  We arrived and everyone was out quickly and the kids were put in two different rooms.  They had a lady (Dora) who appeared to have the job of calming and staying with kids who came in without parents.  Since their rooms were down the hall from each other, I could not see them both.  I stayed with the daughter at first.  In about 20 minutes, a good friend from my ABF arrived (who the kids knew) and he swapped rooms with me back and forth.  The daughter was taken to get x-rays and the son (later) was taken for a CT scan.  I got to wear a nice lead apron both times.  Sometime during that time another friend from my church arrived.  After inspecting and cleaning up the scratches and reviewing the reports they were released.  This was sometime between 6:30 and 7:00 I think.  The son was not able to put any weight on his right leg so it was a chore getting him into the car.  My car was still back at the scene of the accident (parked across the street at a Starbucks) so we had to go there first.  At that time I passed the daughter off to the "first at the hospital" friend from our church (he had daughters) and the son to the other friend (who had a son), reviewed the instructions on watching them that we received from the hospital, and then I got in the car and headed to where my wife was at.  I had got a few updates on her while with the kids but details were sketchy.  They were enough to tell me that she was not in critical condition.  I got on the road not really knowing where I was heading but called my mom (who is in Indiana) and had her look up directions.  I then called another friend who was at the hospital with my wife to confirm directions.  He gave me a slightly better way to go based on some road construction.  It was not until 8:30 that I arrived at the hospital.  That was 5 1/2 hours after the accident.

I will save the details of the rest of that evening for later.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Retraction Note: I have changed the reference to the people that helped me from "a guy" to "a friend" as this better indicates the relationship.  My apologies to the guys, er friends.