I received my first ever emergency call from the school on May 13. I would say that is pretty lucky given our 11 years at school! The nurse calmly asked me if I was close to the school because they would call an ambulance for Dallin if not. Dallin had fallen headfirst 12 feet from the top of the twisty slide on the playground at recess. He had been leaning over the top to look at the ground to see where his friends were because they were playing tag. He leaned too far and fell head first to the ground and then landed face down. He reportedly got up after the fall for a brief moment and then collapsed a few feet from the slide. He was completely disoriented, screaming of stomach pain, lethargic, and bleeding from his nose and mouth. He was covered in wet mulch to top it all off. There was so much mulch in fact that the school nurse thought that he had broken teeth because she could not see where all the blood was coming from. It turns out he had bitten into his bottom gum when he hit the ground and made a perfect impression of all his bottom teeth in his gum.
Miraculously, Nathan and I were just driving home from lunch together because he was home for the weekend from Ohio. We raced to the school and were completely shocked when we saw Dallin's condition. An ambulance should have been called, but we did our best to remain calm and raced him to the children's hospital. During the entire car ride, Dallin cried and screamed his stomach hurt. We feared he had internal injuries.
The hospital was amazing. They jumped into action the minute we walked in. There were 6-8 medical staff in the room as Dallin was assessed. A now funny story: As the doctor was examining Dallin she noticed one eye was dilated and the other was not. She shot up immediately and yelled "CT stat!" Just as a fury of action began, I yelled out, "Wait! His eye is dilated on purpose due to atropine drops." Everyone sighed with relief and we had a brief laugh about the situation. Thank goodness I was there to explain!
Dallin's bed sheets were changed twice as more and more mulch kept covering his blankets despite being cleaned over and over. There was mulch in his ears, underwear, toes, you name it! Xrays were ordered to determine whether any internal injuries or broken bones had occurred. Miraculously he suffered just a concussion from the fall! He had two major knots on the top of his head and bruising was expected, but none ever came! He would have broken his nose had he been older, but his nose is still just cartilage, so it just smashed flat when he fell. We were required to stay for observation until Dallin ate and drank several things to make sure his stomach was okay. They brought him a giant green popsicle that he was thrilled to eat.
The terrible slide. Why is a slide this tall at a school playground?
