Please say a quick prayer for the other kid

[RoughCollie]

DD is 16 and in JROTC. The Parents' Club is holding an all night lock-in at the local bowling alley. This is the first time we've allowed DD to go.

 

The kids were playing laser tag, about which I know nothing. Somehow, DD and another kid (a boy) ran into each other. DD has a small laceration right over her eye under her eyebrow (missed her eye, thank God) which requires 3 stitches.

 

The boy who ran into her has 2 cuts on his face and is reportedly in shock. Maybe just scared or in pain -- DD's friend wasn't sure.

 

Luckily, DD's good friend, who is 18, at the event because he is a former JROTC member who is now a freshman college student, took charge of DD. He whisked her out of there and to the ER.

 

The boy, AFAIK, is still at the event, because the adults would not let DD's friend take him to the ER, when he is the one who needs it. The supervisors are waiting until they can get in touch with his parents.

 

The ER called here, but DH didn't get to the phone in time, and he decided it was a wrong number because DD was safely at the lock-in. DH was practically asleep at the time b/c it was 2 a.m., and I slept through the whole thing until DD's friend knocked on our bedroom door.

 

So the ER didn't have permission to treat DD, and after they made sure she was otherwise okay, her friend brought her home.

 

They are on the way back to the ER so DD can get 3 stitches after I gave permission on the phone. I didn't want them to wait additional time for me to get dressed since DD just wanted to be whisked back to the ER by her Knight in Shining Armor. She is fine, or I wouldn't be waiting at home.

 

The prayer request is for the other kid. I don't know if he is at the ER yet -- the nurse couldn't tell me because it is not allowed. He sounds worse off than DD though.

 

Thanks,

RC

 

PS If you know about laser tag, do you have any idea how 2 kids could run into each other and with what item this would cause their faces to be cut?

 

PPS The good friend, male college student is someone we know well -- he and DD have been very good friends for 3 years, with a brief stint of him being her boyfriend last year. He's shining with maturity tonight, that's for sure.

Edited March 3, 2012 by RoughCollie

[katiejane]

My BIL got stitches from playing laser tag. You are running around in the dark. Well technically you are not supposed to run but everyone does it. :rolleyes: Maybe they bumped into each others laser guns?

 

My kids have done laser tag lots of times. My H (teacher) takes groups of kids there all the time. My BIL is the only person I have heard of that needed stitches other than you Dd. It was probably a freak accident. I hope she is ok and other boy is too.

[RoughCollie]

My BIL got stitches from playing laser tag. You are running around in the dark. Well technically you are not supposed to run but everyone does it. :rolleyes: Maybe they bumped into each others laser guns?

 

Thanks for explaining it to me. Yeah, bumping into the guns is probably what did it. DD's friend told me it was an accident, but it didn't cross the kids' minds that I had no idea what laser tag is. I didn't want to waste time asking about it.

 

DD is fine. She is going to call me when her stitches are in, and I hope she reports that the boy is there and that he is fine, too. Her biggest worry is probably that I won't let her go to this lock-in event next year, since I have never let her go to one before.

 

BTW, I did want to mention that ours is a small town hospital ER. We know everyone there, as we've been there a lot. I would never send DD to the ER without me if the situation were more serious or if the hospital was not this little one that I'm so familiar with.

Edited March 3, 2012 by RoughCollie

[RoughCollie]

It's 4:30 a.m. here and the nurse just called me. DD is fine. They used dermabond on her cut. She doesn't have a concussion.

 

The other kid never came to the ER. On the way home, DD and her friend are going to the bowling alley to get her stuff and to check on the other guy.

 

This event ends at 5 a.m. so at least I don't have to deal with DD calling me from there and begging to stay later. Plus, the drunks are safely in bed by now; only the farmers and the roosters are up.

[GypsieFamily]

I'll keep both kids in my thoughts, that's so sad that the other kid might not get the help he needs.

 

My nearly 60 year old mother in law broke her arm just before Christmas playing that. It was a bad break, too. Not always a fun game :(

[RoughCollie]

DD is home. The other kid is a 14 year old boy who is shorter than DD. They weren't running. He turned around, clipped her in the face with his gun by accident and ran into the equipment on her laser tag vest. Actually, it sounds like he was at least starting to run; DD was standing still.

 

When DD went back, the boy's parents had taken him home. DD is worried about him because she said she thinks he was in shock because he was in the "shock position" and he had a gouge (DD's word) on his cheek and a cut that was much deeper than hers. She said he had been bleeding a lot. Head wounds do bleed a lot, and being in the "shock position" doesn't mean the boy was actually in shock -- hopefully if he had been, he would have been taken to ER by one of the chaperones.

 

Meanwhile, DD got reprimanded by the leader of the parent's club for going to the ER. The leader said she should have stayed there until her parents came. Of course, that would not have happened since I was asleep and DH thought the call was a wrong number and went back to bed.

 

The way things work around here is strange to me. I understand that the leader was mad because DD's friend whisked her to the ER instead of waiting around. The leader knew where DD was going. DD's friend was The Super JROTC member for 4 years at the school -- he was the only person in the history of this program who had won every award, done every activity, highest rank, etc. So it wasn't like DD was whisked away by a felon or that the leader didn't know this responsible, mature, young man Very Well.

 

But here, if you are a child, you must obey adults without question or comment, No Matter What. This is not a JROTC thing; it is the way this community is. This only works if the adults have common sense and good judgment, which I have witnessed a lack of many times. The only reason I let DD go to this lock-in was because her friend would be there, and I trusted his judgment should anything bad happen. I knew the Parents' Club chaperones would keep the kids on the straight and narrow; that part wasn't a problem.

 

I signed a bunch of paperwork, complete with health insurance information. IMO, common sense would have been to take DD to the ER if they hadn't been able to get in touch with us immediately, or to tell her Super ROTC adult friend take her because she may have had a concussion (she was dizzy and feeling woozy) and she does have a rather deep cut.

 

I think DD and her friend handled this very responsibly. I will call the Major on Monday to see how the boy is doing and to reiterate that DD and her friend handled the situation in what I think was the most responsible way. Hopefully, DD can get the boy's phone number so I can call his parents to see how he is.

 

Anyway, I think the boy could still benefit from prayers. He is probably fine, and the way people handle these types of injuries around here is different from the way Citiots handle them.

 

Thank you,

RC

Edited March 3, 2012 by RoughCollie

[RoughCollie]

I'll keep both kids in my thoughts, that's so sad that the other kid might not get the help he needs.

 

My nearly 60 year old mother in law broke her arm just before Christmas playing that. It was a bad break, too. Not always a fun game :(

 

Thank you.

 

I had no idea that playing laser tag could injure someone. I hope your MIL's arm is healing well.

[emzhengjiu]

I didn't know you could get hurt playing laser tag, either. Of course, I've never played and will probably never play. Your daughter's friend acted responsibly. I'm impressed! I'll pray for the other kid. Hopefully, he's okay this morning.

[happyhomemaker25]

I totally see where you are coming from, but in in defense of the other adults, in most situations an 18 year old boy whisking a 16 year old girl away from a lock in would cause a serious uproar. Every lock in I ever went you had to leave with a parent or a previously agreed upon adult.

Did the other adults know about your daughter's injury before they left? Did anyone try to contact you before they left? If it had been another 18 year old boy you did not know as well would you have been ok with that?

I am so very glad that both kids seem to be ok. I am glad someone you trusted took control and took care of your daughter. I don't necessarily think its wrong for the leader to be upset though.

[Halftime Hope]

RC, gently, while it sounds like your dd and her Knight did the right thing, it absolutely would not have been allowed in the circles I run with for a young man to take her to the ER.

 

We always have emergency medical treatment waivers signed for every single kid that goes on an outing, but it is one of the adult chaperones that takes a kid and consents to treatment, not one of the teens or a young college student that may along as a helper. At best, a young adult may end up taking a watch at a student's bedside if a student is hospitalized. We had that last year with a kid who was taken in for an emergency appendectomy during summer camp; college students took turns staying by the student's beside between adult chaperones' visits since it took a number of hours for the parents to fly back from their vacation.

 

That said, I can't imagine what the adults in the Laser Tag party were thinking. Are they a bunch of tough-as-nails good ol' boys who consider a facial wound a mark of honor?

[RoughCollie]

Well, I have more information now that DD is awake and coherent. The story makes a lot more sense now.

 

Diagnosis : Mild concussion, plus the cut. The concussion is so mild that the doctor decided not to order a CAT scan. DD is not allowed to do anything (read, homework, screen time, sports, standing for more than a few minutes, draw) for the rest of the weekend. She is supposed to avoid mental stimulation, and to try not to think too hard about anything. She is allowed to talk and to play board games.

 

Symptoms: Dizziness (she could not walk down a flight of stairs without assistance at the lock-in place; at home she came upstairs from the basement with no problem), headache, wooziness (nausea). She had debris in her eye and in her cut, from the floor.

 

Chaperone Anger: The parents' club leader was angry because they told DD's friend to contact us, take her home, and then take her to the ER. Instead, since the ER was on the way, and DD had concussion symptoms, he took her there first. That was why the chaperone was angry. The hospital is on the way to my house from town. He tried to contact us but was unsuccessful. No one got mad at DD. She had permission to leave with her friend (whom I had designated as her ride home).

 

The Event Itself: The boy was moving fast and could not see DD, who was moving slowly, because a thing hanging from the ceiling was between the two of them. He ran into her with an impact that sent them both to the floor. No one noticed what had happened. DD helped the guy up and took him to the bathroom and washed the blood and grime from the floor off his face. She saw his wounds, which were much worse than hers and included rug burn, the large "gouge" on his cheek, and a very deep cut on his forehead.

 

She took him to the chaperones and they made him lie down in the shock position and called his parents. One of the chaperones told DD that she was injured too, and that she needed to go to the ER and get stitches. They took her into the bathroom because she didn't believe them. She doesn't know if the blood all over her hands was from her or from the boy -- at any rate, she thoroughly washed her hands. There was no blood on her face when she came home. DD thinks her cut was from the headgear he was wearing because the boy is very short.

 

Trip to ER: When her friend brought DD home, DH wanted to take DD to the ER. DH was in no shape to do that (especially since his strokes), and I can't drive at night. So I told DH to go back to bed. We decided, after I talked to two ER nurses who agreed, that I would stay home. These nurses had already seen DD. Pretty much, since I have been undergoing testing lately and have to have at least my 5th stent put into a cardiac artery pretty soon, no one wanted me at the ER -- including DH, DD, and the friend --less stressful for me. I think they were worried I'd get so stressed I'd have another heart attack, especially since I've got 7 stents total right now (the other 3 are in my abdominal aorta).

 

Believe me, if this had been a major issue, I would have been at the ER. At 2 a.m. when I was trying to make decisions, talking to the ER nurses, keeping DH from driving, etc., this just seemed like the best solution. DD's pupils were the same size, and the right size for the light conditions -- I checked. Plus, she seemed coherent to me considering it was 2 a.m.

 

The Injured Boy: He is not on FB. DD doesn't recall his first name because they call each other by their last names in JROTC. I'm going to try to find out how to contact his parents to find out how he is doing.

 

The New House Rule: I told DH that if one of our children is not home at night, to answer the phone and if he doesn't get there in time, to call back the number. Plus wake me up. That is a clear cut rule that he can follow.

 

The only person in this family who is not a deep sleeper is DH. Next time, I'm going to make sure I put the home phone beside me on the nightstand. I always do that, but last night DH's cell phone was charged and on his nightstand, so I didn't. I didn't foresee that I would sleep through the cell phone ringing and that DH would think, since DD was safe at the lock-in, that it was a wrong number.

[happyhomemaker25]

Well, I have more information now that DD is awake and coherent. The story makes a lot more sense now.

 

Diagnosis : Mild concussion, plus the cut. The concussion is so mild that the doctor decided not to order a CAT scan. DD is not allowed to do anything (read,y homework, screen time, sports, standing for more than a few minutes, draw) for the rest of the weekend. She is supposed to avoid mental stimulation, and to try not to think too hard about anything. She is allowed to talk and to play board games.

 

Symptoms: Dizziness (she could not walk down a flight of stairs without assistance at the lock-in place; at home she came upstairs from the basement with no problem), headache, wooziness (nausea). She had debris in her eye and in her cut, from the floor.

 

Chaperone Anger: The parents' club leader was angry because they told DD's friend to contact us, take her home, and then take her to the ER. Instead, since the ER was on the way, and DD had concussion symptoms, he took her there first. That was why the chaperone was angry. The hospital is on the way to my house from town. He tried to contact us but was unsuccessful. No one got mad at DD. She had permission to leave with her friend (whom I had designated as her ride home).

 

The Event Itself: The boy was moving fast and could not see DD, who was moving slowly, because a thing hanging from the ceiling was between the two of them. He ran into her with an impact that sent them both to the floor. No one noticed what had happened. DD helped the guy up and took him to the bathroom and washed the blood and grime from the floor off his face. She saw his wounds, which were much worse than hers and included rug burn, the large "gouge" on his cheek, and a very deep cut on his forehead.

 

She took him to the chaperones and they made him lie down in the shock position and called his parents. One of the chaperones told DD that she was injured too, and that she needed to go to the ER and get stitches. They took her into the bathroom because she didn't believe them. She doesn't know if the blood all over her hands was from her or from the boy -- at any rate, she thoroughly washed her hands. There was no blood on her face when she came home. DD thinks her cut was from the headgear he was wearing because the boy is very short.

 

Trip to ER: When her friend brought DD home, DH wanted to take DD to the ER. DH was in no shape to do that (especially since his strokes), and I can't drive at night. So I told DH to go back to bed. We decided, after I talked to two ER nurses who agreed, that I would stay home. These nurses had already seen DD. Pretty much, since I have been undergoing testing lately and have to have at least my 5th stent put into a cardiac artery pretty soon, no one wanted me at the ER -- including DH, DD, and the friend --less stressful for me. I think they were worried I'd get so stressed I'd have another heart attack, especially since I've got 7 stents total right now (the other 3 are in my abdominal aorta).

 

Believe me, if this had been a major issue, I would have been at the ER. At 2 a.m. when I was trying to make decisions, talking to the ER nurses, keeping DH from driving, etc., this just seemed like the best solution. DD's pupils were the same size, and the right size for the light conditions -- I checked. Plus, she seemed coherent to me considering it was 2 a.m.

 

The Injured Boy: He is not on FB. DD doesn't recall his first name because they call each other by their last names in JROTC. I'm going to try to find out how to contact his parents to find out how he is doing.

 

The New House Rule: I told DH that if one of our children is not home at night, to answer the phone and if he doesn't get there in time, to call back the number. Plus wake me up. That is a clear cut rule that he can follow.

 

The only person in this family who is not a deep sleeper is DH. Next time, I'm going to make sure I put the home phone beside me on the nightstand. I always do that, but last night DH's cell phone was charged and on his nightstand, so I didn't. I didn't foresee that I would sleep through the cell phone ringing and that DH would think, since DD was safe at the lock-in, that it was a wrong number.

 

 

Then, I definitely think they (your daughter and friend) did everything right. Good job to this young man!

[RoughCollie]

Then, I definitely think they (your daughter and friend) did everything right. Good job to this young man!

 

I want to do something to thank him, but I have to figure out what. I am very grateful for his help last night. DD wants to make him some elaborate cupcakes, which is fine for sometime next week (he is on spring break), but I want to do something from DH and me.

 

Of course, I already thanked him profusely twice and in detail, making sure to tell him that I admire his maturity and sound judgment. He already knows that, but I figure that's something an 18 year old can't hear too much.

[Mommyof4ks]

The boy may not have realized that the docs would need your permission to do stiches, so he stopped there first. Yea, he should have followed the directions of the adults, because they did know about the parental permission issue, but at 18 he is not fully aware of laws yet. They did well, and your dd is going to be ok, so it was a lesson learned without much consequence. They did well given their knowledge.

 

I had no idea laser tag was a dangerous sport. Can you send him a card with a thoughtful message and a gift card to a local burger place or something. It sounds corny, but we all know men love to eat, and they appreciate that kind of thing especially at 18. :D

[RoughCollie]

The boy may not have realized that the docs would need your permission to do stiches, so he stopped there first.

 

Yes, that is exactly what happened. He was surprised by that.

 

Gift card to a restaurant is a great idea. Thanks.