At the emergency room

**** please understand folks, I need to write this --- is he okay? it just depends who you ask I guess.
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My husband made it to the hospital before me. He said he saw the ambulance parked at the school on his way home. Usually, seeing the ambulance at school makes you think of football or wrestling, not your own child.

My husband kept me calm as I made the 40 minute drive from work to the hospital. We did the paperwork over the phone. We talked about insurance. We talked about who was at the hospital with him. We talked very little about our son.

My husband told me they may move him, they needed history, the did a cat scan and the doctor was coming in to talk with him. "I'm parking the car, tell them to wait, I'll be right in."

Of all the days for me to ware heals, I thought to myself. I skipped the path and took the straight line over the dew damped lawn to the door of the emergency room.

"This is the mom", said a familiar voice. It was the school superintendent. The reception area nurse pointed me to the emergency area.

I walked into the common area to see doctors, nurses and police officers roaming about. Not good, I thought. Was this a criminal act? Why were the police here. My question were answered when I saw the drunk pee in a garbage can. Their not here for us.

The common area was a semi circle with 6 rooms splintered off the sides. I saw my husband to the left, towards the back.

Even before I walked into the room you could smell the pain. A mixture of blood and vomit and teen boy filled the air.

He laid there, unconscious. He was strapped to a bright yellow board. I remember a neck brace, an iv, and blood. His two front teeth were knocked half way off. His long maroon tinted hair was unkempt, and mixed with sweat and puke. His eyes lids were not closed all the way, so you cold tell that his eyes were rolling in the back of his head.

"Oh no", said one of the officers sympatheticly, "that one's not yours-- not your boy". He knew my son from Scouts. You could see the concern on his face as if it was his own boy.

"What happened"? I demanded with a force only a mother can exert.

Gym Class
Weights
Weight machine
Back of the head
The whole machine
It was an accedent

What's going to happen is all I could think.

"Son, son wake up!" I shake him. He moves, and wrenches, and tries to move again. His back arches, his body twists.
"Some one help me! Roll him over! He's puking!" The nurses come in and turn the board to one side.

"Do you feel better?" one nurse asks. I hear him speak "Yea."

"Son, son,"
"Oh, hi mom" and then the eyes roll back again.
The nurses has better luck.
"Do you know were you are?"
"The community hospital"
"Do you know why your here?"
"I got hit in the head"
"What is your pain level from 1-10?"
"8."
"Do you want something for the pain?"
"No."
"Do you remember what happened?
There was a long pause as he tried to recall the events.
"No."

He goes out again.

I knew things were bad. They would never have gotten a needle in him for the IV if he was conscious. The doctor calls me over to view the cat scan. The doctor assures me he is dong very well.

"Fractured skull, concussion, he needs to be transferred to a trauma one".
"Why"?
"To see the neurosurgeon".
"Who? Neurosurgeon"?
"Yes pediatric Neurosurgeon'.
"But you said he was doing well", I plead.
"He is, but he needs to have a specialist".

Shit

"We will transfer him to Big City hospital 35 miles away".
"How?"
"By Helicopter".

About this time the nurse had had enough of the drunk giving his medical opinion. The officers could see the seriousness of our situation. They cuffed the drunk to his own bed in his own room. The doctor order a Valium drip -- i wished it was for me.

I look in on my boy.
"Oh, hi mom" and he's out again.

Shit--flight for life. We live near the hospital, you can hear the helicopter land and take off again. It always fly over our house. We always pray. Today we would follow it. We would watch it fly away with my boy as we drove down the road, necks strained to try and follow it and keep it in sight.