The phone call came on a Saturday night,
Scene 1: Home
"Your son has been in a serious car accident."
"No, we have not ascertained the extent of his injuries."
"We did use the jaws of life to extract your son and his girlfriend from the vehicle"
"No, I told you, I cannot tell you the extent of his injuries but if you head over to Trauma 1 at the Civic, they will give you an update."
" All I can tell you is it seems that the vehicle did flip end over end and then barrel-rolled down into a ditch filled with water. "
" Off the record, I will say that in 25 years of service, I have never seen a car look as bad as his does and not have someone dead on arrival."
Sheer heart stopping panic. We pass his car on the side of the highway. Spot lights, a crane, the car is on a flat bed trailer, every side crushed, banged. All I could think of was,
"If the car is that bashed and dented, how is our flesh and blood son?"
Scene 2: Trauma 1 at the Civic Hospital
"Well, you might as well just walk in and look around. This is trauma 1. We were ready for the worst case scenario"
Daniel is standing at a sink, washing blood off his face and arms!
I look at my son, then at my husband. I am shaking, my mouth is open and we turn to look at the emergency room nurse.
"If you had been here when Daniel arrived, you would have seen the entire team. As you can see, this young man does not even have a broken pinkie finger. If his seat belt hadn't been buckled up 10 seconds before, he would have been ejected from the car through the front windshield. He is a very lucky young man. His girlfriend is an angel. She literally saved his life."
Daniel is white, his face is drained of all colour and he is covered in blood.
"Not mine mum. Erica got a cut on her forehead and bled all over me."
"Ma, I should be dead. If Erica hadn't bugged me, my seat belt wouldn't even have been done up yet."
Even with a seat belt on, none of the response teams could get over these kids. A car looking like theirs did should have killed or seriously injured them. You can laugh but I have an inner sense that angels protected their bodies as the car rolled. There is no other explanation for me.
"Your son has been in a serious car accident."
"No, we have not ascertained the extent of his injuries."
"We did use the jaws of life to extract your son and his girlfriend from the vehicle"
"No, I told you, I cannot tell you the extent of his injuries but if you head over to Trauma 1 at the Civic, they will give you an update."
" All I can tell you is it seems that the vehicle did flip end over end and then barrel-rolled down into a ditch filled with water. "
" Off the record, I will say that in 25 years of service, I have never seen a car look as bad as his does and not have someone dead on arrival."
Sheer heart stopping panic. We pass his car on the side of the highway. Spot lights, a crane, the car is on a flat bed trailer, every side crushed, banged. All I could think of was,
"If the car is that bashed and dented, how is our flesh and blood son?"
Scene 2: Trauma 1 at the Civic Hospital
"Well, you might as well just walk in and look around. This is trauma 1. We were ready for the worst case scenario"
Daniel is standing at a sink, washing blood off his face and arms!
I look at my son, then at my husband. I am shaking, my mouth is open and we turn to look at the emergency room nurse.
"If you had been here when Daniel arrived, you would have seen the entire team. As you can see, this young man does not even have a broken pinkie finger. If his seat belt hadn't been buckled up 10 seconds before, he would have been ejected from the car through the front windshield. He is a very lucky young man. His girlfriend is an angel. She literally saved his life."
Daniel is white, his face is drained of all colour and he is covered in blood.
"Not mine mum. Erica got a cut on her forehead and bled all over me."
"Ma, I should be dead. If Erica hadn't bugged me, my seat belt wouldn't even have been done up yet."
Even with a seat belt on, none of the response teams could get over these kids. A car looking like theirs did should have killed or seriously injured them. You can laugh but I have an inner sense that angels protected their bodies as the car rolled. There is no other explanation for me.
