Our first family trip to the emergency room occurred on a Sunday in July of 1968. Most of our subsequent family emergencies, in fact, seemed to occur on Sundays. Emergencies, of course, are just unplanned events that alter the course of one’s day. Our first family emergency was no exception.
My husband, David, aside from working full-time at Youth Guidance Center in San Francisco, was also getting a master’s degree at San Francisco State College. One of his classmates, Barbara, invited us over for dinner on a sunny Sunday. We had no car and she lived in South San Francisco, so she graciously offered to pick us up for dinner. We were delighted. On her arrival, David and I, along with Kelly who was 3 ½ and William who was 18 months old, waved good-bye to our bulldog, Mr. Muggs, and headed off on our journey.
When we arrived at Barbara’s house, we found their old basset hound playing in the front of the house with some neighborhood kids and her son John. Our kids were, of course, used to playing with a husky dog. The basset hound was about the same size as our Mr. Muggs. William went right over to the dog and started petting him. We headed up the stairs to the front porch. Barbara opened the front door and William and the basset hound went racing into the house. We stood on the porch for a few minutes discussing the beautiful plants she had growing in pots. It wasn’t long before we heard a scream coming from the house, followed by crying. We all raced into the house and found William standing next to the basset hound in the kitchen, with blood pouring down his cheek. William’s right upper eyelid was dangling down his face attached only at the outer corner of his lid.
The hostess said, “William must have leaned on the basset hound’s back, which is very sore. The dog probably lifted his paw and caught William’s eye lid and tore it.” The good news was it didn’t touch his eye. The dog was used to playing with kids and generally had a very docile nature. The dog looked just as surprised as the rest of us did at the horrifying sight before us.
We all piled back into Barbara’s car and headed for my alma mater, St. Mary’s Hospital, which fortunately was only two blocks from our house. William had forgotten all about the trauma as we drove off in the car. He did notice, however, that he was the center of attention and that pleased him.
William and Kelly and Barbara’s son John played with the toys from the ER toy basket quite contentedly while we waited for the doctor to examine William. My philosophy on Emergency room visits is that you will be in the department for at least four hours. I don’t recall every taking to anyone there and spending less than that. When you plan ahead for this delay, you are not as stressed as you would be if you expected immediate service; having worked on the other side of this fence, I was well aware of the potential for delays. Other clients in the emergency room waiting area were aghast to see William running around with his eyelid dangling. By this time, William didn’t even notice it. We only had to wait about an hour before the ER doctor examined William and said he would have to call a plastic surgeon. Unfortunately, the one on call lived in Marin, so we knew there would be more waiting.
About three hours later, as I predicted, the surgeon arrived and whisked William off to the surgery to repair his lid. The surgery was short but the doctor decided he wanted to keep William overnight in the hospital for observation. Insurance companies today would not allow an overnight for such a minor incident; minor, that is, from their perspective. William was born at St. Mary’s Hospital and got to spend his first night away from home in his birthplace.
William’s night went fine and we picked him up the next morning and walked on home. His experience with the basset hound did not affect his interaction with our bulldog, Mr. Muggs. He developed no apprehension of dogs over this experience, but his parents did.
Yes, this was only the first of several emergency room visits, but those are other stories.
To be continued
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