Candice's Trip to the Emergency Room

Candice's Trip to the Emergency Room

Being a parent is like riding an emotional roller-coaster ride, especially when the ride involves our children getting hurt. One exhausting experience that stands out in my mind is a bike accident with my oldest daughter Candice, which resulted in her first trip to the emergency room.

Candice was six at the time and had recently learned how to ride her bike without training wheels. She liked doing tricks on her bike that were not very safe without training wheels. My husband Jim and I kept telling Candice not to do those tricks any more. Sure enough, Candice did not listen. One Thursday afternoon our whole family was outside enjoying the warm, sunny weather when we noticed Candice goofing around on her bike. About a minute after I told her to stop, I saw her fall off her bike and heard her sobbing. Instead of offering sympathy, I was upset that she disobeyed me. I picked her up, gave her a little spanking and told her to go inside to wash up. Candice's hands were covering her face, so I did not know that she had scraped her chin on the asphalt road. I followed her in the house to make sure she was all right. When she removed her hands from her face, I saw the bright red blood pouring from the open gap in her chin. A horrifying feeling of dread immediately washed over me as I ran outside to ask Jim to come help. When Jim saw Candice's chin, he said we had to take her to the hospital to get stitches.

As we were on our way to the hospital, Candice kept crying and saying that she did not want stitches. The whole idea of stitches scared her more than the wound itself. In between sobs, Candice also asked me why I had spanked her.

One can only imagine the guilt and shame I felt when she asked me that question. I apologized to her and tried to explain why I spanked her. I told her I was wrong for not checking first to make sure she was all right; however, I also explained that she was wrong for disobeying me. My youngest daughter Lauren had to put her two cents in, and kept mentioning stitches, which caused Candice to start panicking again. I can attest that the trip to the hospital was very long.

Upon arriving at the hospital, we realized we were in for a long night. Normally the pediatric ER was very organized and quick; however, the hospital was being remodeled, so the adult and pediatric ERs were combined. The ER was busy that night with many emergencies. I would have thought that a child with a huge, gaping and bleeding cut on her face would have been seen right away, but I was wrong. An hour later, a nurse called us in for several triage questions. Candice seemed to be