Recently we had to rush to the emergency room when our son slipped on his hands falling face first on a judged piece of broken marble stair step. The whole thing happened suddenly, while he was playing with other kids, only a few steps away from where my wife, I and my parents were all seated having an evening coffee.
Having been exposed to childhood injuries on myself as well as growing with a nurse for mom, made react swiftly to see what the damage was and ensure that we took the proper steps to get it fixed!
The fall had caused a deep cut right in between his eyes, but other than that, he was fine, except for a bit of blood. My mom too jumped up to assist, but as soon as I realized that he would need stiches, I told my wife to run to the car.
Eventually, we all got in the car and rushed to the emergency room, where within a few minutes his injury was cleaned up and stitched in two places. Meanwhile, my wife was trying hard to stay calm so as not to frighten him, though at the same time traumatized by what had just happened.
Thankfully, the incident from fall to stitches was over in about 30 minutes, and we were on our way back to the house. Thankful that he did not get hurt elsewhere on his face and that despite the deep cut on his forehead he was back to his happy self in a short time.
My childhood experiences
I mentioned that my mom was a full-time nurse and that even I myself have had my head stitched seven times, so you might imagine that I am somewhat used to seeing cuts and blood. But the truth is that it is always, always harder to see injuries on your own child. My mom, for one, did not want to stitch him herself as it was hard to operate on her own grandson. Growing up, I have personally witnessed her cutting and stitching other people of many occasions, even in our own house. Personally, I acted tough so as to ensure that he would stay calm and that we could proceed with getting him taken care of.
No place to play for children!
In today’s Tirana, children are domed to play on concrete and inappropriate places where open/free space is a luxury and dirt is forbidden!
