Alan's Accident

Last Tuesday started out normal enough. I was planning for a busy week getting ready for Baby Logi's 2nd birthday on Sunday. Around 3:45 p.m., we all watched the big kids in the neighborhood get off of the bus. Then Alan went up to his room to play while Emma, Logan, and I went down to the family room. Logan was sitting on my lap and I had just put on an episode of Dinosaur Train when suddenly I heard something hit the side of the house and then Alan crying. From that point on most things are a blur. Instantly I knew something was wrong and I was up and running. For a moment I was heading for the stairs to go up to his room, but then somehow I knew not to go check Alan's room because he wouldn't be there. I ran out the back door to find Alan standing in the window well.

Alan had climbed up onto his window sill, unlocked the window, and slid open his second story bedroom window. I can only imagine what he was doing. My guess is that he was trying to get a better look at the view below, and he pushed through the screen and fell about 18 ft into the basement window well below. He was awake, not bleeding, had no obvious broken bones, and was crying. He must have grabbed the curtains when he started to fall, because one of the curtains and the curtain rod were in the window well with him. I pulled him out and carried him to the sofa in the family room. Then I called Scott at work while running around the house in a panic.

Moments later, (at about 4pm), I had all 3 kids in the van and we were driving to the emergency room at Lakeview Hospital. I had Scott call ahead for me so they would be expecting us, and Scott left work to meet us there. It was about a 20 min drive to the hospital and I was able to keep Alan awake the whole time. By the time we got there, poor Alan was pale, green, and fighting very hard to stay awake. Once they knew who we were, they had us back and seeing the doctor very quickly. In moments Alan was in a neck brace, had an IV, and arrangements were being made to get him to Primary Children's. Scott met us there shortly after we went back to the room, and then Grandma Leavitt arrived too and took Emma and Logan back to her house. While arrangements were being made for the ambulance, they did ultrasounds, CT scans, and x-rays.

Alan and I rode in the back of the ambulance up to Primary Children's (I took a quick picture with my phone because I'm sure that someday Alan Boy will think that it's so cool that he got to ride in an ambulance with Firemen) and then when we got to Primary Children's another team of doctors and nurses were waiting to start looking Alan over. Once they did their own initial work up, they did more CT scans and X-rays. By this time we were starting to learn what was wrong. He was lucky enough to have no broken bones, but the CT showed that his liver had many lacerations that were bleeding into his abdomen. They rank liver injuries on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the worst) and we were informed that his was at a 5, but it could be worse because it looked like they would not have to operate on it. He also damaged about 1/4 of his right kidney (the blood vessels to that part of the kidney were severed) and that the 1/4 of his kidney will die. As soon as they could, they moved him up into the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, where a nurse could be with him at all times to monitor his vitals and make sure that the bleeding didn't escalate, requiring transfusions or surgery. The PICU is an awful place to be. He had IVs, many wires, and a tube down his nose into his stomach to keep his stomach empty. One of the IVs was so they could draw his blood every 4 hours to check his hematocrit level. The hematocrit number is an indicator of how much internal bleeding there is. When we got there it was at 34 and it dropped to 27 overnight. The lower the level, the more bleeding.

I stayed with him that first night. In all he spent almost 2 days in PICU and then he was moved to the Trauma Unit. Wednesday and Thursday he didn't seem to be improving very much and every time a doctor or nurse came near him he would get very upset... mostly because he was scared, hurt, and every few hours they would come do something else mean to him. Scott's family was a huge help so Scott and I were able to trade off making sure we both saw Emma and Logan and Alan everyday. Scott took Wednesday and Thursday night and then at the end we each took a 24 hour shift with Alan at the hospital. He started doing so much better Friday and then on Sunday afternoon, our Alan-boy was able to come home.

I can't even begin to tell you how great it was to bring him home. Now that he's home, it's just a matter of keeping him taking it easy for the next 5 to 8 weeks and keeping Logan from jumping on him. Luckily, I was able to get his Shark room ready for him, so he got to come home to his new Shark room and big boy bed. That way, he won't have to sleep right under the window that he fell out of. I also bought some child-proof window locks, and Scott and Emma put them all up.

We are so blessed that Alan is okay, and that his injuries weren't worse. It was so hard seeing him suffer, and endure so much, without being able to stop the pain. He was so brave through it all, so patient with all of the discomfort. He would always whisper "I love you Mom" or "I love you Dad," even through the pain. We also had so much help from family, neighbors, and friends, and are so grateful for all of it, and for the many prayers offered for Alan. Scott's work has also been so supportive and understanding. It's been a long, long week, but Alan's getting better, and we're so happy to have him back home!