Another Hospital Run

Yesterday we ran what should have been a quick errand over in the next town over, and this is how we came home.  Oh my.  What a crazy day it was!  Here's what happened.

He wasn't actually bandaged this jumbled...this is after Elijah pulling and grabbing for a while!

 While making a "quick" trip to a shop to get work done on our tires, Elijah and I were hanging out in the waiting room of the shop.  After a few minutes Elijah got bored watching tv and starting walking towards the door to check out what was going on.  On the way (and before I could say no) he slid the sliding (supposedly strong enough to be bulletproof) glass door of the shop open.  Apparently the glass door was off it's track or something crazy because the instant he slid it, the door shattered into a million shard pieces and showered down all over him.  I was instant action, yelling for Jeyson, who swooped Elijah up and ran him to get towels and to rinse the glass off with water.  It all happened so fast.  There were scapes and cuts and blood everywhere, but we couldn't tell if there was glass in him or how deep the cuts were.

Since we didnt know where we were going, the owner of the shop hoped in our car to drive us to the hospital.   At first Elijah was screaming at the top of his lungs, totally hysterical.  We held cloths on the top of his head (which seemed to be the biggest cut) as we drove.  And this is where the story really gets crazy.

We stopped at the nearest hospital.  Jeyson and I ran out with Elijah expecting immediate attention.  On the contrary, we were sent away because there was no pediatrician on duty!  We begged them to just take a look to see if he needed immediate stitches but the receptionist wouldn't even let us see a dr, but instead sent us to another hospital where there would definitely be a pediatrician.

We drove 5 minutes to the next hospital (hospital number 2), but again no pediatrician!  They sent us to a children's hospital (hospital number 3!) which was a distance away.  At that point the bleeding had really slowed down and Elijah was very calm.  We still felt like we should see a doctor though to make sure he didn't need stitches on his arms our head and that he didn't have any glass in him.  We arrived at the children's hospital, but unbelievably even THEY wouldn't take us!!!  They said the don't do stitches at the hospital.  WHAT???  I kid you not!  Finally they sent us to a sports injury hospital (hospital number 4!!!).  There was no pediatrician, but a doctor said he would take  a look.

Turns out Elijah didn't even need a stitch since, although he had tons of cuts, none of them were deep...just long and shallow.  So he got bandaged up in the total overkill bandage above.  The cuts on the top of his head are the largest, but they're not as huge as they look from the bandages, but there was no way to stick tape, just had to wrap around they whole head. It looked MUCH more professional at the hospital, but by the time we got home Elijah and grabbed it all and jumbled it.

This morning we rewraped him more conservatively :)

Anyway, what a crazy scare and a crazy mess trying to find a hospital!  We are just so thankful to God that the whole situation wasn't worse.  He easily could have gotten much more wounded, have had a deeper cut or glass in his eyes or something.  We are truly blessed to have come away with only cuts.  Of course I feel like the worst mom in the world for not having stopped him from touching the door!  I'm trying to get over that, there are after all so many unimaginable dangerous situations out there, but I'm still struggling a bit with guilt!  I'd much rather be the hurt one!
So Elijah is now 17 months old and has been in the hospital a total of 4 times (including his surgery).  We'll be in trouble once he starts getting into his real boyhood adventures!