Katy's accident 8/14/2007

Dan reminded me that not everyone knows exactly what happened last August, so here it is.

I took the three children to get their pictures taken together & separately. David went first, then Ryan, while I was nursing Katy. Then it was Katy's turn, and I was going to do the three of them together last. So Katy was getting her pictures taken, down on the floor in an infant poser (like a cross between a boppy and an infant seat), and I was kneeling to the side of her. And the boys were being boys, running around a bit. I told them a couple times to just go stand over on the side, but how fun is that? So David went in the prop closet (of course, it's where all the toys are!), which had the door off its hinges and just resting over the opening. I told him to get out, and in the course of him trying to get out he knocked the door over. It hit my hand on the way down, and at first I thought it had missed Katy. Then she scrunched up her little legs and started to wail! My first thought was "Oh man, now I'm not going to get a good picture!" I tried to calm her down, and she just wouldn't stop crying. 20 minutes later I finally got her to nurse a bit and stop crying. She immediately went to sleep and wouldn't rouse. She had taken a nice long nap immediately before coming (and on the car ride over), so she shouldn't have been tired. That's when I finally got the clue that something was really wrong!

I was planning on taking her to her doctor, but on the way out decided to head to the ER. We were at Provo Towne Center, so I drove to UVRMC. I walked into a crowded ER waiting room, but as soon as I told the lady what happened, she took me right in. We went back and got a CT Scan of her head. Katy was crying a lot most of this whole time, btw. Then we waited for the results, and Dan made it down there from work. Dan happened to walk out of the bathroom with Ryan right when the doctor was looking at the scan. So he saw the fracture in her skull and the bleeding both on top of & under her skull. When that happens, their protocol is to Life Flight them up to Primary Children's Hospital. So that's what they did!

So she had to have a neck brace on until the Neurosurgeon could verify that she didn't have any neck damage. And she had to have an IV. They tried and tried, both arms, and several places on her head, and finally got it placed. Poor little one! It was at this point that I grabbed the camera out of the diaper bag. Dan thought it was weird that I wanted pictures of my poor little baby, but now we're glad to have them.

See those guys pushing the stretcher? My baby is on it!
And off she goes. All 4 of us were pretty upset by that, and Aunt Nadine too (she & Uncle Scott helped out with the boys while Dan went up to give Katy a blessing). At that point, the farthest her little body had ever been from mine was the distance between our house and the dentist. And suddenly she was an hour away. Oh yeah, there isn't room in there for anyone but the paramedics, so I had to drive up. That was a long drive!
I finally made it there to hold my sweet angel. She was worn out from all that crying!

Look how little she is! Something that bad shouldn't happen to someone so little!
Poor little thing with cords coming out all over the place!


Three days later you can see the bruise covering that whole side of her head.

We ended up being discharged the following afternoon. I guess if there are going to be major problems they usually become apparent during the first 24 hours. We still don't know for sure if she's "okay." They gave me a paper that says she could have problems that don't become apparent until she starts school, so we have a long ways until we're totally out of the woods. All we can do now is make sure she meets her milestones, which she is doing a great job of. But she is a lot clingier than my other kids (I've only left her with anyone other than Daddy once, and she cried the whole time)...is that from the accident? She still insists on joining us in our bed at some point every night...is that from the accident? And I'm sure I'm more indulgent with things like that (not leaving her and letting her sleep in our bed) because I don't know if she IS traumatized or something!