This week we are remembering two anniversaries in our home. It was Friday the 13th 2005, Casey was hanging at the neighbors home after school when their six year old boy decided to show everyone his great golf swing. Seconds later Casey was standing, screaming and blood was everywhere. Turns out that Casey was standing too close and the boy and the club nailed him in the head on the back swing. The club fractured his upper orbital cavity and sinus cavity, you know your typical skull fracture. After three days at CHOP he was able to come home with us.
Next we have Zachary, four years ago on Saturday he almost literally hung himself to death. 3-1/2 years ago I wrote my thoughts and memories down. I titled the story Breathe Baby Breathe.
I wanted to write down my thoughts and memories of the single most frightening experience to ever happen to me. I think it is important to write these memories to remind myself to use humility and love in everyday life. This event has changed my daily thought process, I try to think of ways I can serve or love others the way my family was on this beautiful morning in May.
It was May 17, 2004, The day for me had actually started at 1:30 in the morning, I rarely have a problem sleeping, but this night I could not sleep at all. I got up and cut out paper camels for Austin’s kindergarten teacher and watched some of my favorite reruns on
“TV Land”. Around 4:30 I was finally able to close my eyes and get a little rest before getting the boys up and ready for school. After the boys were on the bus I returned home to start my daily requirements as a mother and vice president of household (I just gave myself this title, I think I like it).
I was dead tired and was moving in turtle mode, slowly but surely getting things done. One of the things Zach had requested was that he wanted a letter in the mail. He loves to run out to the mailbox and check the mail. I wrote him a simple but loving letter and put it in the mailbox addressed to Zach so we could retrieve it later. About 10:30 a.m. I decided to settle in on the couch and watch a little Blues Clues with Zach and Dylan. About 15 minutes into the show I decided to take Dylan upstairs to play and relax with him upstairs in my room. I left Zach on the couch safely watching the rest of the show. I knew I only had about an hour before I needed to get Austin from his kindergarten bus and would need to get lunch and some more chores done.
I was only upstairs a couple of minutes when the phone rang. Because of my restless night, I looked at the caller ID to determine if the call was necessary to take right now or if this person could be called back later. The decision was made; I could call her back later. It had happened before that when I decided to not answer the phone that one of the children in fact answered it for me. So, not wanting to talk I headed downstairs yelling “Zach don’t answer the phone”. I repeated this several times expecting an “OK, I won’t” which is something I had heard before. I walked into the kitchen area where I had mostly full vision of the living room where I had left Zach just a few minutes earlier. I could see his head as I walked closer and I continued to talk to him. It appeared that he was looking out the window. I said to him in a silly voice “Zachary, what are you doing”. There was no response. Just then, my vision cleared the end of the sofa; I could see that my precious Zachary was hanging by his neck and suspended three inches off the floor. I sprinted that last 15 feet as though I was running the 15 foot dash in the 2004 summer Olympics, a new event created in our honor.
Zach had climbed onto the back of the couch and walked across the window seal. He later told us that he was hanging onto the blind with his right hand and twirling the blind cords with his left hand. The wooden weight that is at the end of the cord, swung around his neck and then the weight wrapped around the part of the cord that goes back to the top of the blinds. He fell off the window seal and found himself too short to reach the ground. His face was blue, his body lifeless, and his breath gone.
When I saw Zach, my body shifted into turbo and instincts took over. I scooped him unto my left arm and untangled the cord with my right; all the time repeating “breathe Baby breathe”. I dialed 911 and placed my hand on his chest praying to find a heart beat. Immediately I felt the beat, beat, beating of his little heart. It seamed to take forever for the operator to pick up the phone. Finally I was able to tell them where to respond and what had happened. All the while I didn’t know if my little boy had any breath in his body. At last, a gasp of air, it must have been about 20 seconds from the time I released the cord to his first gasp of air, but it seamed forever. The response team arrived and we soon learned that our little boy would be air lifted by helicopter to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). I would not be able to go with him.
It crossed my mind that I should inform Blaine of this horrible event, this is the worst phone call I have ever had to make. We were kept at our home for a little investigation and a little dusting for prints in the window seal. After about an hour we were able to make the 45 minute drive to the hospital. On our way we received a phone call telling us that Zach would be just fine. As we arrived at CHOP we were greeted by our wonderful Bishop Low, he had arrived to the hospital about 45 minutes to an hour before us. My visiting teacher, who is also Zach’s sunbeam teacher and her husband were also waiting at the hospital, and our good friend Jeff Bell arrived minutes after us.
We were so impressed by the overwhelming response from our ward family. One of the ER nurses also commented how impressed she was to see so many people from our church. Zach ended up spending two days in the hospital He needed an MRI to determine if the tissue that supports his vertebrae was damaged at all. We finally received the results and he was able to take his neck brace off. A few hours later we got to take him home.
Some of the things I most learned from this isn’t necessarily about tying up the blind cord or taking for granted the safety of my children. It is about the love we received from our ward family and our neighbors. To remember how I felt when people reached out to us in times of need. I learned that I need to humble myself before the Lord feels the need to do so. Even though the trauma didn’t last that long (meaning it was only a matter of hours before we knew Zach would be fine), the thoughts and the feelings and the reminders that I need to do better to those around me will last a very long time.
This is not a good picture but if you look closely you can see a red line on his neck where the cord was.
Here is Jackson's first taste of watermelon. He really likes it.
On the trail.
