This is Life!: Revolutions Around the Cruciform Axis

The Fatherhood Chronicles XL

Sofie's First Major Injury

Since yesterday's brief "teaser" we've spoken to legal counsel. And I find myself much more somber (we thought we were over the worst), though equally as concerned, about Sofie's current health, at least until more tests are run.

Monday evening, we were at a hotel near the conference center where we were attending the American Library Association's annual meeting. The hotel has a tradition in which, in the morning, they lead a small handful of ducks down from their habitat somewhere in the hotel to the central fountain in the guest lobby near the entrance, and in the evening they lead them back. A voice-over announcement--of the quality of a major sporting event--directs one's attention to the fountain, to one side of which has been placed some red-carpeted stairs, themselves placed in front of a red carpet leading to the hotel elevator. A red-jacketed attendent helps ensure the ducks get from the pool to the elevator (or the reverse in the morning). And everyone takes pictures.

I should say that on Monday evening, that's what we had come to see. As it turns out, we missed the entire production.

Just before the ritual was to begin, we took some seats around a glass-top table near the fountain, which had just been vacated by some other patrons. Sofie played at Anna's feet, to one side of the table, a colleague of Anna's took one of the other chairs, and I took the third.

After a few minutes, a waitress came to clear the glasses and napkins of the previous guests. As she did so a heavy-bottomed glass either slipped from her hand or tumbled off her tray (I didn't see, I was watching Sofie at Anna's feet), and landed in the middle of the glass table top. The table top shattered and a thick, heavy shard of it struck Sofie in the forehead, making two cuts just along and below her hairline. (That it missed her eyes, is a minor miracle. And with the weight of the glass, she is also fortunate a piece of it did not sever a finger or toe.)

Sofie was startled silent for a moment, then began screaming and crying. Anna immediately picked her up and got her away from the broken glass. Sofie's cuts were bleeding profusely. As we took Sofie away from the broken glass, Anna ordered someone to call an ambulance.

After a few minutes the fire department EMTs came, followed a few minutes after that by the ambulance. While we waited one person whom I assumed to be part of hotel security spoke to me, but only to get our names and the hotel and room number to where we were staying and a brief description of what had happened.

Shortly after that, we got to the hospital, where, thankfully, we didn't have long to wait for Sofie's care to begin. Part of her care included seven stitches on her forehead.

After a couple of hours at the hospital, I called the hotel to call us transportation back to the hotel--where our personal belongings had been stored--but since we didn't have the car seat with us, we had to have a taxi with a car seat. Well, after three calls to the hotel, more than an hour of waiting, and no taxi immediately forthcoming, we hiked to a nearby busstop to see if we could find out how to get back to the hotel. Eventually we flagged down a sheriff's deputy who helped us out. We got our stuff, and headed to the trolley to go back to our hotel room, which was a few miles from the hotel where Sofie had had her accident.

At eleven, we finally got in and headed to bed.

Sofie continues under medical care (she has an appointment shortly). We would appreciate your prayers for her (and for us, for wisdom and discernment). The more we learn, the more we understand the potential dangers there are for her health.

Posted by Clifton at July 1, 2004 10:39 AM | TrackBack