Customer accident *potential distress causer*

[mathnerd]

My mom had just sat down on the toilet when she heard a loud "thunk" noise outside the house. By the time she got her pants back up, there were scrabbling noises coming from the roof. She dashed outside just in time to see my two older twin brothers, then 8 years old, up on the roof . . . with the dog.

And just in time as well to see my brother George start his parachute jump . . . with an open umbrella . . .

They would up going to the local clinic for what thankfully turned out to be only a sprained ankle.

I am the mother of three boys. These are the type of things I call "stupid boy tricks".

[Seshat]

This very small, very young baby hadn't been properly clothed against the cold by its parents. They had to call emergency medical help to rush the baby to the hospital.

Oh Jay.

I'm sorry you had to be involved in that. I'm glad you/your colleagues did what they did, though. You/they did the right thing by the baby.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

FL - Oh, absolutely. One of the qualifications for being made a Mod on this site is lambast Trafalgar zwoop kaleidoscope Munchausen pickle. Or words to that effect.

Shhhhhhhhhhh! Don't give away all of our secrets.

Don't recall if I ever hit my head as a baby but my brother did.

Kinda hard when you're 6 (almost 7) years old trying to hold onto a squirming infant while having family portraits done.

Needless to say baby brother went somersaulting out of my arms and landed head first into the floor! Scared my Mom, I was upset and crying (my brother was screaming bloody murder.)

Needless to say we quickly left the portrait studio and went to the ER - and no, Mom got busy (but then she was a single parent working 2 jobs at the time so time for her was at a premium) and didn't think about rescheduling the portrait sitting.

But from what Mom was told by various doctors his developmental and intellectual issues weren't in any way caused by that fall. Not that it made my Mom feel any better at the time, but I digress.

I'm starting to wonder after reading some of the replies if there's a connection to people landing on their heads as babies and being members here? Is that like a pre-requisite or something that I wasn't previously aware of?

[manybellsdown]

Even strapped in you never know what kids will manage!

When my daughter was about 9 months old, she was in the same daycare I was working at. One day the teacher buckled her into a baby swing, and then turned to pick up another child. My daughter, annoyed that the swing hadn't started moving yet, began to rock it herself... and promptly flipped the entire swing over, cracking her head on the hard floor.

Fortunately she was fine, but I swear by the time she was 1 I was afraid to take her to the ER anymore, for fear they'd think I was beating her. She'd smacked her head so many times.

[Bardmaiden]

When I was 2 and half I escaped my room late at night and tried to get to my parents bedroom only I got a bit confused and turned to the staircase instead. Those stairs were very steep and little me fell down the stairs cracking my head on the wall at the bottom. My parents ran to my assistance and got very afraid when I started to vomit blood.

Ambulance was summoned and I was taken to hospital, where it was discovered I had a small fracture at the top of my nose and that had caused a nose bleed which went down the back of my throat rather that out the front and that's what was causing me to vomit blood. The hospital gave the 'rents a bit of a hard time asking what had caused it and I just kept saying "I fell down the stairs." So they believed them in the end.

I then hit my head again when I was 10, all I can remember is walking out the school door and then waking up in a car going to hospital. But I was told that I had walked down the side of the school and there was a lad running down the the corner I was going towards and BANG we hit each other and I hit my head on the edge of a step. The only things I got out of that was a smashing black eye and a small cut in my eyebrow which left a small scar. They x-rayed me and kept me overnight but I was fine, hard headed me

[shopgirl15]

My mother fell off the stairwell twice when she was a baby crawling around. According to my grandmother, her eyes were crooked for a while.

And my younger brother once had a nice tumble down the stairs in his baby walker.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Numerous unplanned trips down the stairs for me as a kid.

Plus the time I ran (as in with my own two feet) into a tree.

And several times getting beaned in the head with falling boxes at work.

'Splains a lot, doesn't it?

[Shalom]

I'm sure we've all had our share of accidents.

Only head injury I can remember was at the shoe department at Alexander's (big department store in Brooklyn). They had a pay phone on the wall near the rest rooms, which rather than being in a booth, was in some sort of open steel enclosure with really damn sharp corners that were just the right height for me to crack my head on. Bled from the scalp a bit, but for whatever reason I didn't wind up in the hospital.

[BearLeeBadenaugh]

One of the silliest head injuries I've seen come about was @ my neighbors growing up. Pair of 7 year twin boys somehow got confused and thought both of them were it whilst playing tag. They essentially played sprinting chicken and neither of em swerved off. Forehead to forehead at full speed. Sounded like smacking two coconuts together. Both of em wound up with severe concussions.

[KatherineB]

I'm wondering if, in relation to the OP, fear of being called out for possible abuse was the reason the mother didn't want an ambulance for the child. Either that or them not being able to afford it with all of the expensive surgery ahead. Either way, it's terribly sad for the child.

[Kaylyn]

I'm starting to wonder after reading some of the replies if there's a connection to people landing on their heads as babies and being members here? Is that like a pre-requisite or something that I wasn't previously aware of?

Never landed on my head as a baby, but as a toddler/young child I apparently reached up and grabbed the glowing-orange electric burner on the stove because I thought it was pretty. According to my mom my hand was bandaged up and my dad left an opening in the bandages so I could suck my thumb, despite them trying to break me of the habit.

[blas]

I forgot to mention earlier, but I'm sure I've said it before years ago so the older members might remember......my mom's younger brother was holding me as a baby (he's only 11 years older than me) and he dropped me, and they once trusted my drunken great aunt to babysit me, and she rammed my head into a doorknob.

[raudf]

At the age of two, I rode my wheeled horsey down the stairs. That was just a sign of things to come, because my skull must be thicker than stone after all the bumps, bruises and possible concussions I had during my childhood. As mom said, "She got through her childhood head first." And I haven't noticed too many issues...

However, at the Mart of Walls, after warning the parents, I was forced to watch a 5 year old go face first out of the buggy and have a hard meeting with the floor. I wanted to beat the parents senseless, because I'd just warned them that would happen! I'm sure the kid's hospital trip was on the store, but as management said, "We have your info and on camera that you warned them about this. I'd like to see 'em sue us." I'm pretty sure the poor girl lost a tooth or two, plus the bloody nose.

Of course, if the idiot parents started in on me, I'd have gladly let them have it with dual barrels. At that point, I was fed up, dealing with morning sickness, and heck, it would have at least been a memorable way to be fired.

My oldest would ride in the basket, but he was frightened into staying seated... because I happen to tell the story about that very situation around him.

[Canadian In Maine]

Mom also reports baby is to be operated on the next day for something to do with his skull sutures. (the plates in his head are growing together wrong, the spaces between these plates are called sutures. /medicalese)

My kid had the same thing, happened in utero, it's called saggital synostosis. It happens approximately 1 in 5000 births and requires the skull being literally broken apart and reshaped.

I am floored that they refused medical attention. That's tantamount to abuse in my book.