Saturday, I had a surreal experience. First of all, I would like to thank everyone who has offered prayers and well wishes and I want to say that my oldest is back home today and is expected to make a full recovery.
On Saturday evening I was in my bedroom when I heard a crash and a loud yell. My oldest daughter shouted for my help, and I ran in to see my daughter stuck in the window. Her arm had a large piece of glass in it. One wrong move, and the damage could have gotten a lot worse. I had already been struggling with issues with my feet and had nearly gone to the emergency room earlier for that. I helped her out of the window and dislodged the glass. I hobbled to the linen closet as fast as I could. Even though she was hurt, I told her to walk to me. I knew we need to stop that bleeding. And I knew I could not get her there fast enough. I got a clean towel and met about halfway between the linen closet and the window.
I walked out the front door with her and sat on the porch holding the towel with ever bit of strength I could muster. I looked back to the phone sitting on the desk back in the house. I called to my son to hand me the phone. He quickly did what I asked, but the phone would not work. A second dial yielded the same results. The handset said it was fully charged, but would not operate. I told my son to go downstairs and ask to use the neighbors' phone. He did, but the neighbors were out. So he went to the street and flagged down two vehicles. One was a member of the rescue squad who had extensive medical training. The other was a police car with two officers inside.
Our corner doesn't get a lot of traffic. To get three emergency workers flagged down at once seems pretty amazing. They came up and started helping with the situation immediately. Just before they came up I tried 911 again, and this time the phone worked. The lady from the rescue squad took over from me with the direct pressure.
At one point before the ambulance arrived, she had already lost quite a bit of blood and she was loosing feeling and sensations in her fingers and toe. She had a tremendous desire to sleep that she fought with all the strength she had. She looked up into my eyes and said, "Dadd,y I don't want to die." Then she gave me what she honestly thought were her last goodbyes. I knew that although she had lost a lot of blood, there was no spray or obvious arterial bleeding. I thought she had lost nowhere near enough blood to die, especially with emergency workers already on the scene. I told her what I believed to be the truth that she was not going to die. Later, after the ambulance arrived and it was clear that she was going to live, she thought she might never be able to do the activities she loved again. At this point she could not bend her arm. The nerve had been severed. It was surgically repaired, by the way.
There is a lot more I could and want to share from the events over the weekend, but that's all for another post.
I would just like to mention briefly what a crazy experience it is to have your eleven year old little girl feel it is necessary to say good bye like that. My little girl thought she was going to die. I can't even explain what that makes me feel like as a Dad. I had a hold of my little girl and I was not going to let her go yet. I knew it was not over; there is still too much for me to teach her and too much for me to learn from her. I love her so much.
I thank the Lord that she is still alive. The wound somehow just missed the arteries, and my son was able to flag down three emergency workers. The prayers from all around the nation were pouring in when the surgeons were hard at work putting her arm together.
I would like to offer my sincerest thanks to all of the men and women that helped my daughter and everyone who sent their love and payers. We love you all.