Sunday Night ER Visit

Before I get to this story I would like everyone to keep in mind that my daughter is borderline learning disabled, meaning certain things that would seem like any toddler would know she doesn't quite understand while at the same time in certain areas she is highly intelligent. That being said let's get to what happened.

It was a typical Sunday night, I sent my kids to bed, my husband was already sleeping and I was enjoying watching a show on Netflix without anyone talking through it. Shortly after sending the kids to bed I heard my daughter up in her room so as usual I told her to get to sleep knowing that this could go on for a few hours. I didn't think much of it, she tends to stay up reading or drawing for a while after being sent to bed, I assumed that is what she was doing. Boy was I wrong!

Not long after my third time telling my girl to get to sleep the living room lights dimmed and turned red for a few seconds. I first thought that the bulbs were finally going to die but then I had a feeling that something much worse had just happened, so I called out to my daughter asking what she was doing, she didn't answer. 

I immediately jumped up and ran into her room to find her sitting on her bed crying unable to answer me and the room filling with smoke.

I grabbed her off of her bed to get her out of the smoke, took her to the doorway and went back in to try to find what I believed was a fire only to see there was no fire, instead there were burn marks on the electrical outlet by her bed and what looked like wires coming out of the plug. Confident there was no fire I ran to wake my husband up telling him that we had an electrical emergency in our daughter's room and I needed him up. He jumped up and ran into her room while I went to ask my daughter again what happened.

My girl had gone into the washroom, crying and washing her hands. I kept asking what happened and she just repeated that she didn't know. I didn't believe her "I don't know" explanation so I met up with my husband in the bedroom to see what was happening there. He was all too unimpressed by what he discovered!

My husband explained that our daughter had shoved some metal wire into the outlet which, due to the heat from an electrical arch, had welded itself inside and had burned both the floor and our girls blanket. My heart sank and I ran out to check on our daughter who was still crying in the washroom. I asked again what exactly happened and she finally confessed that she had stuck wire into the outlet in an attempt to wire together multiple electronics to all run off of a single plug. I immediately asked if she was touching the metal with bare hands and if she was touching anything else when it happened, of course I didn't get much of an answer from her.

Meanwhile, my husband was in her bedroom making sure there were no fires anywhere and deciding how exactly to deal with the wire still sticking out of the socket. He called me and explained that we had to kill the power to her room so that we could remove the cover on the plug and manually pull out whatever wire we could. At this point, though only a couple minutes had passed, I had a decision to make, either take my daughter to the ER, leaving my husband alone to attempt to remove the wires from the plug, or wait until we had ensured no further damage could be done to the house then go to the hospital and hope that the damage done to our daughter was minimal.

I chose the latter, but I had my husband help me check her body for electrical burns before we did anything else. She had burns on her fingers and the palm of her hand but no where else and while she did complain of a tingling sensation in her hand she was responsive and capable of moving all of her fingers so we told her to sit down while we made sure that everything in her room was safe. My husband flipped the breaker to turn the power off in her room while I grabbed the flashlight and a pair of rubber gloves, then we met back in the bedroom.

I held the flashlight while my husband pulled some of the wire from the wall but he needed a pair of pliers to remove the rest so we grabbed what we needed before trying to do anything else. It only took a minute to get the cover off and the majority of the wire removed, at which point I was tasked with watching the plug for sparks and arches while my husband turned the power back on. Fortunately nothing happened when the power came on so I asked my husband if he would be driving us to the ER or if I should get his mother to take us. He was going to drop us off himself until he noticed more smoke coming from the wall, he told me to grab a cup of water then get his mom to drive us to the hospital.

I quickly gave him water and ran up the stairs to get our son up out of bed to help my husband with anything he needed, I didn't really explain what happened, I simply told him there was an emergency and his dad needed him in his sisters room right now. I then went to my in laws bedroom to wake them up and get a ride to the hospital, explaining that we had an emergency and me and my daughter needed to go to the hospital asap. I didn't really want to explain what happened but they asked why we had to go to the hospital and what happened so I quickly explained that their granddaughter had just been electrocuted.

My in laws didn't seem to have much urgency as they slowly got up, my father in law going to assess the damage in the bedroom and my mother in law taking her time to get dressed. I, being the impatient person that I am, started to get annoyed and removed myself from their living space to get my purse and shoes and ensure that my daughter was ready to leave. My father in law said that while he believed she would be fine and that it was a minor electrocution it doesn't hurt to go to the hospital. My mother in law simply stated that someone in her family had a much worse experience and was fine. I stated that I wasn't about to take a chance at it being worse than it looked and I was going to take my daughter to the hospital regardless. The in laws didn't argue with me, my father in law said the car needed a minute to heat up and my mother in law reluctantly got ready to go.

Before leaving I told my husband that I would call him when we were done at the hospital and asked if he needed anything else before I left, he said no, kissed me and said to just worry about our daughter, he had things handled at the house. So I went back up the stairs to see if my mother in law was ready to go yet. Thankfully she was and we headed out. Now my mother in law's driving scares me, so I'm going to skip the drive because it probably wasn't actually as bad as it seemed to me.

Once we arrived at the hospital I thanked my mother in law for driving us, told her that we would find a different way home and told her to drive safe before heading inside.

Inside was quite the experience, the waiting room wasn't as full as I imagined it would be so I was hopeful that we wouldn't be there too long. As I was standing in the middle of the room looking for a sign to direct me to register a nurse came up to me and asked if we needed to see a doctor, I answered yes, my daughter had just been electrocuted and she immediately took us to check my daughter's vitals. The nurse informed me that they didn't have the equipment on site to deal with electrocution so we may have to be taken to a different hospital via ambulance if things are bad enough. Fortunately my daughter's vitals were steady so we were registered and told to take a seat and wait to see a doctor.

We sat down, ready to wait a long time and we tried to get comfortable. As soon as we sat down an older man in a wheelchair who was obviously drunk started yelling and swearing at everyone in the room. The on site security approached him and he shit himself then attempted to pee on anyone within reach. It took a good ten to fifteen minutes for the security guards to finally remove him, taking him to the washroom to be cleaned up. 

The others in the waiting room were just as entertaining, there was a small older man who for whatever reason, had five younger men basically worshiping him and getting him every little thing he wanted. There were a couple people passed out on the chairs, one who was pink from head to toe and another who was obviously in the middle of an overdose. There was one lady who was pacing the room, clearly high as a kite, continuously asking when her boyfriend would be allowed to leave and being reminded by the staff that her boyfriend was currently on life support and would not be leaving. Another lady, again high, was sitting in the corner rocking back and forth as she flicked little pieces of garbage at us muttering something about dragons. There was a couple together who were bitching among themselves about not being taken in right away despite the woman currently suffering from sepsis due to having chlamydia too many times, who every couple minutes would go outside them come back in and ask when exactly they would get a bed. Then there was a guy sitting under the clock who stared at us the entire time, waving, smiling and whispering "hi" every time I looked at the clock while slowly moving closer towards us. And lastly there was the shackled prisoner escorted by two police officers wearing bullet proof vests that was proudly boasting to the officers about how he was going to be a YouTube star by the end of his sentence because his friend posted what he did online.

Now I'm no stranger to this cities "rough" neighborhoods but it was my daughter's first time experiencing anything like that in real life and she was extremely nervous saying that it's a lot scarier when it's not in a movie. I assured her that we would be fine and pointed out that there were two armed police officers, a few different armed security guards, a bunch of paramedics, a nurses station with bullet proof glass and of course a hospital full of doctors and nurses to take care of everyone. She was skeptical at first but she calmed down after a few minutes and once I told her that if she didn't stare and minded her own business that no one there would pay any attention to her.

We were in the waiting room from about 11:30pm until about 1:00am, at which point we were called to see the doctor, we got up and followed the nurse through the security doors into the beds area. As we walked out of the waiting room we could hear someone start yelling that it was bullshit we were going in before them, at which point a fed up nurse yelled back "that little girl was electrocuted, you are just high, sit down an wait!" My daughter sped her pace up to walk right next to her nurse, which was a good choice because she didn't see the person trying to run past the security guard in an attempt to get to us.

We were led to my daughter's bed, past a nurses station and past quite a few patients who seemed like they were having their worst days ever. We were told that it shouldn't be too long before we saw the doctor and the nurse closed the curtains and left us on our own. My daughter originally was standing then after a couple minutes sat on the edge of the bed. I encouraged her to get comfortable because I knew we were going to be there for a while but she insisted that the nurse said it wouldn't be long so she didn't need to be comfy. After half an hour of sitting and not doing much she finally asked me to hand her the book she brought and she finally got herself comfortable on the bed, accepting that I was right, we were going to be there for a while.

Nearly an hour into us being in the curtained off room my daughter suddenly had to use the washroom. I told her that it was right next door to us and she could go use it if she needed, she of course worried that she would miss seeing the doctor and that would make us have to stay even longer. I told her I would make sure the doctor waited but she wasn't convinced, so then I showed her the nurses station and told her that she could ask if she had time to go to the washroom before the doctor came in but she was nervous and chose to wait it out. She waited quite a while before someone finally came in to see her.

We were finally able to see someone, who turned out not to be the ER doctor but rather a resident in training, who despite his best effort clearly had no idea how to actually deal with an electrocution. He checked her burns asked how she felt and asked me if her personality has changed at all. Then he told us that he felt like she would be fine so he was off to make sure the supervising ER doctor approved of his assessment and our immediate release. My daughter nearly had to chase him down to ask to use the washroom, which he showed her before vanishing down a hallway.

Once back with me after using the washroom my daughter was ready to get her coat on and leave but I reminded her that she hadn't been released yet and we were in for some more waiting around. We passed the time chatting about the equipment in the room and some other small talk, which abruptly ended when she noticed that the prisoner had been brought in, placed in the bed right next to us, handcuffed to the bed and the police left the room. She then sat quietly on her own bed, as close to me as she could possibly be for the remainder of the next hour long wait.

Finally the resident returned with the actual doctor by his side, who dismissed everything the resident had said was wrong and looked my daughter over himself, asking some more in-depth questions regarding the amperage and voltage of the plug, what kind of metal wiring she used and if she was touching anything else when she was electrocuted. He made it clear that he was not impressed that someone as old as her was brought in for something a small child knows not to do, but his attitude changed real fast when I explained to him what disabilities she has. He then showed her which burns were actually from the metal and which burn was actually from electricity going through her hand, he also made it a point to explain to her how lucky she is to be alive. He explained how to care for the burns, what we need to keep an eye on and what symptoms, should they arise, would prompt another trip into the ER. He then released her from care and left the room, resident in hand trailing closely behind taking notes on how to deal with situations like ours.

Glad to finally be released we headed out, following the green signs pointing us towards the exit while I phoned my husband for a ride home. My husband asked if everything was alright and I explained what the doctor had just told us, he then assured me that he would be there soon and asked where exactly we would be, I told him we would stay by the ER entrance so he could easily find us, he said that would be fine and hung up. I headed out the door with my daughter and was met with a blast of ice cold winter air.

We walked towards to road so I could have a smoke and meet my husband when he arrived. With it being winter and absolutely freezing out my daughter set out to find a spot near the building across the street that she could hide from the wind. Once I finished my smoke I joined her behind a small pillar but it really wasn't much better so I told her we should move. We ended up in the corner of the entryway that had a wall blocking the wind and we chatted for a while about her first ER experience. After a few minutes we noticed a man walking out of the ER yelling and swearing which made my daughter nervous as he seemed to be headed in our direction.

I told my daughter that everything would be fine and we watched as he disappeared around the other side of the building. My daughter sighed with relief a bit too soon because the man was only gone a couple seconds before he returned quickening his pace heading right towards us. He ended  up standing uncomfortably close to my daughter, so I moved her over, closer to the cold and put myself between them. He was muttering something to himself before offering us some of his chips, I answered for both of us telling him politely that we were fine to which he replied "I bet you are" before licking his lips while looking us up and down and shoving a handful of chips into his mouth. He then asked if either of us wanted any dope to which I sternly said no and he continued muttering to himself and stuffing his face with chips. At one point shortly after offering us dope he decided that it was necessary to show off by peeing onto the wall, which is when I took it upon myself to stand right in front of my daughter warning her not to talk to him or acknowledge him in any way.

My daughter was scared at this point but I had a feeling that my husband was about to show up any minute so I chose to keep us where we were, loudly assuring her that her dad was going to be there any second. The guy next to us kept yelling at his dick "down boy" laughing at himself and muttering under her breath before he decided to offer us a ladies leather glove that he claimed didn't fit his hand only his dick. I stuck my hand out showing him that we already had gloves on and moved my daughter even further away from him. He then unzipped his pants, pulled his dick out and started jerking off with the glove he just offered us. At this point I was pissed, I grabbed my daughter telling her to listen for the car and walked her towards the ER just as my husband pulled up at the corner and two paramedics accompanied by a security guard we're headed towards us. I told my daughter to get into the car and quickly closed her door for her telling my husband to lock it. He of course asked why and I explained what the guy he saw near us was doing, at which point he noted the guy was now walking away from us very fast ignoring the security guard telling him to stop. My husband sat for a few seconds waiting to see if we were needed only driving away once the security guard waved us by.

We arrived home safely and exhausted, sending our daughter to bed so we could discuss the nights events and decide if anyone would be going to school or work in a couple hours before we went to bed too.

And that is the story of how my daughter electrocuted herself and our experience sitting in an emergency room on the coldest night of the month.