Caden's Head Injury - Trip to ER Surgery Center

48 Hours after it happened
-we cleaned it and put a new bandage on it

Last Friday, Caden, took a big fall.  We went to Collin's work picnic/training then drove to get our car's registration renewed.  Since they are closing a lot of the bases in Germany, we had to drive to Mannheim.  We were there 2 hours and will unfortunately have to go back.  Being stuck in a boring waiting room only lasts so long before a busy 2 year old has had enough.  The base we were on is closing and there is really nothing there except this office to register your car or renew it.  At first I took Caden walking.  We walked for about 30 minutes down a sidewalk and back.  Then Collin took him walking while I stayed inside the waiting room, still waiting.  And we switched off back and forth.

Before the injury happened, Collin brought Caden back inside where I was so he could run to the restroom.  I found out we still had about 6 people in front of us so I took Caden back outside.  After we walked across the street where two little girls were playing he took off in a full run down a ramp.  He was going really fast down this shipping ramp and when he was almost to the bottom he tripped and flew head first on the hard, hot, cement.  My heart broke as I ran down after him.  I picked him up and he his head was bleeding, both knees were bleeding, and his left arm was pretty scraped up.  I took him inside where I had hoped to find a bathroom to clean him up.  That bathroom was closed so I had to walk him up 3 flights of stairs.  Collin was up there and I quickly found out there was no soap and everything was pretty gross.  Meanwhile, Caden's head swelled up and turned black and blue.  A big knot was forming as the blood ran around it.

We got in the car and debated whether to go to the Army Hospital in Heidelberg or the Children's ER (Kinderklinik) in Heidelberg.  Both were about 30 minutes away.  Collin brought up the point that if he had to be referred we'd end up at the Kinderklinik anyway so we went there.  Caden continued crying but quickly fell asleep.  We knew he was tired but feared he may have had a concussion and I kept checking to make sure he was breathing.  We prayed the whole way there and trusted that God would take care of our sweet boy.



Caden having fun with Bernd - check out those knees

Our good friend, Bernd, who is German but lives in Texas, was overseas on business.  We lucked out and he was able to spend his last evening in Germany with us.  This trip to the ER made our visit with him a little shorter but we were so glad he came to see us.

When we arrived at the kinderklinik Collin ran ahead of us to fill out all the forms.  I carefully got my sleeping, injured child out of the car.  I ran inside and as soon as I walked in the door the lady was yelling at me in German to leave.  She told us we had to go to the surgery center which is another building about a mile away.

While I was putting Caden back in the car he woke up.  Once we finally found the surgery center, Collin ran inside ahead of us again to fill out the paper work needed.  Collin was still talking with the guy filling out information when Caden and I came in.  When we were done he told us to go sit in the waiting area (which is a hallway).  He said, "no need to hurry, it's going to be a while."  One thing that really frustrates me about German health care is how incredibly SLOW it is.  We waited over an hour!  There was only one other lady and daughter there who came in after us.  Her daughter fell on her neck during gymnastics.  This was this lady's 4th place to visit with her daughter and she's German.  We found out the children's doctor was on a break and the receptionist didn't know when he would be back.  And of course because of Germany being a socialized economy, nobody but the "specialized" person can see us. 

Thankfully Caden didn't need stitches and the doctor was very good with him.  The doctor cleaned the head wound and his knees.  He put a patch on his head to leave on a few days and told us to watch him closely for the next 72 hours.  I asked if I needed to give him anything and he said no.  Just watch his behavior and make sure he doesn't throw up or run a fever.  Then he filled out a paper and put it in an envelope to bring with us if a problem arrose.

God answered our prayers, it looks like Caden is fine, he didn't need stitches or surgery.  We also learned that if a serious problem arrises that we should just call the ambulance because then we could get care immediately and they would know where to take the ill or hurt person.