Monday, September 21, 2009

Nursemaid Elbow incident

This happened when we went Victoria trip in August.
Kedaar as usual was running superfast around the inner harbor in Victoria. I tried to stop him by holding his hands, during this time his hand was pulled hard unintentionally and he immediately started crying with pain.
Kedaar had hit so many things and got hurted just like any child, but that was the first time his pain just didnt go away. He couldnt move his left hand and did not even let us touch him. He became week through out the day and did not eat anything. Our return ship (victoria clipper) was at evening 7 PM, so we took a Victoria sight seeing bus trip so it can help him to take rest. But the pain was so bad that even the slightest bumpy road hurt him and he continuously cried. We explored some options to take him to doctor, but we didnt have car in hand and we couldnt figure out a children's doctor. Chandra kept carrying him all the day and even in the return ship. We went to Children's hospital emergency that night immediately after we came to Seattle directly from the port. They already had 12-14 kids in queue for emrgency service at 10.30 PM in the night and we waited till 11.20 or so without being called . Finally after a big argument/discussion with Children's doctors , we could raise the emergency of the situation. Kedaar was crying all this time. A doctor came out and said that it could either be a fracture (in which case needs x-rays etc) or could be ligament dislocation (happens when kids are pulled hard by hands as their bones are not completley developed). He held Kedaar's hand and gave it slight twist at elbow and told us to wait for 5 mins and see. I went to bring water for Kedaar. By the time I came back, Kedaar was smiling after 14, 15 hrs of pain. He said "We can go home mummy, doctor uncle did magic and my neppi is gone". Doctor said that we need to be careful with his hand as there is a chance of repeating it easily as he got it once. Kedaar got 2 red color popsicles from the nurse, ate them in car happily. We returned home that night at 1 PM.
2 things that I think will never forget from this experience.
1. Be extreme watchful when handling kids. The temporary frustration when kids are uncontrolable can really hurt them.
2. Kids emergency situations should be dealt by pediatric doctors. I dont think any other emergency doctors could have dont that as a first thing before doing x-rays etc.
Its there on my mind in the last 1 month all the time and I thought I should probably have it in this blog.

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