Coley’s dad, Robert, shares their experience with WakeMed Children’s. This post is the ninth in a series of true stories about children’s health care at WakeMed.
One Saturday morning, our three kids were lying on the bed watching a movie. When my wife, Katie, stepped out of the room Coley decided he wanted to watch a Spiderman movie that was sitting on top of the television. In his quest to reach the movie, Coley climbed up the table and grabbed onto the television. The TV came crashing down on top of him. When my wife heard the crash, she rushed into the room and found Coley lying on his back with the TV laying on top of his arm. He was bleeding profusely from his mouth and nose. She moved the TV and began to clean up the blood. That’s when she noticed blood spurting from his left ear. She immediately called 911.
When the ambulance arrived at the WakeMed Children’s Emergency Department, they had a trauma team waiting for him. What I remember most is that WakeMed designated someone to help take care of my wife and me while the doctors took care of Coley. That was an enormous help for two frantic, worried parents. She helped calm us down and provided a shoulder to lean on while we waited to find out if he was going to be OK. She even gave us a pen and pad of paper to jot down questions for the doctors.
The doctors took tremendous care of Coley and went out of their way to make sure he was comfortable. He was able to take a stuffed animal with him during his CAT scan, and he loved the X-Ray room that had been transformed into a glow-in-the-dark solar system. After a battery of tests, we learned that he had fractured his skull in several places. Luckily, no surgery was necessary – the bones would heal themselves in four to six weeks. He also experienced some hearing loss in his left ear.
As a precaution, Coley spent the night in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. The doctors took time to carefully explain their concerns and what they were looking for. After being seen by an army of doctors, he was discharged the next evening with a pretty clean bill of health and a strong admonition to quit climbing on furniture. Follow-up visits with a WakeMed ENT showed that he continues to have hearing loss in his left ear. He is scheduled for a minor surgery to correct that.
Bottom line: We feel very blessed that he survived this scary episode with no permanent damage. Since the accident, we have seen and read many terrifying stories about children who have been seriously injured or killed by TVs falling on them.
We are forever grateful to WakeMed for taking such great care of our little boy.
