A Bit of Excitment!

Yesterday the boys had a scout activity, put on by the local council. A Klondike Derby. Among other things, they had worked a few nights ahead of time to build them a dog sled that the troop pulled in timed races at the derby. That's Schwarzebeere in the white had and Himbeere at the sled.


They also had show shoeing races. Some kids were better than others.

One event they had was fire building. They had to lay their wood, get it started and let it burn big enough to burn a string that was suspended from two sticks over the flames.

One of the last events of the morning was an inter-tube relay race. There was a small hill with a beach at the bottom and then a lake beyond that. The lake was frozen over but its been warm enough this last week that a lot of ice and snow has melted away and they didn't want any kids out on the lake. Plus, since it was a relay, the idea was for the boys on the team to stop the tube at the bottom of the hill so the next kid could grab the tube and head back up the hill as quick as possible. Schwarzebeere was the first one on his team to go down the hill but it didn't go quite as planned.

Instead of a smooth transition between boys there was quite a collision. Himbeere had gotten down into a football crouch and Schwarzebeere had managed to turn as the tube came down the hill so he was coming head first. The scoutmaster later described it as the meeting of two pile-drivers. Himbeere ended up with a sore arm, shoulder and jaw. But Schwarzebeere got the worst of it. We're not sure whether or not Schwarzebeere lost consciousness but he was definitely out of it for a while. He doesn't doesn't remember those few minutes right after impact. He was in pain and in shock so they called the EMT that was on site over. Then they called 911 and soon there was an ambulance there. When they found out about this neck condition (his Mom was there as a chaperon) they immobilized him and called in the helicopter.

The helicopter couldn't land right there at the bottom of the hill so they loaded him in the ambulance for a ride the few blocks to where the chopper had landed.

Then he was off on the 60 or so mile ride to the hospital where his regular doctor for his spine is. That worked out well. It took us a little longer to make the trip to the hospital in the car. Had to get ourselves together for the trip, too. And any time you go in through the ER it seems like you can plan on being there for hours, at least. At the hospital he got a CT scan and a full neurological exam. He was pretty drugged up for the pain by the time we got there but it was such a relief to see him moving his legs and arms. But all the tests came back okay, no damage, no lasting injury. So they sent him upstairs to spend the night in a room so they could keep an eye on him.

So he got to stay the night, eat hospital food and sleep. Sleep is about all he did the rest of the day. But today, after one night there, they let him go. He was glad to be out. One thing he wasn't happy about? They had to cut his brand new shirt off of him.

Kinda made him wish he'd listened to his mother that morning when she had suggested he wear old clothes to the derby. Oh, well. We're just glad he's okay.