Today I woke up, watered the plants, got the kids breakfast, did some laundry, and then got a call from my mom that our friend had chopped the tips of three of his fingers off while mowing the lawn and she needed me to go get his fingertips from his yard and take them to the hospital.
Crickets.
Then I yelled, "Josh and Clara! GET IN THE CAR!"
Then we drove over to his house with a ziploc bag, I found the fingertips, and we headed for the hospital. Good thing they just built a new hospital down the road. Good thing I was trying to move so fast that I didn't take too much time to think about it. Good thing I have had enough gross experiences in my life. As my mom put it - I was more freaked out when Clara cut her hair all off than I was getting fingertips from his backyard.
On the way over I called Dave and told him what had happened. He left work right away to go to the hospital to be there to give Curtis a blessing. I also called my friend Rachel, because her husband works close by, and he ran over as well. They waited until Curtis's dad arrived. Dave said Curtis was cracking jokes non-stop about bringing finger foods from now on to parties. Shock will do that to you I guess.
They weren't able to save two of the fingers because the blood vessels were too small. They were able to save his pinkie finger. He stopped by and brought me a butterfinger as a thank you for bringing his fingertips to the hospital. I have a feeling that we will be cracking jokes about this for a long time to come. It could have been much worse, and fortunately he has a good sense of humor about it.
3 comments:
Bubba said, "That's Curtis for ya." About the joking . . . but what else could he do, he was probably embarrassed about doing something not so safe s. . . sticking your hand into a running mower! It did make a good safety lesson for our kids tonight. Thanks Curtis. And thanks Heidi for detailing the really gross part. :)
Oh my gosh - I think I just threw up a little. I cannot believe you did that. You deserve FAR MORE than a candy bar for that one!! Poor guy...Curtis, like in our ward Curtis??!! What was he doing to his mower??
Addendum: Curtis called me and said "Come get me. I've hurt myself on the lawn mower." Because he's Curtis, at first I thought he was joking, and asked him if he was serious. He said, "Come get me NOW." When I got to his house, he was lying on his bed, holding a bloody hand. He passed out in the driveway on the way to the car, but came to right away, so we made a beeline for the hospital. All the way he kept comforting ME: "You're going to be OK; you'll be all right." That was because my hands were shaking so much I could hardly hold onto the wheel. When we got to the ER, the doc asked about the fingers, so I called my brave daughter. Clarification: Curtis didn't lose his fingers - just the tips of them (basically the nail part). The surgeon (Dr. Cole) was fantastic - very skilled and obviously very practiced. Curtis's dad and brother and I watched the surgery and took photos, while Curtis and the doctor exchanged ridiculous jokes (eg. "we're kind of short-handed around here")
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