Hospital
We just spent four hours in the emergency room with Carri, my assistant and good friend, and her wife, Pili. Carri left work here and headed for home about twenty minutes later she called Jon on his cellphone. I knew immediately by his tone of voice and body language that something was wrong. Carri’s jeep had just been in an accident. She’d called 911, then tried to get her wife, Pili, but Pili didn’t hear her phone, so Carri called Jon. He got hold of her wife who went for the hospital. We got to the emergency room while they were still at the front desk. Carri had said she was all right, but we needed to see for ourselves. It’s not real until you touch someone.
Jon and I actually passed the accident scene on the way to the hospital. Her Jeep looked awful. When we got to the hospital and saw her even with the bandaged arm it was a relief. I hugged her and her shirt was crunchy with bits of windshield glass. She and Pili told me not to hug her that one person with glass on them was enough, but that was one hug that had to happen right that minute, damn it.
We went into the rooms they’d let us trail with her, and waited in the waiting room when we weren’t allowed. Thanks to all the staff at St. Mary’s that took such good care of her, and thanks for moving her up the line before the pain hit as hard as it could. I really wanted her to have good pain meds when the shock wore completely off. Vicodin, its what’s for dinner. None of us had eaten yet. Jon and I had ordered take-out at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Little Saigon, just before Carri called from the accident. Somehow in all the waiting we’d mentioned it to Carri and she said that sounded great. So while Pili went back with her for them to clean out the wounds, at last, we called the restaurant to see when they closed. We explained why we hadn’t picked up our order, added food for Pili and Carri to it, and told them we’d be there as soon as we could, but please make our order the last of the night. Thanks to the staff at Little Saigon who were so understanding and especially the kind man who waited a little past closing when we called that we were leaving the hospital and heading his way. We picked up the food and headed to Carri and Pili’s house with it.
We ate at their house and are just now getting home. We’ve fed our dogs and are waiting for them to digest so they can have that one last trip outside, then bed. I’m so tired my eyes burn, but it’s not lack of sleep it’s more adrenalin seeping away into the cracks and crevices of my psyche. Carri will be fine the worst of it seems to be a sprained wrist, some cuts, and chemical burns from the airbags deploying. They deployed when a tire, the whole wheel, came off a car on the other side of the highway and flew across the median and into Carri’s jeep. It’s totaled and the safety glass of the windshield did what safety glass is designed to do it cracked but most of it held together except for the pieces that powdered onto her. After seeing what the airbag did to her arm I’m going to see if I can sit a little farther from the wheel when I drive. Airbags save lives, and saved her from worse injury most likely, but these are not chemicals you want on your skin or in your lungs.
Thanks to the truck driver that first stopped to check on her and then used his rig to block traffic so she didn’t get hit again. Thanks to the nurse who stopped right after that and wrapped up her wound before the ambulance arrived. Thanks to the ambulance crew and the police that helped take care of her and took the report. They say that there are no good Samaritans anymore, but they’re wrong. There are good people out there and Carri met several of them tonight. Thank you all.