An ER Trip We Won't Soon Forget

When you receive a call from your kid at 9:30 PM saying very calmly that he thinks he broke his finger, you think he's kidding around.  When he sends you a picture, you immediately know he is not, especially when there is clearly bone sticking out from the skin.  

We met Brody at the ER in Hendersonville shortly before 10.  Thankfully he has a great friend, Noah, who drove him there and hung out with him to distract him from his injury.  The doctor reduced it the best he could and wrapped it up but told us we would need to go to a different hospital the had a hand specialist on call.  He was going to need surgery and soon.  We waited at Hendersonville hospital until arrangements could be made at Vanderbilt. By around 2 AM, we drove to the Vanderbilt ER thinking we would go right back.  We definitely did not go right back! Sitting in the Vanderbilt ER was a whole new experience for us.  

Finally sometime around 4 AM, they called us to a "room," which was actually just a bed in a hallway.  There were many patients in the hall, because apparently there were no rooms available.  So, we spent the night in that hall attempting to sleep without much success. By 11 AM or so, an inpatient room finally became available. By the time we got up there, though, they were ready to take him to pre-op.  

He had surgery around 1:30, and thankfully all went as planned.  A small pin in the bone, repaired the tendon, and got creative with some skin grafts to allow them to close his pinky finger.  He will have another procedure in a few weeks to remove the pin and have another skin graft to help with all the skin he lost on his fingers.  

All of this was due to a go kart accident.  He and Noah picked up a free go kart on Saturday afternoon, got it running, and were trying it out.  As Brody was driving it up and down the street, it flipped over on one of the turns. Somehow his hand got caught between the roll cage and the road, and we see how that turned out.  We are so thankful that a broken pinky and some road rash spots are all he suffered.  It could have been much worse.  

Also, the go kart was sold before we ever left the hospital and a solid profit made.  Profit for him I should say...we lost a lot of money in this ordeal!