After the visit with Nadine’s grandmother, we split up. Nicole, Nadine and her parents went shopping. Sophie, Malcolm and I went to a local park. This is where our lives changed forever.
THE FULL STORY
Some of you may already know about the details, but here is a reminder…
Sophie and Malcolm were having a fun time on the playground equipment. Malcolm was riding a springy bouncy stationary motorcycle. Every so often he would get off, run around it in a circle, dance a little dance, get back on, bounce again and repeat. The ground was hard-pan and dry with a slightly slippery tiny pebbled surface.
On one of these run-arounds, I was about 6 feet away. As Malcolm was running and attempting to stop, his right foot slipped and he started to shift weight back to his left foot which at the same time seemed to catch on something - I think it was positioned sideways. As he fell backwards, his left leg didn't hold the weight and he continued to collapse backward and twist his leg as his foot came up behind his bottom. When he finally hit the ground on his back I could tell his leg had extended way too far back. He tried to get up on the leg and started to collapse just as I caught him (I'm so upset with myself for not reacting quicker). He cried a strange cry, said "oh papa" and asked for his mama which was a sign of trouble. I thought it was going to be a knee sprain or muscle pull.
I carried him to the car - about 40 yards away, sat him in his car seat and asked him if he wanted something to drink. He refused and I took him to Nadine's parents' house to keep a watch and decide what to do. His left quad started to harden and we decided to find a hospital. Nearest decently big one is in Macon, about 30 minutes' drive.
We found our way to the hospital thanks in large part to Google Maps and good street signs leading the way. We arrived around 1745. At the emergency room, we were processed and seen efficiently (thank goodness we were in France - great health care and EU citizens are accepted for pretty much anything without charge). The emergency clinician heard our story, felt the left leg’s rock-hard quadriceps and right away suspected a fracture of the femur. X-rays took about 15 minutes after that to confirm - it was a classic spiral fracture, about half way between the hip joint and knee joint. Ugly thing, very shocking as you might expect.
This is where our whole world started to change. We just couldn't believe it; when your kid falls at the playground you expect to dust him/her off, give a hug and let them carry on playing.
A plan was put together to call in an orthopedic doctor to examine the break and determine next steps. By 2000 we were told they would re-set the leg under anesthesia and it would have to be put in traction for about several days with 4 weeks in a cast after that. By 2230 that night, the leg had been reset and Malcolm came out ok and we were given a private room on the pediatric ward that had a single hospital bed for a parent to sleep on.
NOTE: The injured leg was set a little shorter due to patients at this age experiencing “overgrowth” of injured bones. It did eventually catch up to the good leg and both legs are thankfully equal in length. Mother nature is regulating the bone length of both femurs correctly as far as we can tell.
Here is Malcolm just after the procedure to set his femur.
The bed was another challenge - little ones requiring traction aren't too common. Finding a suitable bed with compatible traction apparatus wasn't easy and the doctors and assistants had to invent a system which was very adequate and robust. You can see what they rigged up. Traction weight is water-based and dangling at the foot end of the makeshift rod and pulley system over the fort knox rolling baby bed.
In case you are wondering, there is a hospital glove blown up with funny character face drawn on it that one of the medics made for Malcolm - very touching and indicative of the general caring attitude and quality of treatment we experienced.
This was Malcolm's world for 11 days. Nadine or I were with him at all times. Nadine’s parents washed our clothes, fed us, helped with the girls, and were our local base while we did shifts at the hospital, typically 12 to 16 hours at a time, sometimes longer. We brought the girls over for afternoon visits but at the same time ensured they had a little vacation experience as best we could manage.
