emergency road rash report...
my 13 year old has been riding to school... 7 miles down hill, tough eh? His buddy's dad goes with
on the way to work, I get a call at 8:05 from Bill, "you might want to come down here and take a
look at this....he hit a patch of gravel...." So I grab a bagel, brush my teeth... The 16 year old
had been telling me for 20 minute that he wasn't riding his bike to High School as it was too cold
and windy ( 58 and 5 mph) and as I hadn't planned on driving him anyway, this was the real
opportunity to make it a no choicer for him..
Grab the crash kit ( gauze, betadyne, tape, betadyne scrubber etc ) and head to school. There he is
in the hall way, waiting for me, paper towel pressed to the bloody bit. One quick inspection by mom
shows gouges, dirt, avulsions flaps and a lot ground in dirt. This may be beyond my first aid
skills.... off to the urgent care. The only thing they have there that I didn't have is really good
micro tweezers for getting the grit out from under the edges, and that cool lidocaine cream to numb
the whole are do you can reef on it.
the knee ouch, a good chunk out of the knee cap. Upper thigh and butt just skinned, wrist to forearm
skinned with parallel gouged out areas and skinned up to the armpit. He's so great tho>>> great
attitude, never flinched, They updated the tetanus, prescribed and antibiotic ( overkill?) and sent
us on our way. The other riders say good thing he had his helmet. Oh I I sweet talked the nurse into
giving me the rest of the tube of lidocain for future use.
Penny