Put that child in the fucking ambulance, you moron! ! !

The BBQ Pit
1

At the club we visited today, there is a sliding board in a grassy spot next to the baby pool. When I looked at it, it was clear that although there was mulch under the end of the slide, it was entirely too high off the ground for most kids to land properly. I asked the two children with us to be sure not to go down without someone there to catch them.

Sure enough, a couple of hours later a child went down and whacked the back of her head hard when she landed. Her Ignroant Dumbass Aunt (IDA) then proceeded to pick her up and nearly toss her over the fence to her Mother, to be comforted.

I was moving as fast as I could through the water yelling to them not to move her. Then the child went board straight and flat in her Mothers arms and stopped breathing.

Without setting her down the Mother breathed into her mouth a couple of times and the child began to scream again. Meanwhile I was screaming for a lifeguard and an ambulance, while the people around us watched, without reacting at all.

IDA kept saying in an angry, contemptuous, tone “She’s fine, chill out!”

The emergency crews came and desperately tried to convince the Mother that the child needed immediate care. No, she listened to IDA, loaded the child into her car seat and they went home.

Meanwhile, the Manager comes out and asks me what happened. I tell her. She asked “Was there any blood or anything?” I answer “No” in a slow, stunned tone. Can she seriously be the manager of a swimming pool and not know how dangerous this is? I explain again, and show her the problem at the end of the slide. I tell her she needs at least another 8 inches of mulch to build up the landing spot. She walks away.

My friend finally went over herself and tied a towel around the railings of the slide to prevent anyone else from going up there. It never occurred to anyone at the club that maybe that was enough sliding for today and it probably ought to be looked into.

There are times when I despair for the human race. It’s a lucky thing we;re such sluts, because otherwise we surely would die out.

I really do think it’s utterly appalling the level of ignorance I experienced today from people both personally and professionally entrusted with the care of children. And in a neighborhood and a Country Club both of which select for a far higher than average educational level.

I dearly hope the child will be all right.

2

Yikes. I tend to be pretty hands off with my kids - ordinary bumps, bruises and scrapes are a part of childhood and are usually nothing to freak out about. But you don’t fuck around with head injuries - just ask Natasha Richardson’s family.

3

Oh jeez. You had to remind me of that tonight?!? I think I’m gonna puke.

4

So do I.

A country club, you say? Are you a member, or were you there as a guest of a member? Same question about the Clueless Mother.

If you are a member, I strongly suggest that you bring the issue of unsafely installed playground equipment to the attention of the Board. And if the child’s family are also members, it should be possible to find out if the kid is okay. Well, if the member rolls aren’t too large.

Seriously, blood or no blood, a cessation of breathing falls under the heading of “any blood OR ANYTHING.”

5

I’d be curious of the height off the ground for the end of a slide falls under any sort of building codes? It could be worth a call to the city’s building inspector. Sounds like all they need is to have a yard of mulch delivered. If they could get a truck to the slide, it would hardly even require any labor.

6

Sorry.

7

Most likely not, but the insurance carriers for such venues usually have very specific guidelines for such things.

8

I am literally furious with rage! And, sadly, I say that unironically. I am one of the least likely dopers to verge on a ‘think of the children’-esque post, but I madly, truly, deeply, do wish the situation changes at that club, that the baby is all right, and that somehow the harpies come to feast upon such a folly of justice!

9

They didn’t want to go to the hospital because medical care is expensive. It was rude of you to assume they had that kind of money. Memberships to country clubs, yes. Emergency medical care for a child with a concussion? Nuh-uh. Just can’t afford that.

10

Sorry, what is meant by “sliding board”?

11

I had to look it up, too. Apparently, it’s a fancy way of saying “slide” as in those ladder/ramp structures one finds in playgrounds and beside pools.

12

I do have to comment on this part. Depending on the age of the child and other things some children will pass out, go limp, turn blue, when they start to scream. My daughter used to do this and it’s because of low iron so when she starts to take a huge scream she doesn’t get enough oxygen and out she went. Scary as crap the first couple of times you see it, but the doctor told us it was ok, but to try and get her more iron.

13

Sliding board - I was trying to differentiate it from a water slide. Sorry for the confusion. standard playground equipment, with a ladder up and an angled board for sliding back down.

E the H - This was the opposite of limp - board straight and completely tensed. I hesitate to say “seizure” because I’m not qualified to diagnose, but that’s what I thought it was.

All: No, I’m not a member, but don’t worry, the problem will be fixed. They will receive a call or an e-mail from me daily until I hear that it has been. And from my friend, and several other concerned parents promised to call, hopefully they will.

14

perhaps i’m not understanding or missing something, but it seems to me that ignoring a child’s head injuries is a greater crime than forgetting your child is still in the car. :mad:

15

You know, this wouldn’t be the Dope if somebody weren’t being contrary in a Pit thread. So I guess I’ll step up to the plate.

Isn’t it possible that the child’s two caregivers, who were apparently much closer to the incident than you were, actually had a better handle on how serious it was than you did?

You say you were “moving fast through the water”. Maybe I’m more of a klutz than most but I can’t physically do that AND keep my full attention on what I’m moving towards as well. Especially not in a baby pool with little kids to maneuver round. Are you absolutely rock-bottom sure the kid stopped breathing? Not just doing the “oh crap what just happened” stunned moment before breaking into full on screaming? And how long for? A few seconds? (ie, consistent with just having had the wind knocked out of her by coming off a slide hard)

Did you actually see the incident?

16

Actually, according to my dad, who is a doctor, any head injury that results in loss of consciousness needs to be followed by medical care. Even if the person says they feel totally fine. Most of the time, the person will be OK but there’s that one in a million time that they die because of a cerebral hemorrhage like Natasha Richardson.

A similar thing happened to me at the pool when I was about a year old–not on a board, but I did fall and pass out. Even though I came to, I was under observation for hours afterward.

17

Her Mother was giving her mouth-to-mouth - yes, I’m sure. She screamed for a while, then went straight, then Mom was breathing into her (also incredibly stupid as she didn’t set her down and could just as easily been inflating her stomach) and then she began screaming again.

I’m also sure that the emergency crew hung around for almost an hour trying to convince her to go to the ER, and the IDA talked her out of it.

Yes, I saw all of it, until they carried her into the clubhouse to meet the emergency squad. (Because in case there was aneck injury, they wanted to make it worse!) After that I was getting bulletins from the various parents moving back and forth to bathrooms, etc.

Idiots! ! !

18

Too bad the emergency crew doesn’t have the authority to say “Your child is going in the ambulance. You can accompany her with or without handcuffs.”

19

So if a non-eventful trip to the emergency room in an ambulance and diagnostic tests costs, what, $2,500, and it’s a million to one chance you save a life it ends up costing 2.5 trillion dollars to save a life. On a cost-benefit basis it’s hard to justify.

20

Because there’s also a continuum between “perfectly fine” and “fatal hemorrhage”. A person who feels fine right after a head injury can have a seizure or other problems hours later. There is also the risk of neck trauma. So, yeah, a little money spent getting the child checked out can save big bucks down the road when the child ends up in intensive care with brain damage.