Today is National Kidsafe Day in Australia, this day aims to increase awareness of unintentional childhood injuries and their prevention, as well as the valuable work of Kidsafe – the Child Accident Prevention Foundation of Australia.
So today i planned on telling you our story – i had high hopes of rewriting it just for this post, but alas i couldn’t (its hard enough reading it and posting it let alone reliving it while rewriting it! 
) So instead you get the version i wrote in my journal which was slightly edited for posting purposes. I’m pretty sure its all there- if it isn’t is cause i have chosen to selectively block that from my memory (which in all honestly the whole damn thing should have been!!!!).
It’s taken a very long almost 3 years for me to be able to do this (with dads permission of course) only some my closest friends may have read this – I’m not even sure if the family have seen it so…..
It is something that is constantly on our minds, and i will openly admit i have become somewhat of and overprotective mother cause if it (tears are here again…). Hopefully someone takes something from this story and helps prevent something so stupid from happening to their family or friends!
Bailey’s Story
Let me tell you about my son Bailey, to us he is the most luckiest kid in the world, not because he gets to live life with ease, not because he’s spoilt rotten, in fact it’s cause in such a short life he went through one of the most scariest events that I wouldn’t wish upon even my worst enemy (which the last time I checked I don’t have). Now I’m not telling our story for your sympathy, or just to tell a big sob story for the sake of it, if anything I’m telling you this story with the hope that it will save your family the heart ache that we went through that horrid day. Now I know this is in no way the worst thing on the planet to ever happen to a person, there are heaps worst things that can happen, but to us this is by far the worst thing our family has ever had to endure, and those of you closest to us will know all to well what terrible time it was for us.
This was written not long after his accident – I honestly could not rewrite it cause even just reading this had me bawling! (its also the freshest recount of the events!)
I guess the best place to start is with why we were in Brisbane to begin with! I had just been transferred to the Royal Brisbane Woman’s Hospital after my membranes ruptured at 29 weeks with our little one William. Justin and the kids followed via car and finally made it to Brissy with Grandma to help out on the Monday morning (8th Dec 2008). After a massive day long hunt for somewhere to sleep, let alone stay while I was stuck in hospital Justin and Grandma finally found a place that would let them stay, however not until the following day so then the hunt began for a hotel for one night (that wasn’t going to charge them for 2 rooms cause there were 5 people!). So after a long day and night and some sleep they finally moved in to what was to be home for the next 3 weeks.
Wednesday night the 10th Dec baby William was born, so after a very long few days and a late night Justin returned to the unit and rested. The following morning (the 11th) he came for a visit to see myself and William. We made arrangements to go hold William that afternoon at 5pm, and then he went back to the unit for an afternoon nap.
Thursday Afternoon the 11th Dec after watching a DVD with daddy and Jamie-Grace, Bailey got up and was out on the balcony, we have concluded he was throwing yucky grapes over the rail and watching them bounce on the driveway. At this point Justin sat up when he heard the chair being dragged along the balcony and looked out to see Bailey’s feet as he was falling over the rail. Justin immediately bolted down the back stairs to him and found him on the concrete driveway trying to get up and telling him he was scared, there was a lot of blood and Justin ran (leaving Jamie and Hayden with Grandma) to the hospital emergency department (about 500mtrs down the road). Within minutes of being told what had happened there were people everywhere running around in a panic, they very quickly transferred him over to the children’s hospital emergency department and continued to work on him. At this point I’m not 100% sure of what happened other than what’s in the discharge reports.
It says he was irritable and uncooperative (which well I’m sure any 3 yr old would be in the given situation!) so he was sedated, intubated and put on the ventilator while they checked him over, took him for x-rays, CT scan ect…
By 5pm when Justin was suppose to meet me in the maternity ward to go see William, I had rung him quite a few times, left messages on his message bank and was not very happy with him, so I left the ward and went down to see bubs, telling the nurses to tell him I’m down stairs. About 15mins later while sitting by William’s isolette “holding” him, one of the nurses comes over and tells me to “take your hands out of the cot, and go outside, your husband needs to see you” I’m like just send him in it actually hurts to move so I don’t want to move of course. I looked over my shoulder and saw him, didn’t think too much as I was quite frankly ticked off that he wasn’t there at our arranged time and wasn’t answering his phone! So I got up and walked to the door, as I approached the door way I saw him standing there holding Bailey’s croc, his very much loved stuffed croc with a hospital name band round his neck, and he had blood all over his shirt, at that point not a lot of nice things were running thru my head – like how come croc wasn’t with Bailey, its 6pm and bed time he should be at home with Bailey, then the blood on his shirt sunk in, OMG Bailey’s dead! The look on Justin’s face didn’t help much either I think he was in shock and wasn’t looking forward to telling me what had happened. So I finally got to him (you know how in a movie bad things go in slow motion well that’s what that walk was like with all that running thru my head) and so he tells me what had happened… and we head over to children’s hospital to the Intensive care Unit. One of the longest wheel chair rides of my life, I don’t think either of us said a word, I just looked straight ahead in shock, and I believe I was in too much shock to even cry.
When we got to the PICU I find Jamie, Hayden and Grandma in the family room waiting for us, we didn’t even stop just walked straight past them still in shock thru to where Bailey was, at this point the second I saw my boy I started crying, It is a image I think will never leave my head, my baby lying there on that hospital bed with the tube down his throat, a oral gastric tube, a iv in each of his hands, one of which was hooked up to the morphine pump, the wires leading to the monitor telling us his vitals, that machine breathing for him, and under all this was my little boy he looked dead, his eyes were swollen shut, he had a big graze on his forehead and a bloody nose. The first thing I remember doing was almost collapsing at his bedside, and crying, I didn’t know what his status was, we didn’t know if he would ever wake up, if he would ever walk again, if he would see again or if he would ever be our big boy Bailey again. I remember wiping his nose as bubbles of blood came out, and just resting my head beside his, holding his hand and crying.
His doctors came by and spoke to us, told us all his x-rays so far were clear (they were just of his neck and torso – “we will worry about limbs later”- his spine being the most important thing at this point in time) they also did a ct scan of his head, which showed fractures to his skull, but no bleeding. He was seen by an optometrist who said his eyes (which she somehow pried open!) looked ok at the moment, just quite a bit of bleeding which caused the bruising – however this was not a problem.
After all this they decided to let him wake up, he had been sedated earlier to settle him thus the need for the intubation. So while we sat at his side with my head beside his, holding his hand telling him everything was alright and mummy was here, they extubated him (and no I didn’t watch – I’m not completely stupid!), and let him wake up over night.
Eventually they sent me back to the ward (I was still a patient after all!) and I had to leave my helpless little man with daddy watching over him all night.
The following morning I headed back over to Bailey and Justin, and arrived to see a bruised but awake Bailey, his eyes were still swollen shut but he was pretty much himself. He was rather scared of course and still on the IV morphine for his pain, and really didn’t like not being able to see or move about. He was still rather sleepy but was chatting away and had told everyone that morning that he fell of the chair! (A very good sign! He remembered what had happened!, he was talking, he was moving, our only concern now was his eyes – and making sure his head stayed ok (as in no bleeds ect..)). He was then transferred to one of the children’s wards and spent the week recovering, with daddy by his side most of the time (simply cause he wouldn’t let him leave!), around day 3 Bailey started opening his eyes, starting with his right eye, just a little bit, by the end of the week he could open both eyes and was looking much better. Hes spent his 3rd birthday in the hospital and was discharged on the 17th Dec and we were basically told to wrap him in bubble wrap for the next 6mths and not let him hurt his head again! And to attend follow up appointments over the next 6-12mths with the Neurologists and optometrists.
Summary of Bailey’s Discharge Summary:
While in hospital he had: Trauma X-rays, CT scan, Ultrasound scan, C-spine precautions, intubation, feeding tube, IV therapy, blood tests, ICU admission, reviewed by Ophthalmology, Maxillofacial surgical team, neurosurgeons and rehabilitation team and on oral antibiotics.
The CT scan showed: bilateral orbital roof fractures (left being worse than the right), a fracture of his left nasal bone and a fracture of his frontal bone and there was no intracranial bleed.
Upon extubation: he was a little more sleepy than normal, but was not irritable and had no headaches or vomiting.
He had extensive bruising around his eyes, but had normal eye movements and reactive pupils. His cranial nerves were normal, demonstrated normal tone, power and reflexes in his limbs. Had no problems with communication, no signs of amnesia, participated and was independent in self cares (for his age), and his physical assessment was great! (He can walk, sit, move, colour in, you name it!).
He did not require any surgery (providing he doesn’t go and blow his nose anytime soon it will stay that way). (The fractured part of his nose has a little air pocket that will fill with more air and cause a lot of pain if he blows his nose, resulting in surgery!)
All this was followed by a repeat trip to Children’s Emergency on the 21st Dec with Bailey having breathing difficulties – and being diagnosed with asthma!
OK now for photo overload ……
Day 2 or 3 back on the ward
Day 3 – WHY the eyes opened lol
Having a snooze with his trusty croc and new dragon (i brought for him at the RBWH gift shop)
Day 5 – Mummy’s day, daddy had to go clothes shopping (he in a moment of sillyness sent Hayden back home north with all the boys clothes… leaving Bailey with 1 outfit…. lol)
Day 7 – a quick pop into see sick mum in the antenatal ward (i got realllllllllly sick 2-3 days after will was born) on his way home!! (well temp home)
Christmas day with his little brother Hayden – nothing wrong with him!!!!! 
And again on Christmas day tackling dad and big sister Jamie-Grace
I’m so very proud of my big guy, he went thru hell (and still does at times…. seriously hes a walking disaster at times! ) yet he came out the other side still my perfect happy boy – if this is anything to go by hes gonna be one hell of a tough brave young man!
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Three years on and hes still cruising, hes perfectly fine with no long term effects from the accident, today hes no different to any other almost 6 year old in his prep class (except he gets to be a pirate every day – tell ya about that one later), everyday he reminds me just how special he is to us and how lucky we are to have him still in our lives.
As for the effects psychologically on us all – i know i still close my eyes and see things that i wish would go away, the thought of that day brings me to tears (like now), i cannot walk into a ICU (not NICU that one i can handle) without breaking down (not a good thing when your nursing a patient that has to be dragged down there……) , i know it still haunts hubby, the sound of him hitting the ground, the vision of his foot vanishing…., I know Jamie-Grace is haunted at times – she has her panic attacks when she sees him do something stupid (potential fall hazard), and i know Bailey himself remembers the event, and is constantly asking if his “problems (speech, eyes, and asthma) are from the fall – you have no idea how over the moon i was to hear his eye prob is genetic and not from the fall!! He often brings it up out of the blue and decides we should have a chat about what happened – which as heart breaking as it is to talk about we do it – in an effort to help him thru what happened.
Well there you have it – i did it …. now just to hit that post button………………..
)
@ you Jac) and spent too much time in the sun this morning…. lol)
