Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forward.
Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

Saturday 7 April 2012

Accidents happen... no matter how much we try to prevent them.

Iñaki's finger is now fully recovered. His nail grew back with marks that will soon disappear and he grows and everything will be just a point in time. Weeks ago, on that Friday evening right after finishing dinner it didn't seem that way. It was just my third day with a bike and I wanted to ride desperately, so I told Ru I would go to  the Library to get our York resident's card for the coming Residents' Weekend and enjoy the activities offered for free for those who live in the city. I left a bit before 5, quick stop at the Post Office and off to the Library. One hour later and I was back home fixing dinner. We all sat and had a nice meal, the kids had just finnished their servings and went to the living room to go back to their games. Ru and I were chatting, it seemed to be a nice Friday evening, until a loud cry made us jump out of our seats. Iñaki came with his hand covered in blood and a horror expression in his face that hopefully I will forget one day. I couldn't believe my eyes... I could see his bone exposed and flesh and blood. For a minute I didn't know what to do, and a second later I realized Rubén was not there anymore, I was holding Iñaki really hard, hugging him and saying in the calmest voice I could "don't worry, everything will be fine, we'll fix your finger". Our baby, Iker, was in shock and would only repeat "finger, what happened to his finger, his finger hurts mommy, my little brother..." I then realized we had to go somewhere, so I put on their sweaters and Ru entered the house with one of the porters, who helped us get a taxi and calmed us down. We rushed to the hospital, where I had to wait in the waiting area with Iker, not knowing what was going on and crying on my own. Then I had a thought and decided to call Zoe, Ru's housemate when he first arrive and now a good friend of ours. She was lifesaving, took a taxi and rushed to hospital to see how I was doing and helped me arrange the access to see my boy. She looked after Iker while I was in the guard, and the doctor arrived and checked his finger, Iñaki cried and screamed so loudly that all the whole hospital knew we were there. That night Ru and Iñaki stayed in hospital and I went back home with Iker. It was a truely long night. The next morning they were in Hull, a city about 40 minutes by car from York. To our surprise they were not aware of the reason they had been sent and had to waint until 6 PM to do the surgery. It was hard for me to simply wait, I left with Iker and we headed to the most remote area I could reach by bus, found a toys store and we bought some new action figures for Iñaki as a surprise. It was when we were there that Ru called me to let me know it was time to enter the OR. He cried, I cried... we didn't know what would happen. The next day they were back home, a week later I took him back to that city to be checked by a surgeon and then three visits from a nurse in our place completed the treatment, the rest was just wait and see. He's still very active but the nightmares of that day come back every other now and then, and those nights, we hug and comfort each other, I cry a bit, he tellsm me his "head" keeps going over and over what happened... then we say "it's over now, we just have to be careful" and then I feel thankful that my boy is doing fine.

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