Wednesday, December 16, 2009
THE SCARE OF OUR LIFETIMES

Our day started out innocently enough. We had breakfast with our new friends Todd and Robyn Williams and their new son Ethan. We hadn’t planned it, but it was nice to meet up with them. They left tonight on a train for Hong Kong. They are genuinely nice people. After breakfast we decided that we would head to Flower and Lake Park for some fun and relaxation before we headed to the U. S. consulate this afternoon to take the oath and keep the ball rolling for Opal and Sophie’s US passports. We got a taxi to the park and everything seemed to be going well.

Our guide had told us that there was a small amusement park for children in the park. Several play areas with rides and a small rollercoaster. We walked around the beautiful park in search of the children’s rides. We walked by several exercise parks and then came around a corner and saw the play areas.

We paid three Yuans for each girl to enter the little play area. They had several little rides and play structures that looked perfect for the girls. The girls took turns playing on different things and then Amalie and Sophie discovered a small bicycle propelled merry-go-round. They rode round and round for about 20 minutes screaming and laughing. I, meanwhile, was busy pushing Opal on the swings. She was laughing and smiling and seemed to be really enjoying it. After a bit she decided that she wanted to ride in a teeter-totter like swing with Brandy. I was trying to get a picture of Brandy and Opal when it happened…………………………

I heard crying from the bicycles. (Brandy said she heard a thud.) I looked over to see another little girl sitting on the bikes crying. She had a horrified look on her face. She wasn’t hurt, she was pointing. I glanced over to see Sophie lying on the ground in a heap, not crying, motionless. I bolted the 25 feet back to the bicycles and took Sophie’s limp body out of the other girl’s dad’s arms. She was not bleeding, but she had been knocked out by the fall. He eyes were rolled back in her head. She was drooling badly.

I panicked. Sophie had fallen off the bike and hit her head so hard on the brick pavers that she was unconscious. “Lay her down, lay her down” said the Chinese man who had been the first on the scene. “No” I said. “I want her to be able to breath.” I was holding her upright in my lap as best I could. I was afraid that she might choke on her own spit if I put her on her back. She was drooping on me like a rag doll. Her entire body was limp.

“Brandy………..” I yelled in complete fear “She knocked COLD!” Brandy had jumped out of the ride, grabbed Opal and was running over. “Oh my god” I said “She’s not moving”. I had the horrible thought for a moment that she wasn’t breathing. I put my ear down in front her mouth. “Thank GOD” I thought. I could hear her exhaling. The next 2 minutes were the scariest of my life.

I have been knocked out myself before. The last time when I was building some oriental style lamps for Brandy and I. I was trying to clamp together some delicate frames for the lamps with some of my large cabinet clamps. The clamps have a pad that was too cumbersome. I had decided that I need to get the pads off. I turned the clamp over and was pulling on the pad to try and get it off.

I had the clamp in my right hand and was gripping the pad in my left trying to pull them apart. I was pulling as hard as I could and the pad wasn’t coming off. When it finally gave way I hit myself in the head with the pipe. Imagine taking a 2 ½ foot piece of ¾ inch black pipe and hitting yourself in the head with it as hard as you can. That’s basically what I did. I came around a few minutes later with a huge lump on my head and what turned into one BIG headache.

I rather do that to myself 50 more times than watch my little girl struggle to regain consciousness like that again. I could tell that her little brain was desperately trying to reboot her systems. Her eyes opened several times and then rolled back into her head. I was wiping the drool off her lips and sitting there helpless. He eyes opened again……… then rolled back again. He body was still limp. “Wake UP!!” I thought. “Please ………….. please…………..please”.

After what seemed like forever her eyes finally stayed open. “We have to get her to a hospital”, I said to Brandy. “Ted” she said in a much less panicked voice “we are in China”. After a few more minutes Sophie had snapped out of it. Now she was crying. She was beginning to get a lump on the back of her head. A minute or two later she was able to stagger onto her feet.