Cambrie's Accident

Cambrie did a number on herself Thursday evening. She and I were dancing while making dinner. . . .yes, I said dancing. I left the room to retrieve something and when I turned around she was on the floor face down. When I helped her up, I didn't think she had hurt herself that much, because she wasn't bleeding, even though she had broken her glasses. I carried her to the couch and examined her. She had hit her forehead and eye area on the hard tile floor. She explained that she had placed her left hand on the kitchen counter top and her right hand on the island counter top and was swinging her legs back and forth. She must have really gotten into the music and swung pretty hard, because her hands slipped and with all that momentum she face planted into the floor. She was in a lot of pain and didn't want to sit or stand. I checked her pupils with my flashlight and felt they were not reacting normally. Unsure of my methods, I called Brett, my doctor brother-in-law. He walked me through the process and again I felt her pupils were not responding equally to the light. Between her pupils, feeling dizzy, and the fact that she said she blacked out when she hit the floor, we felt it best to take her to the ER. While I was trying to figure out which ER was best, Eric got home and realized the situation. Cambrie was in a lot of pain, but she was so sweet. She asked Eric if she could have a blessing before we went to the hospital. Our home teacher came over and helped Eric give her a priesthood blessing. As we were walking her to the car, she was feeling very dizzy and nauseous. We had already given her a bucket, and sure enough she threw up every thing in her little stomach. At this point, I still expected that she had a concussion, but nothing more serious than that. We just wanted her to be seen by the ER to make sure nothing was going on internally that we couldn't see, swelling or sub-dural bleeding, etc.






She fell at 6:45pm and I got her to the ER at 8pm. They took us through the triage process and while we waited to see the doctor she threw up again. The doctor immediately ordered a CT scan. At 10pm they took us into the room for the CT. Cambrie had been sleeping in her chair when they came to get us and she slept all the way through the scan. The tech strapped her down and put rolled towels on either side of her head to keep her from turning onto her side (how she likes to sleep). Around 11pm, the doctor came to tell us the results of the CT scan. As you can see in the two pictures from the scan, Cambrie has a good sized fracture on the right side of her forehead that radiates to the lateral side of her eye socket, and in the first picture you can see the fracture continue on the ceiling of her eye socket. I was shocked she did that much damage. The good news was that the scan did not reveal any bleeding. In order to make sure there were no small bleeds that the scan could not pick up, the doctor said he would admit us into the PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) for observation.




We were moved to a private room to wait for transfer upstairs and finally were admitted into the PICU at around 12:30 or 1am. I helped Cambrie into her gown and the nurses took care of her while we waited for a doctor. When he came to see her, he concurred with the ER doctor's findings downstairs, but the final say of her condition would have to come from the neurosurgeon the next day. He ordered blood work and IV for fluids. The nurse had a terrible time getting the IV line started, both because Cambrie is so thin and she was dehydrated at this point. She put the cannula/needle in three different locations, blowing out one of her veins in the process, and finally got it into the vein properly, but then her blood just wouldn't flow. They tried and tried, but couldn't get enough blood in the tubes to send down to the lab for testing. They even put another needle into her other arm and tried that vein. Poor Cambrie! She was obviously not happy about the pain of a needle digging into her arm in four separate locations, but she was very brave! They finally gave up on the blood collection and just connected the IV line to get fluids in her. The nurses were very sweet. Cambrie caused the nurse to blow out her first vein in 7 months and 3 weeks. They took me to the toy closet and let me pick out a toy for her and then they gave her an extra toy, because they felt bad for her. At this point, it was about 3am and I was exhausted. Cambrie, however, was now wide awake from the adrenaline rush caused by the pain. So, she decided to watch an on-demand cartoon movie. I tried to sleep, but with the fluids now flowing, she had to go to the bathroom at least once an hour. So I slept from about 4am to 6am, getting up twice to help Cambrie in between. When she woke me up at 6am, I gave up sleeping and she started watching another movie. Thankfully I had my kindle to keep me company. Cambrie was very excited when she got to choose her own breakfast and lunch orders. Between the room service, the 24/7 movie selection, and the therapy dogs, she thought staying in the hospital was pretty awesome, and suggested she might need to stay for a week or so. Luckily, the neurosurgeon felt Cambrie was doing well, and had no symptoms of any neurological problems that would suggest internal bleeding. So, she was able to be released at around 2:30pm on Friday. The surgeon let me and Eric know that Cambrie was very lucky that her fracture was flat and not compressed. If it had been compressed, it would have put pressure on the brain and brain surgery would have been the only option. It could easily have caused bleeding or eye problems.

Here are some pictures of her from today (Saturday). She is feeling much better and insisted we go to the Gilbert Farmer's Market this morning because, "the nurse says I need to walk".





Eric and I are both very thankful that Cambrie was blessed to escape surgery and possible life threatening complications. We are thankful for a wonderful daughter who faced her injury bravely and with faith.