England 2006
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The Balettie Bunch invade England!
More pictures can be found here in our England 2006 photo gallery.
UK 2006 - Day 7(d): The steps of
DOOM!!!Part 14 of the England 2006 trip
report:
Okay... remember one of the last
lines from my latest England trip report:
But
then... out of the darkness... comes a blood
curdling scream!
We were sitting
outside on John and Marianne's patio, talking,
drinking, eating grilled pie (!!!)... Kathy and
Mel had gone inside and were in the living room.
I went inside to get another beer when I heard
Julian yell in a scream I don't think I'll ever
forget.
Looking back, Kathy and I agreed
that our first thoughts were that Sam (Julian
and Jenny's two-year-old son, who had been
sleeping upstairs) had fallen out of the window
and Julian discovered him... fortunately that
wasn't the case.
Unfortunately for
Julian, in the absolute darkness around the
corner of the house, he fell down *THESE
STAIRS*:
The thing that (quite literally) saved
his life was the fact that he ended up
sliding/bouncing down the very hard and sharp
stone steps on his butt. When we all came
running around the corner, I completely expected
Julian to be in a bleeding and horribly angled
position at the bottom of the stairs... but
lucky for him, he was in a relatively "normal"
position at the bottom.
I made sure to
tell everyone that Kathy, who's a nurse, was in
charge, as Julian wanted to sit up right
away! She checked Julian's vitals, etc., and we
immediately called the emergency services. We
couldn't/wouldn't move him until they arrived.
So, he was in a very uncomfortable position and
was getting cold laying on the stones at the
bottom of the stairwell.
Since John and
Marianne live out in the middle of the
countryside, it took (literally) 45 minutes for
the ambulance to arrive... when they did, they
came down and checked Julian out... then we
actually (to Kathy's and my shock) stood Julian
up and the EMT and I helped him *WALK UP THE
STAIRS*.
He was in *substantial* pain,
but could put weight on both of his legs, so a
shattered pelvis, which is what we feared,
seemed to be ruled out. They took him to the
hospital with Jenny, and Mark drove Marianne
after them. John stayed at the house with us for
the report, since Sam was still sleeping
(thankfully!!) upstairs.
It was close to
midnight by the time the ambulance finally
started back to the hospital in
Warwick.
A few hours later, we got the
call that Julian was being released (!!!!), so
Mark and I drove to the hospital in John's big
comfortable Land Rover LR3 to give Julian the
nicest ride home possible. We got there, loaded
him up, and drove him and Jenny home.
To
make a *very* long story shorter (too late!), it
turns out he had broken his coccyx and severely
bruised his gluteus maximus, along with several
scrapes from the stones on the way down. He was
*amazingly* lucky that nothing else
happened...
John had a contractor out the
next morning and we've since heard that a very
nice and secure fence is completely around that
stairwell.
It's now Friday morning... our
last day in England before returning home... and
while we're thankful that our friend is safe,
we're all totally exhausted from the previous
night's "adventure". The next journal will cover
what we did on our last day, our trip home, and
our safe return to Round Rock.
Follow-up:
Julian was off of work for 8 weeks
recovering... he's a lucky guy it wasn't worse!!!
Ouch.
This way for more adventures!!!!!
-or-
... back to the Adventures in England page!
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