This weekend
22 August 2004 21:26![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mandragorawas perhaps not the most exciting of my life to date.
Mostly it consisted of work, work and yet more work, which is the price you pay when you've got a trial fast approaching. I interspersed the work with glancing at the Olympics which have been pretty damn good to date.
This afternoon I received a, well, hysterical is probably slightly too strong a word for it, phone call from my mother. She'd rung my sister up and the phone was answered by my youngest nephew who said that he couldn't stop because Daddy was just about to pick him up to take him to the hospital. His response to my mother's obviously alarmed enquiry about what was up was that my oldest nephew had jumped out of the window at a sleepover at a friend's house last night. Oh, and he'd got to go now, 'cos Daddy's here. Bye.
My mother immediately rang me. She was rather upset, even after my suggestion that oldest nephew couldn't be badly hurt, otherwise my youngest nephew would surely sound more upset than it sounds as if he was. I told my mother, who wasn't thinking clearly being far too upset, that I'd make some enquiries and get back to her.
I tried to contact my brother-in-law but his mobile was switched off.
So I did a websearch for hospitals in the area where my sister's family live. There really is only one possible hospital that my oldest nephew could have been taken to. So, I rang them up. The phone rang and rang. After 8 minutes of ringing it was answered by a man who confirmed that oldest nephew had been brought in a couple of hours ago and was waiting to be examined. He wouldn't tell me what for. However, I was reassured that he'd been waiting a couple of hours because if he was badly hurt he wouldn't have been waiting to be seen by a doctor for that long.
I rang my mother and told her what I knew. She was slightly reassured. A few minutes later my mother rang again. My sister and youngest nephew had come back, leaving the eldest nephew to be looked after by his father as he'd now been examined by the doctor.
Turns out my oldest nephew had jumped out of a third storey (that's fourth storey for you Americans) window on a dare. Yes, of course it was stupid, but he's twelve. Boys of that age do stupid things, that's a given. But the idiotic mother of the boy who was hosting the sleepover didn't tell my sister what had happened, or take my eldest nephew to hospital, although she was sufficiently worried about him to sleep in the same room as him last night. He was in pain and crying for his mother at 1.30am but she told him it was too late and he'd have to wait until morning. Then, when he was clearly in pain in the morning she didn't mention it when she rang my sister up to suggest that he be brought back home by the parents of one of his friends. My sister, not knowing that anything was wrong, agreed. The upshot was that eldest nephew didn't arrive home until 2.00pm. My sister took one look at him and took him to hospital.
Eldest nephew performed his jump at 8.00pm last night.
Clearly there are some people who are not fit to be in charge of children. The stupid woman hosting the sleepover is one of them.
Eldest nephew has damaged his ankle and will have to be in a cast for a while. He was due to go away on holiday to Pontins for a few days tomorrow. I don't think that he'll enjoy it much. But it could have been so much worse. The doctors told him that he was lucky. He could have broken his back.
Boys, eh.
Mostly it consisted of work, work and yet more work, which is the price you pay when you've got a trial fast approaching. I interspersed the work with glancing at the Olympics which have been pretty damn good to date.
This afternoon I received a, well, hysterical is probably slightly too strong a word for it, phone call from my mother. She'd rung my sister up and the phone was answered by my youngest nephew who said that he couldn't stop because Daddy was just about to pick him up to take him to the hospital. His response to my mother's obviously alarmed enquiry about what was up was that my oldest nephew had jumped out of the window at a sleepover at a friend's house last night. Oh, and he'd got to go now, 'cos Daddy's here. Bye.
My mother immediately rang me. She was rather upset, even after my suggestion that oldest nephew couldn't be badly hurt, otherwise my youngest nephew would surely sound more upset than it sounds as if he was. I told my mother, who wasn't thinking clearly being far too upset, that I'd make some enquiries and get back to her.
I tried to contact my brother-in-law but his mobile was switched off.
So I did a websearch for hospitals in the area where my sister's family live. There really is only one possible hospital that my oldest nephew could have been taken to. So, I rang them up. The phone rang and rang. After 8 minutes of ringing it was answered by a man who confirmed that oldest nephew had been brought in a couple of hours ago and was waiting to be examined. He wouldn't tell me what for. However, I was reassured that he'd been waiting a couple of hours because if he was badly hurt he wouldn't have been waiting to be seen by a doctor for that long.
I rang my mother and told her what I knew. She was slightly reassured. A few minutes later my mother rang again. My sister and youngest nephew had come back, leaving the eldest nephew to be looked after by his father as he'd now been examined by the doctor.
Turns out my oldest nephew had jumped out of a third storey (that's fourth storey for you Americans) window on a dare. Yes, of course it was stupid, but he's twelve. Boys of that age do stupid things, that's a given. But the idiotic mother of the boy who was hosting the sleepover didn't tell my sister what had happened, or take my eldest nephew to hospital, although she was sufficiently worried about him to sleep in the same room as him last night. He was in pain and crying for his mother at 1.30am but she told him it was too late and he'd have to wait until morning. Then, when he was clearly in pain in the morning she didn't mention it when she rang my sister up to suggest that he be brought back home by the parents of one of his friends. My sister, not knowing that anything was wrong, agreed. The upshot was that eldest nephew didn't arrive home until 2.00pm. My sister took one look at him and took him to hospital.
Eldest nephew performed his jump at 8.00pm last night.
Clearly there are some people who are not fit to be in charge of children. The stupid woman hosting the sleepover is one of them.
Eldest nephew has damaged his ankle and will have to be in a cast for a while. He was due to go away on holiday to Pontins for a few days tomorrow. I don't think that he'll enjoy it much. But it could have been so much worse. The doctors told him that he was lucky. He could have broken his back.
Boys, eh.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 22 August 2004 13:54 (UTC)If I were your sister, I would slap that woman across the face. Hard. And I don't believe in physical violence. Please tell me the twit doesn't have children of her own.
God, this could have been so much worse. I mean, obviously it's bad. But blimey that kid is lucky.
Hugs to you and (very careful) hugs to your nephew, and I'm thinking up creative ways to murder that awful woman. She's like a grown-up out of a Roald Dahl story.
no subject
Date: 22 August 2004 14:01 (UTC)But then to do nothing about it. The mind boggles at the sheer stupidity. I don't think my sister will let eldest nephew go to any more sleepovers at her place.
And yes, he was very lucky.
Thanks for the hugs from a poor, unwell raincitygirl. They're much appreciated.
no subject
Date: 22 August 2004 14:22 (UTC)no subject
Date: 22 August 2004 14:26 (UTC)Thanks for the comment.
no subject
Date: 22 August 2004 14:32 (UTC)no subject
Date: 22 August 2004 18:17 (UTC)no subject
Date: 22 August 2004 23:41 (UTC)no subject
Date: 22 August 2004 19:52 (UTC)Jesus. Twelve year old boys will do stupid, dangerous things from time to time, yeah, because they're boys and because they're not old enough to have learned better, but how the hell can an adult be that stupid? I'm really glad your nephew came out of all that with only a relatively minor injury, no thanks to that idiot woman.
no subject
Date: 22 August 2004 23:43 (UTC)It's a mystery to me too. I would say that some people shouldn't be allowed to have children except that she already has.
My nephew was very, very lucky and it could have been so much worse but idiot woman certainly didn't help.
no subject
Date: 23 August 2004 02:42 (UTC)*blinks*
*reads again*
Boys will be boys, but that woman could do with a short sharp lesson on intelligent child care.
God, that kid is lucky.
no subject
Date: 23 August 2004 10:57 (UTC)I'm still amazed at the woman's sheer stupidity.
no subject
Date: 23 August 2004 15:21 (UTC)no subject
Date: 23 August 2004 23:15 (UTC)Weird.
no subject
Date: 23 August 2004 17:14 (UTC)no subject
Date: 23 August 2004 23:19 (UTC)And, *g* The day is yet young. You could rememdy that at any time...
I wouldn't recommend it, though. Well, duh! The reason why eldest nephew wasn't badly hurt is probably because his bones are still soft as he's still growing and they bend rather than break. An adult would almost certainly break an ankle, at least.
no subject
Date: 24 August 2004 09:54 (UTC)Thinking about the community, too, and also doing some re-training.
If I was that kid's father, I'd hit the woman over the head, btw.