I wasn’t sure what to do first. I immediately asked one of the officers where my daughter was, and he said she was in the back of the ambulance. I quickly located an ambulance and was irritated to find two people in the front of the cab, eating. I knocked on the door to get the passenger’s attention and asked to see my daughter. “Wrong ambulance,” he replied, pointing to another ambulance. Apparently those two guys had simply parked to grab a bite to eat — wrong place, wrong time. At the second ambulance I found Morgan, with oxygen over her mouth and tears in her eyes. The EMTs assured me she was okay for the moment, and so from there I was off to talk to the police officers. One of the officers had been on the other side of the intersection and recorded the incident on his dash cam. I watched the video, and didn’t completely comprehend what had happened. It appeared that Morgan simply turned off the road and proceeded to careen through the OnCue parking lot until she struck a large concrete support post at around 45mph, which stopped the car. The impact set off the airbags, and the seatbelt broke her collarbone. While I was talking with the police, the EMTs checked Morgan for low blood sugar or signs of a seizure, and we also checked to make sure she was not texting while she was driving. Morgan can’t explain exactly what happened, but it appears when approaching the intersection she mistakenly hit the gas pedal instead of the brake. That caused the car to lurch, and at that point she lost control. With a case number in hand, Morgan climbed into my car and we were off to the emergency room. Susan, who had ditched both her suitcase and her flight, said she would meet us there. Morgan and I arrived five minutes before Susan, and waited to walk in together. By that point, Morgan’s adrenaline was wearing off, being replaced by pain. We were in the emergency room for about three hours. X-rays confirmed a pretty serious break in Morgan’s collarbone. Nurses informed us that broken collarbones aren’t emergency surgeries and that we would need to schedule an appointment with a pediatrician to read the x-rays and determine the proper course of action. In between x-rays and consultations, an employee came into the room with a portable credit card reader to ensure we paid before skipping out on the bill. On Monday, Susan made an appointment for Morgan with a local pediatrician on Tuesday. (Morgan spent all of Monday on the couch, enjoying Doritos, Impractical Jokers, and Lortab.) At Tuesday’s appointment, the surgeon took more x-rays and explained to us that if the two ends of the collarbone were less than 20mm apart, they could be manipulated and coerced into reattaching with a sling. Morgan’s were nearly 35mm apart, which meant surgery was the best option. The surgeon that the waiting time for surgery was sometimes weeks, but that he’d had a cancellation for Wednesday, and although this felt like things were moving very quickly, if we were ready, he would pencil Morgan in for surgery at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday. 
Wednesday morning, Susan, Morgan, and I arrived at the Yukon Integris hospital. So many family members wanted to come and wait in the waiting room, but due to COVID we were told no more than two people would be able to see her, and to keep visitors to a bare minimum. After two hours, Morgan was wheeled back right on time. The surgeon used a titanium plate to reattach Morgan’s collarbone, with three screws on each side for a total of six. All of the stitches are on the inside, so there are no stitches or staples that need to be removed. The surgeon said she may be left with a “pencil-line scar,” or it may completely disappear. Either way, she will be setting off metal detectors for the rest of her life. The surgery took about two hours, after which Morgan spent two more hours recovering. The procedure was out-patient, and just a little after noon the three of us were headed back home. Morgan and her brother have been hanging out on the couch, watching television and funny YouTube videos. Her arm will be in a sling for the immediate future, and she has followings in two and six weeks. Unfortunately, because of the accident she missed a band trip this week, and next week is spring break, so she won’t be missing that many school days. If there is a common bond all parents share, it’s the impossible wish of wanting to swap places with your kids and take away their pain. Pulling up to a parking lot full of emergency vehicles was scary, and waiting for your child to get out of surgery is nerve-wracking, but seeing Morgan in pain in the emergency room was the absolute worst. It’s all too easy to worry about what could have happened — and trust me, after seeing tire tracks that nearly missed gas pumps, cars, and pedestrians, we’ve all gone through that over the past few days — at some point you have to put that aside and deal with what did happen. Nobody else got hurt, and most importantly, Morgan’s going to be okay. Similar Posts: Source: https://www.robohara.com/?p=13493
