Keir fought the floor and the floor won

There was always an element of inevitability about it, but we've now seen the inside of an Indian A&E department. What's most surprising is that it's taken us 17 months to do so.


Indian houses have very hard floors, because they're easier to keep clean. Our floor is marble throughout. And Indian bathrooms don't put much stock in keeping water from the shower area from covering the entire bathroom floor. There's not more than a centimetre drop from the floor to the shower area. Even after lengthening the shower curtains so they would touch the floor, that's not enough to stop water from going everywhere. And marble is slippery when wet. And Keir's a nine year old boy.


Last night from Keir's bathroom there was a loud bang, and an even louder scream. I flew into his bedroom as he ran out of the bathroom and picked him up and carried him to the kitchen table, yelling Rod as I went. When I got to the table I was able to look to see what the damage was. I didn't need to look far. I yelled again: Rod. Blood. Rod says I have a very special "Rod Blood" voice, one that implies don't waste too much time getting to me. We have experience in this area.


Keir had obviously slipped in the bathroom, and used his face as a brake. He had grazed his cheekbone and his nose was swollen, but what really caught our attention was the 5cm (2") gash on his left browbone. Frankly, it was hard to look past it. Out came the first aid kit again. Thalia got towels and warm water. Rod cleaned the wound enough to determine how bad the injury was. On the sliding scale "The Cut on Keir's Foot", this was worse. We didn't go to A&E when Keir dropkicked the wineglass because we thought we were at least as able as an Indian hospital to deal with the injury. In hindsight, we should have gone for stitches. This time it was an easier call to make. Hospital, here we come!


Raju had already finished for the day, but Rod called him at home. The words "Keir, blood, hospital" worked slightly slower on Raju than on Rod, but he dropped his dinner and jumped on his motorbike and was with us in twenty minutes. The fact that he lives half an hour away means that he might have been a bit slow on the uptake but now he was making up for it. We used this time to temporarily bandage Keir's head, using gauze pads and the crepe bandage last put into action on his foot. We also collected passports, water bottles, biscuits, a quilt, anything we might need. Didn't know what the state of the hospital would be...


We all bundled into the car and set off for Max Hospital in Saket. Max Hospital is a couple of miles away, much much closer than Raju's home. However, it takes us half an hour to get there. It's a big, modern, Western style hospital. We rushed through the A&E doors and were pointed straight to a bed in the triage area. The first doctor wanted to know which hospital we had been to to get Keir's head bandaged. He looked at the wound and got another doctor. He looked at the wound and got another doctor. The third doctor said the A&E staff were able to stitch the wound, but it would be better if a plastic surgeon did it. We agreed...


So Keir was given some painkillers and we waited. And waited. The plastic surgeon arrived. Keir needed twenty surface stitches and five or so internal ones. Rod didn't count them. He said it was a bit gory. I just held Keir's hands and made sure I couldn't see! The plastic surgeon would make a good quilter, because his stitches were beautiful. Rod commented they were 12 to the inch!


My little soldier, the morning after. Pretty sure no one's going to notice his new haircut when he goes back to school tomorrow!