I'm only Six!
As told to her mother
We were having a fun summer vacation. First Mommy and I flew to the East Coast for my Aunt's wedding. Then we flew back with my cousins Justin and Lauren. Daddy took off work the whole 2 weeks they were here and we did lots of fun stuff. We went to amusement parks and the beach, we saw lighthouses and the Redwoods.
Mommy was in the kitchen making us lunches, and Daddy was working in the backyard. Sissis (what I call my 8 year sister) and me were swinging from the tire swings in the front yard. Aunt Michelle (not the one that got married) was getting ready to take us to the beach again and we were just waiting for everyone to get ready.
Sissis wanted to twist me around and around in the tire swing. We've done it a million times before and it's fun. I sit in the swing and she twists me around. The swing gets higher and higher and then she lets go and I spin around and around and get real dizzy. It goes so fast!
"Are you ready, Amanda?" my sister asked me.
"Yes!" I yelled in excitement.
She let go and the rope holding the swing snapped. At first I was confused. Then I started to scream. So did Sissis. I couldn't move and I was scared.Then I couldn't breath and I reached out for her hand but she stood there screaming. I fell onto the hard plastic tire swing and then onto the ground.
First daddy ran out, he looked scared. He picked me up but I still couldn't breath. Then mommy ran out and she was very scared too. She looked at my sister, then at me and neither one of us could talk. She was bent down in front of me and asking what was wrong. I couldn't answer her cause nothing would come out. She saw my lips moving but no words so she started to cry and yell real loud. "What happened?" over and over.
Then Daddy laid me on the living room floor and finally I could breathe again but I still couldn't talk. Everyone was standing over top of me and I was scared. My back hurt so bad, and my chest hurt every time I tried to talk. I could only say "My back," and boy did it hurt.
Mommy called the doctor and started crying again, she told the doctor she wasn't sure what happened but that I couldn't breathe and that my back hurt. The doctor told her to call the ambulance.
Daddy didn't say much, he just held my hand. Mommy was up and down, sometimes leaning over me kissing my face, sometimes walking back and forth in the living room. She sent my cousins and my sister to the back of the house so they weren't there any more.
I heard the sirens and it scared me more. I cried for my stuffed puppy and Daddy got it right away. Two men came in and were leaning over me. One man got behind my head and put his hands on the side of my head. He said, "Hi there, Cutie. My name is Johnny, what's yours?" But I couldn't hear him the first time.
The other man was smiling at me and said his name was Roy and wanted to know where I hurt. But I couldn't hear him either. He said, "Honey, can you hear me?" and I just looked at him. I saw my mommy say something to them and then the man holding my head moved his hands. Then Roy asked me, "Can you hear me?" and I said, "Yes!" They both smiled. I couldn't hear anyone because the man holding my head had his hands on my ears. Everyone thought that was funny.
They wanted to know what happened and my Daddy told them. Another man came in with a board and a funny looking thing. They wanted to put the funny thing on my neck but I was afraid. Johnny leaned down and whispered to me that it wouldn't hurt and that I shouldn't be scared. So I let them put it around my neck. Then I couldn't move my head. Then they put something around my mouth and nose and said it would help me breath. It didn't do a very good job.
Then a bunch more people came in. Mommy and Daddy were still looking scared but all the fireman were so nice to me. They put me on that board and then tied me to it. I didn't like that one bit but Roy told me that it was to help me for the ride to the hospital. Then he asked if I ever took a ride in an ambulance before. I told him no and I didn't want to ride in his either. He giggled at me then and promised he'd hold my hand the whole way.
Roy and Johnny lifted me up and walked to the front door. I cried for Mommy and Daddy. Mommy was crying and Daddy said he would ride with me in the ambulance. Mommy was going to drive our car there, she said. They carried me across the yard and all I could see were the trees because I couldn't move anything. The handed me over the fence to other fireman. I looked at Roy and he smiled at me. He told me not to worry that he'd be right with me.
The inside of the ambulance was neat. They had all kinds of stuff in there. Daddy and Roy rode with me all the way to the hospital. Daddy held my hand when the sirens came on. Those scared me.
We got to the hospital fast. They carried me through two doors then laid me on a bed. A doctor and nurse came over quickly and the doctor asked Daddy and me a bunch of questions. Then they took the backboard off but they kept the neck thing on. I didn't like that.
Roy said I was brave and he was proud of me. He said he has a little girl just my age and that I would like her. Daddy shook his hand and Roy said goodbye to me. He was a nice man.
I asked for my Mommy and Daddy said he could see her coming in the doors. Roy and Johnny stopped her outside to talk to her a minute. Then they showed her were I was. I was so happy to see her. She wanted to know how I felt and I told her my back didn't hurt so much but my chest sure did.
Just then the nurse came back and put something on my finger. She said it wouldn't hurt, they were checking my oxygen. A few minutes later she took the mask off. I'm glad – I didn't like that, and I think it scared my parents.
The doctor said my back was fine but he wanted to take pictures of the bones in my chest and neck. He said it would be a few minutes and Mommy asked if my sister could see me cause she was scared. The doctor said sure so Mommy went to the other room and got her. I was happy to see her and she gave me a kiss on the cheek. Then Mommy took her back to the other room with my Aunt and cousins.
A nice man came in and said he had to take pictures of my bones. He pushed the bed into another room and took lots of x-rays. Then he took me back to the other room and we waited for the doctor to come back. The doctor walked back in and said that nothing was broken but that I had torn muscles in my chest. That's why I couldn't breathe. Then he told me I had to roll on my belly and push myself up instead of sitting up from lying on my back. My parents smiled and thanked him. He gave them some medicine for me and then said I had to see my regular doctor.
Daddy lifted me up and carried me to the car. We drove back home and everyone was happy I was okay. When we pulled into the driveway Daddy asked me if I wanted him to hang the swing back up and me and Sissis said no at the same time.
The next day Mommy said we were going to the firehouse to bring brownies and a thank you card to Roy and Johnny. I'm only six, but I think I'm going to be a fireman when I grow up. Ambulances aren't that scary after all.
Authors note: This incident is real and happened just last year. Amanda is fine and other then being afraid of the tire swing, she's recovered nicely.
"I Am Only 6" ©1999 Amanda Taylor. "Emergency!" and its characters © Mark VII Productions, Inc. All rights reserved. No infringement of any copyrights or trademarks is intended or should be inferred. This is a work of fiction, and any similarity to actual persons or events is purely coincidental.
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