I was Once in a Sack with Cord around My Neck

Originally Posted on January 30, 2010

I am going to tell you about another near fatal incident that happened to me. Although my previous blog about my near drowning was written from my own perspective of how I experienced it and what’s in my own memory; this is only told based on the description by my family as I have no recollection of it whatsoever, all that remains as a reminder is a physical scar.

The year was 1970 and I was a little girl of 4. I was at home with my sister who was 10 and some of here friends. My mom was home and in her bedroom upstairs. My sister and her friends were acting pretty goofy dancing and playing a Beatles album on the record player. I wanted to join in the fun so I climbed up on to the step stool in our kitchen. It looks like this…we still have it in the family…

So I guess I was trying to be taller like my sister and all of her friends. I was dancing on top of the stool and then I slipped off of the chair. Somehow I landed on my face and my nose hit the bottom of the kitchen table leg. My kitchen table looked something like this with the legs that sprawl out from it. But the legs on our table were squared off and not round like this which made them sharp.

I hit the ground pretty hard I guess because it knocked me out cold. When my nose hit the metal table leg it sliced clean through my flesh on the side and blood squirted and started to pool on the ground around my head. My sister ran up stairs to get my mom while her friends gathered around me. Everyone thought I was dead because I was motionless with blood everywhere. My mom came rushing down and she thought I was dead too, but she checked me and realized that I was breathing after all. She also noticed that my nose was sliced half off of my face! She grabbed a kitchen towel to apply pressure and subdue the bleeding.

So she drove me to the emergency room while my sister held the towel in place on my face. We lived directly across the street from the hospital; it was less than a mile away. Then they revived me from being knocked out and I guess I was screaming a lot. My nose needed stitches as it had been sliced off pretty bad on the side from hitting the table. So being a rambunctious 4 year old I was kicking and screaming and they were unable to control me. So they put me in a canvas like sack with cord around my neck. They did this so that I wouldn’t punch and kick them while they worked on me. My mom said it was a terrible sight to see. But I think she probably liked it because she always liked all of that gory stuff! Ha!

Anyway, they did a good job of mending me because my nose looks okay. If one looks closely at my nose, the stitch marks can be seen up the side, but I guess it’s not too bad.