My parents, over from Australia, pottered around the house as we readied ourselves to head to the coral beaches on the Isle of Skye, making the most of the glorious weather on our last full day on the island.
The road was single lane with some passing points to the beaches, a good 25 minutes from the nearest village, Dunveagan and a double lane road. The views were stunning and Squeaky was happy in his car seat with my mum on one side and me on the other. We arrived in the carpark and parked our big hire 4x4 and unloaded ourselves. We decided the gravel was too much for the stroller, so we would pop Squeaky in the sling, same as we had the previous days before. I was wearing the sling as I was worried about Mr Gin’s back. Off we went.
The path was smooth and gravelly and smelled of sheep. Squeaky was happily watching the world from my chest and I chatted to him and my mum as we went along, the gravel changed into larger rounded stones and I slowed so my mum could keep up. I lost my footing.
I screamed and watched in slow motion as the ground came up to meet us, and my baby’s face went from smile to scared to screaming as his head hit the ground. I fell to the left trying to protect him and my hip replacement. His little head bounced on the rocks and all I could do was hold him as he screamed. Mr Gin got me to get up as I lost the plot because all I could see was Squeaky’s head hitting the rock and all I could say was he hit his head through my tears.
As Mr Gin pulled Squeaky out of the sling I could see a huge bump along the side of Squeaky’s head. Mr Gin pulled his hood over his head and we went back to the car, Squeaky crying all the way. Between us we got him in his car seat, my dad got us out of the car park and we drove out. Squeaky was screaming and I was doing my best to get him to settle. We had no phone signal and knew Portree had a small hospital but it was almost an hour by car over the island. I called 112 and got through; I wanted to call ahead to the hospital to let them know we were coming. They couldn’t do that so they put me through the ambulance. We could tell them what road we were on but the dispatcher wanted us to pull over. We parked in Dunveagan Castle carpark and Mr Gin took over the call as I didn’t know what was better to wait for an ambulance. We waited 25 minutes for an ambulance, with Squeaky screaming and crying, the ambulance had to come from Portree.
The ambulance arrived, Squeaky had not settled, as he was so little and had a huge bump they took us to Broadford, the only hospital on the island with a Doctor on duty. It was an hour away. Mr Gin followed in the car as Graham drove the ambulance and Richard, a very kindly man, assessed the pair of us. He asked if Squeaky would be ready for a feed and suggested to do that. He stopped screaming. Graham avoided potholes as I sat on the gurney looking at the huge swelling on his head. He stopped feeding and drifted off to sleep. I was worried but Richard said it was fine, he periodically checked that Squeaky would grip his finger and checked for signal so he could call the hospital. We were going to Dr MacKinnon Memorial Hospital as they had a rural practitioner on duty, Dr Alistair Innes, who Richard said was the best person on the island to look at Squeaky. He finally got signal to call the hospital and alerted them we were coming in.
We arrived and checked in a considerably perkier Squeaky and I was starting to feel, along with the huge guilt, that maybe we were over reacting.
We waited and a fellow in scrubs came by and told us were next, we had the stroller of Squeaky and he seemed chilled. A nurse showed Mr Gin, Squeaky and me into their one and only emergency room with a lone bed. She took lots of details and then examined Squeaky’s head. The huge swelling had gone down and Squeaky cried as she prodded the spot. She was not happy with his response and called in Dr Innes to look too. He was not overly happy and sent us off for an x-ray as there is no other scanning equipment on the island.
What followed was heart breaking as Squeaky cried as we had to hold him in position. This was awful but needful to get the x-rays.
We were called in by Dr Innes to look at the x-rays. This showed a fractured skull. He felt that Squeaky needed a CT scan to rule out bleeding, even though Squeaky was pretty perky and smiley regardless of his ordeal. We knew Inverness was the nearest big hospital, 150 miles away. Dr Innes was not happy to send him there because if there was bleeding he wanted a specialised paediatric team to be there on site. This meant Glasgow, Edinburgh or Aberdeen. We were scheduled to leave from Edinburgh in two days’ time. At this moment I was very teary and he stopped the tears by saying, I will call the hospitals, find out who has space and which one the helicopter can take you to.
Helicopter? Yes. Skye only has 4 ambulances running at one time and to take one out for a 10 hour round trip is not feasible and there was no way he was going to allow us to drive him across. We were to wait in one of the 24 beds the hospital had to find out which hospital we were to be flown to.
I was to fly as I was feeding Squeaky; they needed to know how much I weighed. Mr Gin would drive to the holiday house and with my parents pack it all up, and drive to the hospital we were going to. A minimum five hour drive. Squeaky charmed the nursing staff and I waited to be told where we were going to. The isolation of our holiday location really set in.
Dr Innes came back; it was Glasgow, the Royal Children’s hospital part of the Princess Elizabeth hospital. The Helicopter would be in there in an hour. I messaged Mr Gin, ate something and tried not to cry as my little boy played with his doll oblivious to how this day was going. Dr Innes arranged that we would not have to put IV drips into Squeaky and we would not be met with a crash team as he felt that scaring the both of us more would not be needful.
The ambulance crew from Broadford, Ian and John arrived to pick us up and drove us to the airfield. There I watched the helicopter land through the window as I held a sleeping Squeaky in my arms, he sleeps in vehicles well.
Breastfeeding in a medivac helicopter and four point harness. Scotland flying below me, beautiful mountains and lochs. Squeaky cried every time he came off, in the end he fed for about 40 minutes after that he was so full he fell asleep. The views were lovely but in the end I was focused on the tiny man in my arms and struggling with feeling guilty that it was my fall that got him here.
Glasgow came into view and I was told that we were landing on the roof of the hospital. Eck!We landed an experience that is scary and gut wrenching but smooth due to the very good pilot. We waited for the fireman to get us (an onsite guy, it was health and safety), he put us in a wheelchair and rolled us down the crazy ramps to the lifts that took us into the children’s accident and emergency department. I bid farewell to these men who bought us here, feeling a little guilty that I missed half the information due to my stress and their accents.
We were then handed over to Dr Nic, she was lovely and reassuring and checked Squeaky head to toe, getting all his history. She checked his head and said Dr Innes had been very good to pick up there was more than just a bump on the head. She noted that Squeaky was very alert and happy but they would do a CT scan. It was 8pm on a Sunday by this stage. They were not sure if they would call in the radiographer on call in or wait till the morning. She wanted the consultant on duty to look at him to see which way to go. The consultant, Ms Cameron, felt he should be looked at this evening and called the radiographer in. She then offered to look after Squeaky while I went to the loo. He threw up on her!
The CT scan happened close to 10pm, with Laura (?) who was wonderful, poor Squeaky was not happy being strapped in and she calmed him with a dose of sugar syrup. It was funny watching his eyes light up. I wore a lead apron and held his hand as he was scanned.Down in the E&A department we waited for the scan to be processed and the report from the radiographer. We were going to be kept in overnight. I had no signal and only knew Mr Gin had left Skye and was driving across to us and thought he would be there at 1am.
We were walked up to the ward through the staff corridors. I found out the hospital was only a couple years old. It was bright and modern but by this stage both of us were exhausted. We were handed over to the ward staff, and were shown a private room with a cot in it. Also a pull down single bed for me and an ensuite! They found me a sandwich and drink and told me it would be two hour observations as it was a head injury. I changed Squeaky, fed him and settled him, all sleepy and full and held his hand as he slept when the painkillers took effect.
I had signal and Mr Gin was in Glasgow, in a hotel and coming to the hospital. He arrived after midnight with a bag of clothing for us and my wash bag. I had left Skye in the clothing I was standing up in and change bag for the day. The hospital had already given us some nappies.
Mr Gin left after cuddles and I settled in for the night. In the morning I was tired as Squeaky woke a lot due to wanting to feed for both food and comfort. I didn’t want to give him his normal formula and as a result was a little tired as I didn’t sleep well. I kept seeing his little face before he hit the ground. Rachel the night nurse was lovely and managed to not wake him too much and didn’t mind when I cried.
I was up for ward rounds and found out they were fairly happy there was not brain injury but hospital protocol was that he would be kept for 48 hours and as he under one with head fracture child protection team would be involved. This made sense but did put our travel plans in jeopardy.
The paediatrician came in later to go over the incident and look at other tests. He was to have an eye test to see if there was any eye damage and possibly an MRI to rule out small bleeds and x-rays to check for any other fractures.
Mum and Dad arrived, with Mr Gin who had lunch for me as I failed at breakfast. Squeaky was very happy and chirpy but grumpy when moved the wrong way. I asked for pain killers for him.
Mr Gin and spoke with the medical team, they were happy with Squeaky’s eyes and our story. They didn’t want to do any more investigations but he had to stay in another night just to be on the safe side.
I had a walk while Mr Gin looked after the lad, then they went off to relax at the hotel. Poor Squeaky was tired and out of sorts, very clingy, very understandable. We played in his cot, on my bed, playing with his toys and some provided by the hospital. Lots of silly songs and cuddles.
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| Funny pupils for the eye exam. |
He wouldn’t settle for a nap and by the time Mr Gin returned with my dinner I was a little frazzled and Squeaky not wanting to be put down. A doctor arrived to tell us that things were being put in place for a quick getaway in the morning if the night went well.
Between the two of us we got him to sleep in his cot and I hugged Mr Gin a lot before trying to sleep. Rachel was back and didn’t wake Squeaky when he slept for 6 hours straight.
In the morning I packed up, not sure if we were leaving.
Morning rounds confirmed they were happy for him to leave, child protection where happy that his injuries were accidental and the medical team felt the fracture would heal quickly with no intervention.
It was the quickest discharge I have experienced. They were wonderful. By 9.30am we were out and waiting for Mr Gin to pick us up.
Not the end of a family holiday anyone would want but I do have say this. The care we received was world class. Everyone was caring a reassuring as things escalated. The NHS is amazing, they looked after my beautiful boy so well and made sure he was not too broken. All this because we pay taxes for this service. It is astounding. Also, isolated communities need better services, a CT scanner for the population of Skye and close islands would save a lot of helicopter flights. The Glasgow Royal Children's Hospital and Dr MacKinnon Memorial Hospital, a huge hospital and small hospital are amazing.
I have a lot of guilt with the whole thing, we had agreed early on that Mr Gin would wear sling because my hips meant I fell but I had not fallen for ages and I had worn the sling around a lot, safely. Needless I will not be using the sling again and not holidaying in isolated places for quite some time.
The most important thing, besides a rapidly fading bruise, Squeaky is okay and still amazing.
