Thursday, November 13, 2003 AD My Brother Nearly Got Hisself Kilt Yesterday He was following my SIL someplace down I-95 where she was going to drop off her car for service. When she'd waited an hour and he still hadn't arrived, she knew something was wrong. She called her mom to come fetch her, and then started calling hospitals -- no luck. Finally she called the Northeast Police District and asked if they'd heard anything. They had been notified that one of their officers had been taken to shock trauma. Bingo.
His blood sugar had dropped and he'd blacked out and crashed. Considering this was rush hour, it's pretty incredible that he only went off the road and hit a tree rather than crashing into another car and causing a chain-reaction pile up. It's also pretty incredible that the only thing that seems to be wrong with him is that his hip was dislocated. They were even talking about sending him home last night, but they still weren't sure about internal bleeding.
D.J.'s been on desk duty for a couple years now. (I didn't even know that 'til this morning -- shows how close our family is!) He was scheduled to back on the beat last night. That'll never happen. He's only a couple years from retirement -- 20 years' service, I think, qualifies officers for full retirement benefits. I hope he'll at least be able to return to desk work for that long.
This was his third diabetes-related blackout. The first one happened when he was waiting in line at McDonald's. He knew his sugar was low, so he was trying to get something to eat, but the service was too slow. He broke a finger that time. Not even my mom knew there had been a second time 'til Sondra mentioned it yesterday, so I've no idea what those circumstances were.
Thanks be to God for mercy upon mercy that D.J. was spared from death or worse injury.
...
Just called Sondra. She was home desperately cleaning because she knew folks would be coming over. Evidently there was some bleeding in D.J.'s head, but that seems to have stopped. They weren't sure about one of his ankles so they were taking him to be X-rayed for possible fractures. He's in a lot of pain.
Their Impala is probably totalled. "It would have to be the Impala rather than the Saturn," she said, presumably referring to the relative worth of the two vehicles. "But then again the Saturn didn't have airbags so he'd probably be dead."
Sondra's Beetle had been rear-ended last weekend, and her sister's van had been wrecked the week before, so things aren't going well, carwise, for that family! Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 11/13/2003 12:45:00 PM
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