Hold onto those hands
Thursday April 05th 2007, 12:14 pm
Filed under: Knit,Knitting a Gift,Life


Nicholas’s dad sent a link to photos of what had happened. There was one showing his wife gently holding their son’s hand, with his fingers curled towards his mother’s, as the rescuers worked on him.

When I was in critical condition at Stanford four years ago, when they were infusing me with a then-experimental med that would either finish me off or save my life, they had every vital sign being monitored, and my blood pressure fell to 64/44 and was headed down. A nurse looked at the monitor and noticed. She reached for me and held me with one hand, saying, “You okay? Hang in there, honey.” She quickly snapped out orders to the other nurse (there may have been two others, it gets a bit blurry at this point) while she held onto me, never letting go. She never knew how much she was keeping me here by that simple touch and those words. She had no idea how strong an effect it had on me, how much I held onto it as my life raft.

I saw that picture of those two people I love and their hands together as that child lay in that snow under that ski lift.

And used my hands to work on a matching hat for the little brother whose big brother fell such an unbelievable fall. *I* needed to hold them gently, too.


6 Comments so far
Leave a comment

Gotta disagree with you; I bet she knew exactly how much affect it had on you — in her heart, if not in her mind.

Comment by Kristine 04.05.07 @ 6:28 pm

Oh, Kristine, I hope so. Either way, she did exactly the right things at the right times.

Kim at emergiblog.com linked to me today (I had no idea, when I agreed to being in her Grand Rounds today, about what was happening at the ski resort.) I hope some of those medical personnel reading my “This is for every person who has ever donated blood” post come up and read this, too. Maybe, just maybe, the nurses who took care of me will see today’s post; I can only hope. The ones who came to take care of me through that infusion, I never got their names and I never saw them again.

Comment by AlisonH 04.05.07 @ 9:55 pm

Oh, Kristine, I hope so. Either way, she did exactly the right things at the right times.

Kim at emergiblog.com linked to me today (I had no idea, when I agreed to being in her Grand Rounds today, about what was happening at the ski resort.) I hope some of those medical personnel reading my “This is for every person who has ever donated blood” post come up and read this, too. Maybe, just maybe, the nurses who took care of me will see today’s post; I can only hope. The ones who came to take care of me through that infusion, I never got their names and I never saw them again.

Comment by AlisonH 04.05.07 @ 9:56 pm

(What is up with Blogger doubleposting comments!)

Comment by AlisonH 04.05.07 @ 10:07 pm

The same thing happened to a classmate in college. The whole lift he was in crashed to the ground.

He was able to come back that same semester! (it happened over winter break). I think he literally lived at the infirmary for a while but he was there and graduated on time (from a competitive school).

I hope this story may give everyone a greater sense of relief and hope. [I think this kid may have broken a part of his back, but no paralysis, etc. As I recall he continued to ski! I don’t think I would have.)

charlizeen@yahoo.com

Comment by Anonymous 04.06.07 @ 2:03 am

wow, what a story. you have some brave friends! i’m SURE that knitting for that boy will be healing for everyone; many times people tell me that the items i make for them feel “therapeutic”

Comment by anne 04.06.07 @ 2:55 pm



Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

(required)

(required)