Avocado Accident

This post is written by Jason. We thought that it might be interesting to hear the story from his perspective. Besides, I can't exactly type at the moment...

Kim was cutting an avocado on the couch around 6:30 last night, and she used the pointed end of our Cutco paring knife to stab the pit to get it out. The knife went right through pit and the other half of the avocado into Kim's left palm, right below her forefinger. She usually cuts avocados on the counter, but we were watching Next Food Network Star. ;-)

When she told me she needed help, I looked over and saw her palm was filled with blood. It was spurting quite a bit. I began panicking, but she was fairly calm. We grabbed a bottle's worth of milk from freezer and ran out the door to go to urgent care at the Yale University Health Services, armed with a whole roll of paper towels to keep the bleeding under control.

We checked in there at 6:51 and by 7:10 she had been seen by the doctor, who referred us to the emergency department at the hospital because she didn't have the resources to check on Kim's tendons, nerves, etc.

At UHS, I was so grateful that Kim was seen immediately, but even on a not-so-busy night at the hospital ED, things still took a lot longer. They took Kim back at 8:15. She was back in a bay for 2 and a half hours while they gave her an antibiotic via IV, did X-rays, irrigated the wound, and suggested some safer ways to pit an avocado! The X-ray showed that things were fine internally. The irrigation was painful, and afterward, the surrounding area became swollen and pink. They kept an eye on that for a while before discharging her. They didn't close the wound because it's deep enough that they want it to be able to drain on its own. She's supposed to keep it iced for a few days, take an antibiotic, and go to her doctor for a wound check tomorrow. She has pretty good mobility in her hand, but I'll probably have to help her maneuver Hudson and such for a little while.

Hudson was wonderful the whole night... I thought I'd have to entertain him, but he entertained me! He fell asleep around 8:45. He woke up just before Kim was discharged, but he was cheerful as could be. Once we got home, we did our bedtime routine 3 hours later than usual, and he fell right back asleep.

At the hospital, I sat right under the TV in the waiting room. I could see the reflection of the screen on the opposite windows. It was tuned to the Food Netwook, so I still got to see the new episode of Next Food Network Star. After waiting for a few hours, I was getting bored and thinking of all the ways this system could be made more efficient. Then I considered what this situation might have been like if we were in an out-of-the-way village in Cameroon. I was struck with how blessed our family is are to have virtually immediate access to healthcare that's completely free to us. Kim saw a doctor less than half an hour after her accident, and even after antibiotics, X-rays, and 3 hours of care at the hospital, we had no copays or fees. This morning we picked up another antibiotic from our grocery store pharmacy, and because of the store's policy, that was free too. It seemed like such an ordeal for me to have to sit and watch TV in a waiting room for 3 hours -- but in another part of the world, I could have been driving for 3 hours (or many more) on bumpy roads with a bleeding wife and a crying baby, only to find that the nearest hospital doesn't have the medical staff or supplies we need. I needed this reminder of how abundantly God provides for us!

Here's a picture of Kim with her bandaged hand:

After we got home, I took a photo of the plate with the avocado and knife, which had been sitting on the table all evening. There's definitely some blood in the shot, but if you'd like to see it, it's HERE. If you look closely at the top of the avocado half on the right, you can see the line where the knife went through into Kim's hand.