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Over the past coupie of weeks the downtown streets of Terrace seem to
have grown permanent boulevards as city crews try to give traffic
somewhere to go. The January ‘90 snowfall, however, was no match for
the record breaking month last year, coming out to less than half at 128. 9°

centimeters. This month could be a different story:
February ‘89 set a record low for precipitation with only 1.4
millimeters; in the. first five days of February ‘ ‘30 we've

The way
I see it...

by Stephanie Wiebe |

A few weeks ago, a spokes-
man for the hospital stated that
our emergency room costs were

skyrocketing, that people were

: meedlessly using the emergency

~“room: for-non-emergency medi-
‘cal treatment. Granted, we do
have to be careful of the
escalating medical care costs,
and patients often use the
emergency room unnecessarily,
but how does one determine
' just what constitutes an emer- |
gency or a non-emergency?
Anybody who's sick-for two
weeks and just can’t be
bothered to make an appoint-
ment at a clinic, but finally
ends up in emergency at 10:30
‘some night, is abusing the
system and unnecessarily driv-
ing up the costs. But those of
us with children face a dif-
ferent situation — do hospital
personnel realize that there are
children who live dangerous
| lives, tempting fate at every
turn, causing parents every-
where to visit emergency rooms
on a regular basis? I’ve got one
of these daredevil children.
The incidents never happen
during office hours, The -
minute the doctor packs it in

for the day, these children sud-
denly spring into action, swing-
ing from lights, hanging from.
showerheads, climbing onto
anything above six feet. As the
doctor gets into his car, look-
ing forward to a peaceful eve-
ning of bridge-playing, these
children are terrorizing house-
holds throughout the nation.

First there’s the pre-dinner
antics. The sibling rivalry (a
sophisticated term for beating
the heck out of your brother),
the usual hanging on the cup-
board door (whining about the
meatloaf or whatever nutri-
tional dish is planned for sup-
per), and the traditional search
for whatever-it-is-Mom-doesn’t-
want-me-to-find. This scene is
only the preliminary buildup
for an “emergency room eve-
ning’’.

After leaning back danger-
ously in the dining room chair,
spilling milk and kicking sib-
lings under the table, the eve-
ning meal is finished, and the
child moves on to pre-bedtime
antics. While Mom and Dad
have a quiet cup of tea, the
child elther tortures the cat,
tortures the sibling, or tortures

some expensive furniture.
Hanging upside-down on a sofa
is popular with the older set,
while crawling underneath the
sofa is more common with the

- “under six’’ age group. Either

way, the possible injuries are
endless.

Finally, having survived the
early evening, the daredevil
child moves on to the most
crucial step towards an ‘‘emer-
gency room evening”’ — bed-
time. This is a cosy loving
scene, with bedtime stories,
drinks of water, and a night-
light, fooling exhausting

parents over and over again in-

to. thinking: their child is safe in
his own bed, A common ruse.
The moment the parent

leaves the room, anything can
happen. The child proceeds to
find a way to secretly injure
himself. He can walk on the
headboard of the bed (like a
tight-rope artist) and fall, pro-
ducing a multitude of blood

and screaming, .he can earnestly .

shove a Ninja Turtle figure into
his car, producing more blood

and screaming, or he can climb =
his dresser, causing 60 pounds
of wood and clothing to squash
‘his vital organs. Or he can oh-
s0-quietly pad out into the
hallway and climb up into the
cupboards, search out a crib-
bage board and put a cribbage:
peg up his nose to see how far
it will go. The possibilities in a’
young mind are endless.

And how are we, medically .
naive parents, to-decide which.
of these childhood antics are
emergencies? Surely there’s a
way to outline emergency/non-
emergency situations for the |
layman — couldn’t hospitals

publish a booklet for parents to

have on hand, listing the com-
mon home injuries worthwhile

’ treating in the emergency

room? For example, the Ninja
Turtle in the ear would prob-
ably wait until morning, assum-
ing the entire figure was not
imbedded into the eardrum. A
cribbage peg up the nose war-
rants further inspection: How

_ far did the peg go? Is the child

in expreme pain? Did you plan

| Is this a an emergency?

‘to play cribbage that night?

Hospitals should publish rules
about these situations.

Through personal experience, |

I have developed my own set of
Tules regarding an ‘“‘emergency
room evening”. I have found
that blood is not always a good

‘measure of trauma, i.c., a lot

of blood does not always mean
the injury is an emergency.

” Head wounds always bleed pro-

fusely, it’s God’s way of scar-

ing you. And, I’ve learned that
hysterical screaming is not a
dependable measure of pain or
trauma — I can usually stop
myself when the blood is clean-
ed up. Also, swallowed Yahtzee
dice do not show up on an
X-ray. These are important
things to know.

And finally, there are doc-
tors who still make house calls,
Such occasions are rare and the
situation must.warrant such an
inconvenience, but it does hap-
pen. Maybe if a five-year-old is
walking on the headboard like
a tightrope walker and falls...
well, there’s an exception to
every rule, eh?

Inside Section B —

Arts and Entertainment, B2... Business,
B6... Alle Toop, B8... Kids and industry

‘

get acquainted, B10 and B14.

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