Freak Accidents

My oldest son was involved in an accident last week. A freak accident is what I would call it. We were at a department store about to exit. As we were leaving we passed through the exercise equipment area. My daughter & my son ran ahead of me. My daughter jumped onto a treadmill. I called to them as we were leaving. I saw my son run over to an exercise station which had pulley weights. I see him bend down and then I see this weight lifting bench fall down from an upright position. I see him quickly move not realizing that  he didn't quite get out of the way. He comes running toward me screaming with blood gushing out of his right thumb.

The next 10 minutes involved store employees running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to find some ice and a towel to wrap his profusely bleeding thumb. Eventually a female employee grabbed a blouse off a hanger and used it to wrap around his thumb to stop the bleeding. My son crying kept asking for his daddy. My parents fortunately were also in the store but not present when the accident occurred. I had my father stay with my daughter to wait for someone to fill out an accident report. My mother came with me to the hospital so she rode in the back seat to keep pressure on his hand while I drove.

The verdict was he broke his thumb in 3 places. The concern is the growth plate break. He ended up needing surgery and two pins to try and put everything back together. He is wearing a cast and will have it on for 4 weeks. Only time will tell if this break will affect the growth of his thumb or if he has range of motion issues or nerve damage.

The store has called and is launching an investigation. The verdict will be their fault as the weight bench was not properly secured. My son bumped it and it fell. End of story.
I am thankful it wasn't worse. That it didn't fall on his head or that it didn't severe his finger all together. He's young so hopefully that will play in his favor during this whole healing process. So with that said "Let the healing begin".