4 Hospitals and 13 Stitches

Or, we could call it "Ethan's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad, Day!"

I was awake from 3-4 am with back pain after straining a muscle last evening, so I was happy to sleep in a bit. As Robert & I lay in bed talking, we made the mistake of asking "what should we do today?" Other than play practice for Ethan and making breakfast for the kids plus two extras we had accumulated, it was finally a "light" day.

I woke up all the kids at nine and suggested they all get started on homework. Downstairs in the kitchen I heard a muffled scream but it didn't register as troublesome, as Ethan & Aaron had been horse playing and having fun. A frightened Aaron came running to get us shortly after and I found Emily in Ethan's bathroom, calming a bleeding, screaming brother. At first I thought his lip was split in two, I later realized the wound began above the lip and ran up toward his nose for about a half an inch. They had resumed the sword fighting they were so enjoying last evening in his bedroom (yes, there is plenty of room for a duel!) but somehow they made contact when none had been intended.

Everyone including Molly's guest, Julie was given a job to do: stay with Ethan, get ice, clean blood out of the carpet, call the insurance company, call the local clinic! Thus began a very long day.

Selecting the best clinic or hospital was more difficult than we imagined and our insurance company was willing for us to go wherever we wanted. Since we had been to Royal Hyatt twice with good experiences, and it was super clean and new; we started there. They were happy to see us, but since it was a Saturday, no cosmetic surgeons were available. They advised us to go to Al Mubaric, the public trauma hospital across the way.

Ethan & I went inside hospital #2 while Robert parked and we could tell by the clientele that we were across the street but in a different world. Our first stop was the toilets and they were so revolting with no sign of hand soap, we promptly left. I could not possibly have him in there with an open wound.

After a couple of phone calls, we learned of another private hospital 3 miles away with a good reputation and drove on over. Al Mowasat Hospital was not fancy but clean. We tried to explain that our insurance had a contract with them and they had guaranteed payment, but they insisted we pay our flat fee of 15 KD ($52.oo) before being seen. Arguing, when English is barely spoken and understood is pretty futile, so we paid the fee and were ushered right into a room. An older surgeon entered promptly and scanned the wound. We asked about a cosmetic surgeon but he assured us that in Kuwait, cosmetic surgeons don't work on "fresh" wounds. He insisted the scar would be minimal and set out to repair it. Pleased that at least we didn't have a young intern, we carried on.

I began to get concerned when the doctor only cleaned around the outside of the wound, but never inside it. After he had numbed Ethan up, he was about to start suturing when I asked if he was going to irrigate and clean it "now that you've anaesthetised him?" He gave me a stone cold look and said "why don't you let me do my job?" Ah, sir, I realize you are the one holding the needle, but this is my son and I've spent a day or two in the ER....I didn't say that of course, but he DID pick up a spot of Betadine and make a cursory sweep over the wound before continuing. I thought in the end, the sutures looked appropriate, he put him on antibiotic, put a bandaid on which was to "stay on" (lasted less than an hour) and he sent us on our way.

Ethan was quite upset that he would not be able to audition for honor band on Sunday as he'd been practicing for; this is a big deal and those selected get to travel and perform in cool locations. He was also worried about missing the Oliver practice today. Since he was feeling well, we decided to take him, so others would not suffer from his absence even if he couldn't sing. Robert stayed, and was there when another careless student lunged and accidentally hit Ethan in the face. When I saw him, I began to fear that the edges of the wound were not tight enough...whether it was the second injury or not, I didn't know. I spoke to our reps in London several times and finally sent them a photo of his stitches so they could tell me if I was just being a over worried mom, in a panic about facial scarring on her little boy! They wanted to find me a plastic surgeon!!! By 7pm, they found a guy who was to be in clinic until 8. We got directions off the internet (rarely works around here) and dashed off in heavy traffic to find this place.

During the next hour and a half we traveled to the south of the country, and back north again to the city while talking to seemingly endless Indian nationals who spoke a version of English that was entirely meaningless to us. Our London liaisons were so amazing and somehow the doctor who stayed open till 8 was going to be there until 9. I was just about to give up and go buy steri strips to help hold him together, when I got a working phone number for the clinic. After speaking to yet another receptionist I couldn't understand, a man came on the phone and stayed with us through every turn, U-Turn, lite and wrong turn, until we pulled up to the high rise building. I thanked him and asked if he knew where in the building we could find the plastic surgeon and he said "mam, I AM the plastic surgeon and I'm on the 5th floor!"

By 9pm Ethan was back on the operating table getting his face re-opened, pumped full of anesthesia, and done properly. Thank God we persisted. He said he could only re-do it up to 24 hours after the injury, and it would have healed with a dip in his face because the muscle layer needed to be sutured separately from the skin. He thoroughly cleaned out the wound this time before sewing him back up. This guy was so great Ethan wanted us to give him a "tip!" When Robert payed the bill, we thought that was probably not necessary...the difference between a lousy job and a professional piece of work was well over a thousand US dollars!

Thank God for nagging doubts that make us push till we get answers. Thank God for good insurance and doctors, even though it takes all day to find them!