If you’re friends with me in real life, or maybe just on the internet, you know I had a vacation to Florida with my parents planned from Oct 3-24th.
Well, I’m clearly not there. The afternoon of our departure ended up being the hugest test of ”don’t lose your mind in public” I think I have or ever will faced.
Bear with me, this is a bit of a story.
I’ll fast forward to actually being at the airport. Everything is going flawlessly. I wasn’t the slightest bit anxious, which was something I was stressing out over for weeks prior, because, well, I’m an anxious mess when it comes to travelling, and I haven’t been on a plane since I was maybe 13.
Anyway.
Our flight was at Gate 14. We were just approaching Gate 12, going along the moving walkway, because moving walkways are fun because I am a child.
Then we got off the walkway.
At the airport, there’s a strip of metal covering the spot where the walkway ends and the concrete begins. Here’s a photo for reference:
*not the actual walkway in question.
Turns out, said metal strip was not properly bolted down and was sticking up about 1/4 of an inch. That doesn’t seem very high, but it was high enough to catch the tip of my mother’s shoe.
All I heard was a hard smack noise, and she was laying on the floor on her right side.
I swear my heart stopped for about 5 seconds.
First thought: OH MY FUCK SHE HIT HER HEAD OH MY GOD OH MY FUCK.
Then I noticed both her bag and her right arm were underneath her head. But her eyes were closed. So I rushed over and bent down beside her, asking her if she was okay and if she could hear me. She said yes (sigh of fucking relief here) but her shoulder hurt REALLY bad. No sooner had she said that, than a woman bent down beside me, announcing she was a Doctor.
I could have kissed this woman. She asked my mom all the questions one would be asked after a fall, (did you hit your head, does your head/neck/back hurt, can you move your fingers/toes, what’s your name, etc) and stayed with us while another bystander called 911. One of the supervisors from another airline was near us, saw what happened, and called security, and after finding out which flight we were on, the Delta supervisor. A police officer was first to show up, and asked me some questions about what happened. I explained about the metal piece, and he looked at me like I was an idiot, and said “well people fall on that all the time, they don’t pay attention when the walkway ends.”
No. I told him he wasn’t listening to what I said. “She didn’t trip at the end of the walkway. She tripped on that piece on the floor that separates the area AFTER the walkway and the concrete.
He didn’t seem to understand and told me I was basically SOL because “people trip on that all the time.
By his logic, my mom would have tripped and slid a good 8 feet on a rubber walkway onto the concrete to where she was laying.
Yeah, no.
I was so pissed off I just went back to my mom. By this point, the fire department was there, and the Delta supervisor.
My mom was saying her shoulder was in a huge amount of pain, and it was shooting down her arm and she couldn’t move from her position she was in because it hurt too much. Pretty much all we could do was wait for the paramedics to arrive, and give all our information to the several people who needed it.
While speaking to the Delta supervisor, I told him the same story I told the police officer, only this time I brought him over to the metal piece and pushed it down with my foot. He proceeded to tell me that the week prior, the heel of his shoe had caught on the same thing and ripped it right off.
Okay, so this clearly has been an issue for at least a week, yet it was still not repaired. I went back to my mom, my dad was now speaking to a girl who had witnessed my mom falling, and the police officer went to speak to the supervisor. The supervisor (love this man) took the officer back over to the walkway, and pushed it down with his foot like I had, and the officer actually came over and apologized for not listening to me. While it was a nice thing to do, I was really only concerned with my mom and the fact that she still couldn’t move. I took several photos of the walkway where she fall, and tried to get a level-to-the-ground shot of the piece sticking up. I felt very CSI-like.
Almost 45 minutes had passed until the paramedics showed up. They got the rundown on what happened, did some vital checks on my mom, and got ready to put her on the stretcher. They had to slide her onto a steel gurney type thing first, because they couldn’t pick her up due to her not being able to move. They still had to roll her over onto her back, though.
She said to me she wasn’t going to scream…and she didn’t, but she made this awful sound that I don’t ever want to hear ever again. It was decided that I would ride in the back of the ambulance with my mom and one of the paramedics, and my dad would ride shotgun with the other.
On the way to the ambulance, my mom started making these really small, scared sounds, and asking where we were going. I told her we were going to the ambulance and to the hospital, not thinking much of it. But once we were actually in the ambulance, things took a horrible turn.
I’m not being dramatic, and I’m actually tearing up writing this part down because I’ve never been so scared in my life, nor have I gotten into detail about this yet with anyone other than my dad.
My mom suddenly had no idea what was happening. Or where she was. Or why she was in so much pain. I told her again, ambulance, hospital, she fell and hurt her arm, and she was going to be okay. But it was like she didn’t hear a word I said. She started crying and looking around, asking why no one was helping her and why her shoulder hurt so much. The paramedic repeated what I had said, but that didn’t seem to help. I told her it was going to be okay, and that I loved her, and we’d be at the hospital soon.
She looked up, and asked me who I was.
…
I think my thought process just turned into static at that point. I immediately said “It’s Laura, silly.”
“…who?”
“Your daughter.”
“My daughter…”
“Yes. You fell down at the airport, we were going to visit Judy.”
“…who’s Judy?”
“Your sister.”
“I have a sister?”
“Yup. Enio (my dad’s name) is here too, he’s in the front.”
“En…o…”
She suddenly lost focus, and we hit a bump and she screamed, and started crying. She asked again why no one was helping her, and kept saying “it hurts, it hurts…” but then she stopped forming words, and started saying gibberish and looking all around her.
If I could ever erase a memory from my mind, it would be that ambulance ride.
It’s all I can do to not freak out and cry at this point, but I couldn’t let my mom see I was scared or she might get worse. The paramedic checked her pupils, blood pressure, blood sugar (my mom is diabetic), and everything was perfectly normal. So what the fuck.
After the longest trip to the hospital EVER (the driver got lost, fucking figures.), we pulled up to Etobicoke General and I got out of the ambulance, went to the back to meet up with my dad, who had no idea anything had just happened, and broke down sobbing and I just said “she doesn’t know who I am.” My dad gave me a WTF? look, and went up to my mom and told her we were at the hospital. We went into Emerg and waited to be seen by a doctor. I stopped crying and stood next to my mom, who was now totally calm, and she asked where she was and and what happened. Hospital, fall at the airport. My dad came over, and I went and sat in a chair. My mom looked up at my dad, asked who he was, where she was, why she was there, and what happened.
“Enio/we’re at the hospital/we’re here because you fell/you fell down at the airport.”
This cycled through three times over the course of about 20 minutes, and they wheeled my mom in to see a doctor.
I started crying again, and told my dad about what happened in the ambulance. All we could do really is sit there and wait until someone came with any further information as to what the fuck just happened. My dad called my Aunt, who was going to pick us up at the Airport in Florida, and told her why we weren’t going to be there. After about half an hour a doctor came out, and my dad went in with him. I waited for a bit by myself, and my dad came back out and told me I could come and see my mom.
When I went in, I said hi to her, and she said hi back. I asked if she knew who I was, and she said of course.
Okay…
I could only see her for a second, they had to do a bunch of tests and then they were going to do take her to get x-rays. I was waiting with her to get the x-rays, it had been about 2 hours at this point, and I told her what happened in the ambulance.
She didn’t remember any of it.
After her x-rays, she was wheeled into the emergency room, which was practically boiling over with patients, and she was put kind of in the middle of the room with a few other people also on beds. It was a bit of a mess in there. It was really bright, too. my mom asked me for my (hugely gigantic) sunglasses while she was laying there waiting. They looked ridiculous on her but she said she was happy they blocked out all the light.
At about 7:30 (she had fallen at about 2:15), a doctor came up and gave us the rundown.
A minor fracture of the upper humerus.
First thing out of my mom’s mouth? “This certainly hasn’t been very humorous.”
Haaaaa. Mom, you’re such a card.
She would be in a sling for about 6 weeks, have to go to a fracture clinic, get regular x-rays, and a bit of physio once the sling is off.
However, they couldn’t explain why she had that episode in the ambulance, so they wanted to keep her for a few days to do some tests and make sure she’s okay.
So my dad and I went home at around 8:30…I’ve never fallen asleep so fast in my life.
We went back at 7 the next morning, and they had moved my mom into a little curtained room thing. We stayed there until about 1, and she was awake on and off. A dude nurse that looked EXACTLY like Simon Cowell told us a neurologist was coming by tomorrow (ugh) to look after everything and do some head tests. My dad I went home.
Two days later, my mom was discharged and my dad brought her home, complete with a hefty perscription of hydro-morphone.
A few days later, when she was coherent and feeling a bit better, my dad called a lawyer. Clearly what happened was in no way my mom’s fault, and the airport as well as the maintenance company is responsible. After everything was settled, someone form the law office was going to drive up and get as much information as possible, as well as notify the airport of the incoming lawsuit. We took the photos to print and enlarge, and noticed that only 4 of the 6 holes used to secure the metal piece down were actually being used.
Rage.
The next day, my dad called Delta, and this is where things took a turn for the “wow, I really like people sometimes.”
Consider the fact that Delta was in no way directly involved in the accident, or at fault in any way. Regardless, they did the following:
- re-scheduled our flight, waiving the $150 re-booking fee, and
- gave us the seats for the price they were initially purchased, saving us in total almost $400.
I’m seriously impressed. They didn’t have to do that at all, and they went out of their way for my family.
I <3 U, Delta Airlines Toronto.
I’m pretty sure that’s the end of my story. I stayed up in Alliston for two weeks, and got back yesterday afternoon to Toronto.
Our flight is re-booked for the end of November, and come hell or high water, we will make it there this time. My dad said to me once while we were at the hospital, “We were definitely not meant to be on that plane.”
Well that isn’t cryptic at all. I don’t think he’s seen Final Destination, either.
One last amusing quote, from my mom re: staying at the hospital for 3 days:
“I’ve had the Rexdale experience…I don’t want to go back.”
Losses suffered: 1 pink purse, which had to have its handles cut off to get it off from around my mom’s shoulder, my mom’s favourite jacket, and about $40 in parking.
*post edit* my friend Carly reminded me of something I forgot to mention: It was never clear why my mom had that little episode. I said was just shock, to give my dad (and myself) some peace of mind…turns out I was most likely right. All her tests came back normal.
