I'm the Worst Mother EVER!

We don't have a garage door opener that springs back up if it hits something. If something gets in the way as the door closes, the door keeps on closing and crushing until the item breaks or the door can't push down any further. Because of this (and my kids tendency to play with things they shouldn't) Joe put the button to open and close the door up high. I mean, really high. I have to stand on my toes to reach it.

This morning, Clay used a broom handle to hit the garage door opener. As the door came down, he did some sort of Indiana Jones maneuver as he tried to slide under the door. When the door started to close on his head, Lexi quickly grabbed him and yanked him out from under the closing door. Unfortunately she got stuck and the door closed down hard around her middle. Austin, Savannah, Jackson and I were summoned by her screams. Savannah and Jackson got out to Lexi first. Although freaked out, they were quick-thinking. Savannah ran to Lexi and Jackson ran to the garage door opener. Jackson pushed the button to raise the door, but instead of lifting, it pushed down harder, eliciting more screams from Lexi. After a second push of the button, the door finally raised, freeing Lexi. She was pinned under there for less than a minute, but it seemed like an hour and half.

I was completely freaked out and the only thing I could think to do was get dressed so I could take her to the hospital. (We'd been having a lazy morning and I was still in my pajamas because that's how my life works. Whenever I'm lazing around in my jammies with the house a mess, people stop by unannounced, or I get a call that a friend needs my help, or an accident happens.)

We got to the ER, I told the triage nurse what had happened, she stamped a paper with the word "Trauma" and rushed us back to a room. No waiting. No filling out paperwork. At this point, I really started freaking out. Lex had stopped crying and I knew she didn't seem seriously injured, but I didn't know what was going on inside her. Could her internal organs have been smashed? Could she be bleeding? Could she be seriously injured? The way we were rushed back and seen by a doctor so quickly had me freaking out a bit.

I was told that Lex would need a CT scan of her abdomen. She'd also need to be stuck in the arm so they could inject dye into her vein. They put numbing cream on her arms so the needle wouldn't hurt so badly and then moved us to the pediatric ER where a bed had opened up.

A new doctor came in with a portable ultrasound machine. Instead of doing a CT scan, he did an ultrasound to see if there were any questionable areas that needed a closer look. He checked out her kidneys, liver and spleen; he looked at her stomach and even took a quick peek at her heart. Lexi was happy because he gave her 2 ultrasound pictures; one of her stomach and one of her heart. She thought those were pretty cool and was surprised to see that her heart wasn't "heart shaped". The doctor thought she looked good and there were no areas that concerned him. Her pain had subsided substantially, so he (bless him!) suggested we take conservative measures and just watch her for awhile.

A dose of Tylenol and a good 5 hours later, we were released. She's feeling much better this evening.

How totally scary though. And I feel like such a horrible parent for not being out there to prevent it from happening in the first place. If you're going to write a comment that I'm an awful, negligent parent, save yourself the trouble. I already know it.

I told Lexi that she was a hero. She saved Clay from being smashed only to get crushed herself. She burst into tears and said, "I didn't want Clayton to die. I had to save him."
Then I started crying. She's my hero. And now I'm off to make some "hero brownies" for her.