John rushed Savanna into the house, while Miranda and Conner stood waiting for us to pull up behind them. We never let go of the kids as we rushed them into the house. I could hear Savanna fighting John from upstairs. He must have been insisting that she change into dry clothes before she came down to worry with the children. She was very pregnant and her safety was a major concern.
John came down shaking his head as he walked toward both of the kids sitting on the couch. Miranda and Ty went running up the steps gathering blankets and dry clothes. Both of their lips were purple and shivering. Ty and Miranda started removing Bella’s wet clothes while I did the same to poor Noah. He wouldn’t look directly at me, and I went to lift up his arm, he screamed out in agony.
“What is it? What hurts?” I asked.
He just kept screaming and screaming. I had to get his shirt off to see what was going on. I jumped up and ran into the kitchen for a pair of scissors. I was as gentle as I could as I tried to remove the shirt. Noah continued to cry out, even when he saw Savanna hurrying down the steps toward him.
Through his cries, I heard him say ‘Mommy’. She crouched down at his side and rubbed his little head.
“Mommy’s here, baby. Mommy’s here.” She helped me remove the rest of his clothes and watched his body tightened up as we moved the shirt away from his injured arm. From Noah’s shoulder down to his elbow was black and blue, and I could tell from one single glance that it was completely dislocated.
Savanna and I looked at each other, while behind us we heard Conner. “I will drive.”
If things weren’t such an emergency. I may have worried about Conner’s sobriety, but he seemed like he had his head on straight and was determined to get us there safely.
He knew, as well as everyone in the house, that Noah needed immediate medical attention. I looked over at Ty and Miranda and got a good look at Bella. She had some dried blood on the side of her head and some scratches on her arms. Miranda had a washcloth and was trying to clean the mud off of the child to see the extent of her injuries. Ty turned around to face me. “We need to take them both to get checked out. They could have concussions and shit.”
I was trying to remain calm around the children, and I knew Ty didn’t like to curse around Bella, so he was obviously in a nervous wreck. “Let’s go then. I think Savanna needs to get checked out as well.”
She nodded and walked over to grab some shoes. I got Noah some dry pants on, but wrapped a blanket around his body instead of trying to dress him with a shirt. The boy was in excruciating pain.
We ended up having to take two of the ranch trucks to the hospital to accommodate the whole family, and even my mother and Aunt Karen showed up moments later.
We were thankful that the hospital wasn’t too crowded and took the kids and Savanna back within fifteen minutes of us arriving there.
Although we were put into separate rooms, we were able to keep checking on each other since the emergency room was not crowded with patients. Bella had minor scrapes and some bruising from where she fell off of the horse. They did some x-rays and other tests to check for concussions and any internal bleeding, but she seemed to be just banged up.
Savanna was immediately hooked up to monitors and seen by an OBGYN. The baby was fine and they even left the monitor on so everyone could hear the heartbeat. Just as an extra precaution they did a sonogram and offered to keep her overnight for observation.
Noah was the worst off. He had a gash on the back of his head, that required two stitches. His shoulder was dislocated. He had one broken rib and a broken arm, in two places. They had to re-set his arm and I can’t even explain the agonizing sound that came out of my son when they did. They gave him something for the pain that also seemed to relax him and allow him to rest. Even though he did not have a concussion, they were having him stay overnight as well.
With Bella being discharged a few hours later, The family started to head out, leaving me with just my immediate family. Once Savanna knew that the baby was okay, she became adamant that she be able to share a room with Noah. I think under normal circumstances it wouldn’t have been possible, but the nurses were very kind and got Noah moved into Savanna’s room. He didn’t really need to be hooked up to any monitors, so it wasn’t necessary to transfer all of the equipment over.
Once Savanna had Noah by her side, she started to relax. Her blood pressure had been high due to the anxiety of the night, but it went back to normal almost at the exact moment our son came into the room. She held his hand and kept watching him.
I was still pretty angry that she had gone out and risked her safety, but I knew we wouldn’t have found Noah otherwise.