Terrible accident

My friend, Emily, and her two kids, Melissa and Cameron, came with us to the Heber Valley Camp for the second year. We all had gone to bed and had been asleep for a couple of hours when we heard the loudest, most awful, sound. I cannot describe how is sounded other than saying that it sounded like something smacking the cement really hard. It was then followed by a horrifying wailing scream. The three of us adults, Monte, Emily and I jumped out of bed with flashlights to see who it was and what was going on. We looked at where Emily’s son, Cameron, was sleeping and his bed was empty. I then noticed Cameron laying on the ground. I also noticed some blood on the ground by him. What followed next was a long, emotional night. Cameron had somehow fallen off the top bunk bed onto the cement floor. There was a good railing on the bed, but he still made it over and fell. He has no idea how he fell off or what happened. We picked him up and placed him on a bed to access what was wrong. He had a huge goose egg on his forehead and blood coming our of his month and nose. We decided that we had better take him down the hospital. I went and got my brother to some and help Monte give him a blessing. I didn’t remember this at the time but later Monte told me that he felt strongly to bless him that the swelling on his brain would go away. After the blessing we got Cameron into the car and I drove he and Emily down the hospital. By the time we got to the hospital his eye was swollen and purple and he had a fat lip. He kept complaining that his neck hut so they put a neck brace on him. I have to be honest in saying that he looked horrible, especially after they put the brace on his neck. He was taken to have a CAT scan done on his neck, head and face. The results came back that he had a fracture in the Orbit bone and extending to the frontal bone. His neck and brain were fine. There was no swelling on the brain at all. He also had a gash on the inside of his upper lip needing stitches. There was nothing that could be done to the fracture. It just needed to heal on its own. He was told that he could not do anything active, including recess at school, for eight weeks. He was so brave through the whole thing. Even after he threw up he teased me that it was because of my bad cooking. He even gave a few smiles.

After three hours in the ER he was cleaned and stitched up and feeling a lot better after getting some strong medicine in him. We had to go back up to camp as we needed to get Monte and the kids as well as Emily’s daughter, Melissa, as we all came up in one car. We got back to camp about 4:30 morning and found that Monte, Melissa, and my mom hadn’t slept much while we were gone. We made Cameron a bed on the floor and tried to go back to sleep for a little bit. I never went back to sleep as every little sound made me jump. We decided to just let Cameron sleep as long as he wanted to and then leave as soon as he woke up. Well he slept and slept. We didn’t end up leaving until after lunch.

I can’t believe that there wasn’t anything more serious wrong with Cameron. He is a lucky little boy who was looked after. One of the missionaries who works at the camp said that he was the recipient of a “tender mercy” from the Lord. I am grateful that nothing major was wrong and that he is healing well. I am also grateful to have a husband that honors his priesthood.