“Medic three respond with med 1 for a report of a seven-year old stabbed to the hand, reported to be accidental” the female dispatcher transmits.
Arriving on scene, it was your typical city address, a house divided into small apartments then subdivided into even smaller apartments. We head out back as directed by a bystander to the right apartment. Making our way in, we pass two kids sitting on the couch, both hanging their heads in guilt, and a hysterical mother, unable to grasp what just happened. Looking around we see the med team standing around the bathroom, as I approached I could just make out the soft whimpering of a child over the running facet. I walk in to see a small lad around eight huddled next to the sink with his hand under the running water.
“hey there buddy how are you doing?” I ask, surprisingly he exchanges pleasantries in a calm collected nature. His eyes blood-shot and his cheeks glistening with the trails of tears all to recently fallen. I glance into the sink and from his clenched right childish fist arose a streak knife, as I inspected it closer I see that the blade has been lodged in the thumb. Passing from left to right through the widest part of the digit sat this knife just below the nail bed. No blood was evident and the young boy was flicking the stainless steel tip with his index finger as the cold water passed over.
“So, I’ve got to ask buddy, how did this happen?” The boy started telling a story of being hungry and of not listening to his mother when she told his brother and him to wait. He spoke of a well thought of adventure of getting a soup can from the upper cabinets and of grabbing a steak knife to try to cut into the can. “I figured he was stronger than me and I’d hold the soup can” referring to his slightly older brother and how they figured he could slam the knife into the lid of the can to puncture an opening. A smirk came over the Fire Medics and I’s face, glancing at each other we simultaneously uttered “Who hasn’t been there”
To which was interrupted by “BUT HE MISSED”
