A Doll Falls Through the Window.

The neighbor said as she looked out her window across the complex she saw a doll falling from a window. She looked again and the doll was moving on the ground and she heard crying. She ran out and found a child on the ground below the second story window. The child’s dad called 911.
The call is toned out at the station; a toddler has fallen from a second story window.
Here comes the anxiety again. Of course it’s on the other side of town on a busy afternoon with plenty of traffic.
What’s going through your head as you roll down the road to another child in trouble? Knowing just days before another crew responded to a child that was killed in an accident involving a bicycle.
Is it our turn for the bad call?
Anyone in this business for very long has to take their turn, “please not today”.
Some people wonder when they hear an emergency responder say, “that was a good call”. You will never hear that in reference to a child that is really sick or injured. They are never “good” calls. Sure we all like to use our skills to help people but we don’t hope for tragedy to befall anyone. The “good” calls are the ones you can mitigate and make a difference in the out come, that’s a good call.
We arrive on scene to find the father leaning over the child who is lying on the grass crying, below the window she fell from. First glance and overall scene assessment brings a measure of relief. Crying and purposeful movement, on the grass not concrete, no obvious injuries, all brings a quiet sigh of relief.
Extreme mechanism for injury, so all the normal precautions are to be taken.
The screen broken and on the ground, I’ve seen this many times before. The child climbs on the bed, dresser or chair to look out the window leaning on the screen not realizing there is no protection. Out of the window the doll falls, sometimes from the ground floor but most of the calls we get are from the second floor or higher.
The child is secured to an immobilizer and transported to the emergency room. A follow up later that day revealed the child was virtually unharmed with a swollen lip and sprained wrist.
That’s a good call.