Alessandro's accident

American Fork Hospital




Primary Childrens Hospital



On May 28th Alessandro was riding his bike with Diego. Unfortunately neither Udine or I were there to witness this, but according to both boys "He was going really fast and turned quickly then fell off his bike" Diego came running inside while some teenage boys carried him home. The second I saw his leg I knew it was broken and told Udine to take him to the ER. He started out at American Fork Hospital where we found out he broke his femur. Not just a clean break, but a spiral break where the bones shifted and overlapped and also a butterfly break where there is a third piece of bone broken off. They put a splint on him for the night and the next day the orthopedic surgeon came in saying he has been studying Alessandro's x-rays and asking his partners what the best course of action would be, but he just wasn't sure. So he wanted to send him to Primary Childrens Hospital in Salt Lake City. So they had to move him, change splints and get him in the ambulance. It was a horrible experience, but we made it to Primary Childrens where we spent plenty of time in the ER and then they moved us to a room to wait for "surgery" which happened about 10:00 pm. The Dr. said since he was so small she wanted to try setting it without surgery and in a week come back and see if it will work. We agreed so he went under and she set it. It was not a pleasant experience once he woke up to the time we got to leave. He spent the night in the hospital where he was scaring nurses because he'd stop breathing and his oxygen level would get real low. He pooped 2x in the hospital which apparantly doesn't usually happen after surgery, and the morning nurse was not very nice to say the least. He has a body cast on from his chest down to his ankle on his broken leg and down to his knee on his good leg with a bar connecting them. He got to come home Sat afternoon.

Those were the worst days of my life. I have never felt so helpless as he screamed and wailed in pain as nurses would move him and his leg. It was emotionally exhausting and made me physically ill. I was scared to leave the hospital and it seemed so overwhelming to have a child in a body cast. Thanks to family and friends we were able to make the adjustment here at home. It was a very humbling experience for me. I don't normally like to accept help from people, but this was one of those times I had no choice but to let others help us out. I will forever be grateful to everyone that did!

We went back after a week and recieved good news. He won't need any hardware put in!! BUT she did need to align his bones a little more so she cut his cast open and moved it, which moved his bones. She then put wedges in the cast and rewrapped it. Done. All of this was done with no pain meds and while he was awake. He was so brave and didn't even scream or anything. Amazing.

He is still in his bodycast but doing much better. He doesn't seem to be in pain anymore...just very antsy!! He actually moves around a bit and even showed us some dance moves on the floor. hahaha I constantly hear "I'm bored. I don't know what to do. Can someone come and play? Can I go somewhere?" I can't blame him....I'm sure I'd be saying the same things.