My son recently broke his arm. The entire experience was surreal. I needed to write about it to capture my observations and lessons learned so I can handle even better in the future. And I’m posting it as a series of articles here so you can benefit from my experience too!

My son broke his arm at a trampoline park. He was trying a new trick, lost his balance, and ran into a wall while trying to throw his hands up to protect himself. He snapped the forearm bones near the wrist on his left arm.

My wife was heroic throughout the event. She stayed remarkably calm. She went to the nearest hospital and checked in, but, surprisingly, she was not treated well. The staff did not move with a sense of urgency, they did not treat my son’s injury like an emergency, and they did not treat my wife’s requests with respect.

Feeling that something was off, my wife called my sister, who is a physician’s assistant by trade. (I was on a lunchtime run and missed the first 30 minutes of this adventure.) My sister recommended going to the best hospital in town rather than the closest hospital because a broken bone isn’t a time critical injury.

To my wife’s infinite credit, she had the courage to go through an awkward social situation and tell the staff at the first hospital that they were leaving. They made the 30-minute trip across town to University Hospital.

My wife’s decision made all the difference in the world. At the second hospital we were treated like gold. They had a children’s ER that knew how to handle kids. The staff were responsive, respectful, and knowledgeable.

That’s the first lesson from this experience. Be sure you go to the best hospital in town for a broken bone. Most of the time a broken bone is not the type of emergency where every second counts. Instead, quality is what counts. Regardless of whether it is a long drive. Regardless of whether they have a long wait. It is worth it to have the best doctors addressing your child’s injury when you have the luxury of choice.

Lesson #1: Be sure you go to the best hospital in town, rather than the closest, for a broken bone.

I arrived at the hospital while my wife was checking in and took over as the main caretaker for my son so that my wife could take care of our other children.

After being checked in, my son and I went back to the waiting room to wait for the x-ray machine to be available. While we waited, it was my job to be a calming presence. This looked like three things:

• First, I needed to act like his broken arm was no big deal so he wouldn’t panic (keep that poker face up)
• Second, I needed to keep my son distracted by talking about other things (90% of parenting is misdirection)
• Third, I needed to keep on the hospital staff to make sure we were getting what we needed

Because we went to the best hospital in town, there was a wait of about two hours. Every thirty minutes or so, I would politely check with the staff on the status of the x-ray machine. Every time they said it was on the way.

While we waited, my son and I talked about the books we were reading, the video games we were playing, the movies we had watched recently, the TVs shows I had watched as a kid, the meal we would eat as a celebration after we were done…anything to stay distracted.

During this time, two more children (a boy and a girl) came into the ER with the exact same injury as my son. It turns out broken forearms in kids are incredibly common. And it turns out trampolines are the top reason for broken bones in kids. The doctor said he reset bones like this multiple times a day in the children’s ER. (Which was reassuring.)

Finally, it was time to get the x-ray. And I’ll cover that, the procedure, and leaving the hospital in Part 2 of this series.