Accident

Roberta Horowitz

On Wednesday, June 30, my husband, my 24-year-old son, Yair, and I started a four-mile hike in Palisades Park in New Jersey. Ten feet into the hike, as I admired the beauty of the trees, I tripped over a tree root, and went down hard. I couldn’t breathe. After what seemed like a long time, I slowly drew in some welcome air. Then the pain hit, intensely. My head was killing me; my brain felt as if it was sloshing around inside my skull. My teeth felt not securely attached. I ran my tongue over the edges of my teeth, once, then again; they were all there. Then more pain hit: on my chin and under it, my stomach, my hands, arms, knees, nose, forehead.

“What hurts?” My son asked.
I gestured towards my head.
He advised me of the damage. “You’re scratched up. You have a small rock embedded in your forehead and you’re covered with dirt.” After checking my knees, my arms and hands, he went to get ice.

When he returned I put the soothing ice pack on my forehead, then on my chin, and back and forth. Everything was aching. Suddenly my head was spinning. I fainted. The State Police arrived and strongly recommended a trip to an ER. I resisted, and then changed my mind when they informed me that I could be bleeding inside my head. Four EMTs appeared, encased my neck in a brace and put me on an immobilizing board. We arrived at Englewood Hospital’s newly renovated ER, where every patient has a large private room staffed with exceptional caring, patient, professionals. After an exam, removal of the rock in my forehead, and a CAT scan; I was discharged with instructions for care. I had a concussion but no internal bleeding and no broken bones.

My advice – if you ever, God forbid, need an ER – even if you are in California, tell the ambulance driver to head for Englewood Hospital in New Jersey!

What Happened

by Jeanette Hoff

If someone had approached me and asked “what’s wrong?” I would not have been able to answer. It seemed that I was just out of it. I mean, I could not remember what had happened. I found myself totally and completely without a clue.

“Why was I on the floor?”

It seems as though I might have been pushed. Memory or the lack of it can really be upsetting. Not even to remember what I was doing on the floor.

Anyway, perhaps I should at least try to pick myself up. Cautiously, I did just that – and made sure I could stand upright.

But what an experience. “Why did I fall?”

One always feels, ‘perhaps I fainted’. I guess old age is always a suspect.