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Home, Safe Home

Part Two

By Jenny Rackley

Barbara Mullins has had near misses with two of her children. She says, "When Carol was a toddler, I let her 'help' me as I removed the carpet tacks from a floor where we'd pulled up the carpet. She was sitting beside me, watching, and I'd pull up a tack, hand it to her, and she'd put it in the wastebasket. Easy job for a little person, and she was so proud! I heard a strange noise and turned to see her swallowing, with her eyes watering a bit, and asked her where the tack was. She pointed to her mouth! I immediately called Children's Hospital and they said to bring her to the ER. They put her in a tube that immobilized her and x-rayed from inlet to exit - no tack. Thank goodness!"

Barbara continues, "When Jeff was barely three, I was awakened by his older brother one Sunday saying, "Happy Mother's Day! Jeff is eating the orange tablets!" I rushed downstairs to find that Jeff (before the adults were awake) had climbed onto the kitchen cabinet to reach the bottle of Cod Liver Oil tablets that were on top of the refrigerator, and had orange coloring on his fingers from the sugar-coated tablets. Too much Vitamin A can be toxic. Because we weren't able to determine how many he had eaten, and could not force Ipecac into him, we were told to bring him to the ER and have his stomach pumped. Not a fun experience! (And apparently he'd only eaten a couple of pills, not enough to do any damage.)"