This is the fourth part of my Boys will be Boys theme. This takes place in December 2007.
We went to Dubai for our annual vacation. In fact it was more like a reward for Son no 4. We have always had this deal with our kids that when they are able to read “Cat in the Hat” by Dr Seuss, they could pick ANY present they wanted. Son no 4 had completed reading the whole book out to us a few months earlier (he was in his first grade at school) and he wanted to go Skiing as his present.
As we had never been skiing before, we didn’t want to go to a skiing resort only to have the kids hate it. So we suggested Ski Dubai and Son no 4 loved the idea. We also have family who live in Dubai so it was a good excuse to see them as well.
The kids spent about a week going for daily skiing lessons and loved every minute of it. However, Son no 4 had been going to the same group lesson and as he was much younger, he did not “graduate” the course they were taking. My other 3 sons really wanted to go quad-biking in the sand dunes and there was only one day left of our holiday.
We arranged for my Sister-in-law to take Sons 1 to 3 quad-biking and hubby and I arranged for a private skiing lesson for Son no 4 to help him “graduate” on the last day. While hubby and I are sitting at Sky Dubai waiting for the lesson to finish, we get a call from my Sister-in-law. She informs us that Son no 2 has fallen and hurt himself and they were on their way back to the city to the hospital and can we meet them there.
Hubby and I are obviously in a panic. We have no idea how bad he is hurt and they were way out in the desert so it was a long trip back into the city. In the meantime, there is nothing we can do until they get Son no 2 to the hospital and we had to wait for the skiing lesson to finish anyway.
Eventually the lesson ends and my Brother-in-law meets us and takes us to the hospital. There is Son no 2 in pain – he had fallen off the quad bike and had a bone sticking up out of his shoulder. (It looked as bad as it sounds). So we waited in the emergency room for the relevant doctors and x-rays etc.
Eventually we got to see the Orthopedic Surgeon and he explained to us that Son no 2 had broken his clavicle and he needed surgery to repair it. He then goes on to recommend that we go back to South Africa and have it done back home. He assured us that Son no 2 is in no danger and with the relevant pain medication, he would make the trip without any problems.
By now it was late afternoon and we were due to return to South Africa the following morning anyway so we agreed. We didn’t really want to commit to what could be a costly experience, not to mention that we were a little reluctant to put our faith in a foreign medical system. The surgeon stabilized the injury and prescribed the relevant medication.
2 Days later back in South Africa Son no 2 was operated on and a metal brace inserted to repair his clavicle. His had the brace taken out a few month later and he is just left with an ugly scar across his shoulder.
