Our experience with the Emergency room

It wouldn't be school vacation without some accident.  Thankfully, it was minor for us.  Two Thursdays ago, Bea and Sebastian were bored and engaged in typical sibling horseplay.  Beatrice was sitting on Sebastian's back, and he decided to launch her off.  She went flying, and hit the bridge of her nose on the edge of her bed.  I was outside hosing down the patio when I heard the screaming.  I looked in the window and didn't see any blood and asked Sebastian what happened.  He did the usual big brother deferring blame thing.  I came inside, and by that time there was blood everywhere, and I knew right away we were taking a trip to the emergency room.  I have to admit it was a bit scary to see my child covered in blood; especially not knowing where the wound was (mouth?  internal?  a cut?)  Matt was home, so we all loaded in the Fusca and drove to the Unimed Hospital.  We live VERY close to LifeCenter, which is one of the best (so I've heard) hospitals in the city, but when Sebastian hit his head at school and we were concerned about concussions, we were told that LifeCenter doesn't see children.  Since Bea's incident, we've learned that LifeCenter will do stitches, but not much more.

I sent Matt in with Beatrice, so all I have to say is based on Matt's experience.  But overall it was VERY good.  It's easy to pull up and to do a drop off.  Matt went up to the counter to get a number, but a "greeter" came up to him to ask if everything was ok.  Matt showed her Bea's wound, and the greeter helped get them get a ficha (ticket) that was bumped to the front of the line.  Within 1 minute, Beatrice's name was called and she was back with a doctor.  He cleaned her up, and she got 4 stitches.  I meanwhile was trying to find parking (I'd only brought R$6 with me, so I was rather limited.  Yet another reason to always carry some cash....) and console the older two children.  Dora was crying and upset:  she thought Beatrice was going to have to spend the night.  I stuck around the waiting room for about 45 minutes, and then realized I had to leave or else I wouldn't have enough money to pay for parking.  Matt said that Bea had to wait for x-rays (because she bumped her forehead they wanted to take x-rays just to be safe).  By the time we got back home, Matt and Beatrice were done.  I cleaned up the blood on the floor, and we went back to meet them at McDonalds at Boulevard Shopping for a "were going to be okay" dinner.  Bea and Matt spent a total of 60 minutes in the hospital, and the nurses, doctors and staff were very efficient, helpful and did a great job.  

Beatrice had to go back to the Unimed hospital to get the stitches out a week later.  This was the most annoying part of the whole process.  We had thought about calling our pediatrician to schedule and appointment to get the stitches out, but just didn't do it.  Matt took Bea to the equivalent of the walk in clinic (urgent care), and there was a HUGE line.  Matt guessed that it was going to take 2 hours, and he hadn't planned for that, and he knew it was going to be a problem for him and for Beatrice.  He went to LifeCenter, but it was the same story there--long line.  So, he brought her back home, called his sister who is a nurse, and took the stitches out himself!  I have to admit I wasn't so keen on the idea of him playing doctor, especially since I had attempted to remove George's stitches (the cat) last year and caused a mountain of problems.  But his sister assured us that it was ok.  And it is.  Now we are just applying Rosehip oil to help it heal and hopefully minimize any scarring. 

I think it's pretty much a given that we will have visits to the Emergency room.  Kids are kids.  Accidents happen.  And like I said, it could have been worse.  Thankfully it wasn't, and we are thankful that we have good health insurance, that we live close to good hospitals, and that we had a good experience.