So, Tuesday afternoon I got a call from my sister that my dad had fallen down the escalator at JC Penney. He was almost at the top when he went to step off, lost his balance and fell backwards about 10 steps. He wasn't able to get to his feet quickly (who would, really) and the fun part about an escalator is that it continues to climb so he would tumble a couple step every time he reached the top. Finally someone got them stopped and a few employees were able to grab him and keep him from going backwards again.
The fire department was called and they were SOOOO HELPFUL! By SOOOO HELPFUL I mean they sucked ass. Basically they got my dad up on his feet and helped him get upstairs to finish his shopping. Yep, you read that right. They didn't check him over, didn't ask about any medical conditions, nothing. On Thursday my sister called them and asked them why this wasn't done. Their reasons were that 99% of the people who need help aren't wearing a medic alert and also that they aren't going to go digging in the shirt of someone who is conscious to see if they have a medic alert necklace. My sister said they should have at least asked if he had any medical conditions or medications he was taking. Of all people I would think the fire department and medics understand that when an incident happens, the victims are often times confused, embarrassed, shaken, etc. We're pretty sure if our dad had been asked about medications he would have thought about his blood thinner and how dangerous even a small bruise can be.
So, after my dad was so easily dismissed he drove himself to my sister's work, however she wasn't there, she was at a doctor's appointment. Her assistant was able to reach her cell phone and she met Dad at his apartment.
It had only been a couple hours since he had falling but by the time she saw him he was covered in huge black bruises. She took him to the ER where he checked out fine but they wanted to keep him overnight for observation.
The next day they were concerned about his bruises spreading so they marked around them and kept him another night. Thursday they had spread again by the afternoon and so they've given him a blood transfusion and kept him again last night. He was finally able to go home on Friday.
My sister and I have always compared our dad to Archie Bunker. While he is a pretty sweet guy he is also very opinionated when it comes to anyone of another gender, race or non-union. The relationship between my husband and him has increased 3000% since we got married but the first several years it was very much a Meathead/Archie type arrangement. Pretty sure my dad thought Adam was just some big dummy who married his little girl. But now that Adam works in construction for a company owned by one of my dad's oldest friends, even though they're non-union (the horror!) he has a new-found respect for him.
As an example, one late night I was watching All In The Family with my sister. I was actually in the hospital having just given birth to Emily and it was just Lisa and I. Archie was telling Meathead that his Lodge does not let in any Blacks but they do have a midget. Meathead told him that was prejudice and Archie said it wasn't--they put a step stool in front of the urinal so the midget has just as much chance of making it in there as everyone else. My sister and I were ROLLING! It was exactly something my dad would say. The next day we asked Dad, "Hey, do you have any blacks in your union?" Dad said, "No. Hell no!" (pretty sure that's incorrect, but might have been true the last time my dad went to a union meeting back in the 80's). "Well, do you have any midgets?"
"Yeah, sure we do!"
"Do you put a step-stool in front of the urinals for him?" (snicker)
"What? Hell, I don't know."
"You should. It's what Archie would do."
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