The Editor,
On Monday, Aug. 15 at 7: 30 p.m., my husband and I were watching our eightyear-old son Sidney take his first run down the easy slope at the bike park at the foot of No. 2 Road.
What happened next was horrifying. A teenager coming in the opposite direction, presumably without seeing my son, took the same jump and he and his bike landed directly on top of Sidney.
As Sidney lay there screaming in pain, the teenager smirked at his friend and walked away without a word. Only at my husband's prompting, did he spit out one word: "Sorry," and then walked away without a backward glance.
The teenager's father was there and did approach us with some compassion, offering up "you'll be all right" to my son and picking up his bike.
To that family: If you are reading this letter, I want you to know that your son's apparent lack of empathy and concern was shocking to us, chilling in fact, and one of the worst things about this accident.
Within 30 minutes, we were in emergency at Richmond Hospital and everything that could go right, did. We were rushed through, seen immediately by Dr. Griffiths in emergency and shortly after, we were attended to by Dr. Houston, a vascular surgeon, and resident Dr. Knowlton. We were told that my son's femoral artery had suffered some trauma. This was major, as the femoral artery supplies blood to the lower part of the body and there was no blood getting through to my son's left leg, and no pulse in his foot.
Dr. Houston, after consulting with the anesthesiologist Dr. Draper, rushed my son Sidney into emergency surgery. The damage was worse than anticipated and after a very long (for us) two and a half hours later, the surgery was over and my son was taken to the pediatrics ward.
Our experience there was tremendous - nurses Joanne, Sharon and Grady couldn't have been kinder or more attentive - their care was professional and top-notch. I want to reiterate that we feel incredibly blessed and grateful for the amazing team of people that cared for our son at the hospital. Everyone, and I mean everyone, cared for him and for us - reassuring us every step of the way and treating Sidney like the beautiful, special boy that he is.
We are home now, but recovery will be a long, slow process and the rest of the summer's plans have obviously changed for us.
If your children use that bike park, please spare yourself what we are going through and remind them to use caution, common sense and consideration for the other riders.
Yes, accidents do happen, but many of them are preventable and for the ones that aren't, don't forget to at least say "sorry."
Rosemary Casson
Richmond
