Fortunate Fingers

This incident happened about 19 years ago to my first son. Being a first time mother, I was not aware of a child’s behaviour at the age of two. Kids at this age are usually very energetic and curious. It is a daily routine to take my son for an evening ride after I return from work.

On this fateful day, my sister-in-law came along. My son was at the back seat with my sister-law. When we reached home, the gate was closed. My sister-in-law opened the car door to open the gate for me. Then I slowly drive in. While driving, I saw my sister-in-law shouting but I could not hear anything since the window screen was closed. I quickly brought down the window screen and finally heard her shouting my son’s name. I stopped the car immediately. When I turned back I saw a neighbour at the side of my car back door. I got off the car to see what happened.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw my son squatting with his hand pinned underneath the car rear tyre. He was sobbing. He told me he tried to pick up one of his sandals that fell off when he was getting out from the car. He realized a moment later the car moved and the car tyre was already on top of his hand. I panicked since I did not notice my son got off the car but immediately calmed down. My neighbour instructed me to move the car forward slowly while he stayed with my son to ensure he did not move or try to pull his hand from underneath the tyre. I asked my son to stay where he was without moving his hand. I slowly moved the car forward to free my son’s hand. We finally got his hand out and he cried due to some pain and panic. Then I picked my son up and examined all his fingers and palm using some of my first aid knowledge acquired at work. My son’s fingers were not fractured. No doubt, the hand was red and had some tyre marks on it. I cleaned the hand, then rubbed some ointment to ease the pain. After he calmed down, I took him to a nearby clinic to have him examined by a doctor. Fortunately, the hand wasn’t injured though it was swollen a bit. The doctor said there was nothing to worry about and gave me some medication. Deep in my heart I thanked God for saving my son. What a miracle! Just imagine a 2- year- old kid’s hand underneath a car tyre.

My son grew up without any abnormality on his hand. Nevertheless, I had a good lesson from the incident. Ever since, I always ensure my kids went out last from the car. I usually escort them to the house. Remember, you may be lucky the FIRST time but may not be MOST of the time!

There are lessons learnt from this incident, which I would like to share with parents out there.

One: Never let the kids go out of the car unattended.

Two: Always lock the car door or use child-lock door to prevent kids going out of the car unnoticed.

Three: Educate kids to stay away from moving vehicles.