A Day at the Beach is No Day at the Beach

Before I get back to the minivan story…

I glanced up and saw Chrissie in the water. More accurately, I saw her flailing on her side in the surf. I figured she was just goofing around, or rinsing off or something, so I didn’t think much of it—until the boys started yelling.

“DAD! Hurry! Mom needs help!”

I waved them off and watched to see Chrissie stand up – only she didn’t stand up. A wave washed around her body as it reached the shore. And then another washed over her.

Something was definitely wrong. Really wrong.

I shouted to Emily to keep an eye on Danny and ran down to the water’s edge. Chrissie was now lying on her back, still being washed around by the waves. I went in to help her up. A man who had been walking on the beach stopped and joined me. We each grabbed an arm and tried to pull her to a standing position, but she screamed and collapsed back into the surf.

We tried again, but instead of trying to help her stand, we dragged her away from the surging water. Chrissie was writhing in pain and her eyes were full of panic.

A small crowd was starting to gather. A man claiming to be a doctor was jogging by and stopped to take a look. I asked him what he thought was happening. He told me that he had no idea and turned and resumed his jog. Thanks a lot, dude.

Emily stood with Danny on her hip, next to Taylor and Alex. She was the eldest at twelve, the boys were nine,  six and two. Their faces hid no emotions as they watched their mom struggle and cry out. She was wet, covered in sand and strands of seaweed, and already incoherent from the pain. Their was dad on the edge of panic from being powerless with no idea what to do next.

The lifeguards spotted the commotion and made their way down to the group that was gathered around us. They assisted us in moving her further back onto the beach to dry sand. The second move hurt her even worse; the pain was now coming on gangbusters. One of the lifeguards called out on his radio that they needed a medic as Chrissie was showing signs of shock. She was shaking and was terribly pale.

A lifeguard medic arrived quickly and began taking her vitals. He instructed one of the other lifeguards to call 911 and get an ambulance there. Someone produced a blanket and covered her up. I tried comforting her, but felt like I was in the way.

It was only a few minutes before I heard the sirens.

The paramedics hurried to her side with a rescue backboard and a box of equipment. After checking her over, one of the paramedics took me aside to talk.

“I can’t tell what is wrong, but we need to get her to the hospital. She’s going into shock and they’ll need to look at her in the E.R.”

“Can you do anything for the pain?” I asked.

“I’ll give her some morphine to help.”

I don’t know if he had to get approval for the meds, or if I was just anxious, but whatever the reason, it seemed to take forever to get Chrissie a shot to dull the pain. Every moan made the time seem longer. While we waited one of the EMTs asked me what happened. I told him that I had no idea.

After giving her the shot, they loaded her onto the backboard, covered her with a blanket, and trudged up the sand towards the parking area to the waiting ambulance. When they hit asphalt, they transferred her to a gurney. We dutifully followed behind, Emily holding Danny, me with the two other boys in tow. The crowd moved with us.

We knew it was serious. We knew it was scary.

The morphine was kicking in, but it was obvious even to me that Chrissie was in shock. She was pale, still shaking, and barely conscious. Fortunately, the drugs had somewhat calmed the painful writhing. I could not believe this was happening.

The EMTs collapsed the gurney and loaded it into the back of the ambulance. One hopped in with Chrissie as the other shut the door. He shouted to me:

“Are you going to follow us to the hospital?”

“Yeah!” I shouted back, as the EMT climbed into the driver seat, started the van, and began to pull away.

I realized I had no idea where they were going. I had no idea what hospital they were taking her to. I didn’t even know what city the hospital was in.

I turned and looked at the kids. They looked scared, and I’m sure my panicked expression only made it worse for them. They were all standing together in the sand in their swimsuits. Emily was still holding Danny, with her other brothers alongside. Taylor and Alex were covered in water and sand, no shoes, no shirts.

There was still a bit of a crowd watching the excitement. I looked at the kids, and looked back at the ambulance as it pulled out onto the access road. I had absolutely no idea what to do. I needed to get in my car and catch the ambulance, but there was no way I could take four soggy, sandy kids to the hospital.

At that moment, a small, middle-aged woman pushed through the crowd. To this day, all that I remember about her is that she was short and wore some sort of floral-patterned housecoat. She carried a Costco-sized tub of Red Vines.

She came up to me and said, “You need to go be with your wife. I can take care of the kids until you get back.” And as if to solidify her offer she added, “I have Red Vines.”

I was frozen. This woman was a complete stranger to me. I did not know her name, or anything about her, yet here she was offering to take my four children under her wing. The crowd was watching.

What was I supposed to do?

To be continued…