This camp has presented me with a variety of challenges over the years, but even at it's worse, when buildings were filled with garbage, when programming was a mess, when everything needed to be fixed, I have always been able to say that risk management and procedures to ensure the kids' safety were a priority. I'm a STICKLER for rules and safety and while there have been a few broken bones, bee stings, cuts and scrapes and such, I have always been able to confidently say that the injuries were due to normal kid behavior and there wasn't anything awry that caused the kids to get hurt. The fact is, kids fall down, they get too competitive in games, and things happen- but I've always been able to say that there wasn't anything we could have done differently to prevent those things from happening. No matter what challenges I faced with camp, I could always say we were safe.
On Sunday night, 'M' came into my house around 10 with a "situation". The nurse (who is not actually a nurse, rather, a nursing student because I couldn't find a nurse for this week) had accidentally given a kid the wrong dose of her medication and had just realized it. The child is a 7 year old girl and she is on 8 different medications, some that are in liquid form and some that are pills. She had a kidney transplant and is on a variety of anti-rejection medications.
We immediately called the nurse hotline, followed by poison control. Both were pretty calm and based on her dosage vs. body weight, they didn't think she was in danger. They told us to follow up with her doctor in the morning.
Monday morning, 'A' called the child's doctor, who said it wasn't an issue but to follow up with the transplant clinic. The camper had slept fine, hadn't vomited, felt just fine, at breakfast and was happily chatting with her cabin mates in the art barn when we finally got in touch with the transplant clinic who told us to get her to the city immediately because she was in grave danger. I asked if we could take her to the local hospital to have the labs done rather than rushing her 3 hours away. The transplant coordinator agreed, but told me that likely she would have to be rushed to the hospital in the city after the labs were completed.
'A' and I calmly got her into the camp van and I turned what is usually a 40 minute drive into a 25 minute drive. If I knew she'd been in danger the night before, I would have called 911 or rushed her to the hospital. I felt like a careless idiot. The camper was confused and a little upset she had to leave camp when she felt fine. We assured her that we just wanted to make sure she was feeling okay and that we would be back to camp soon. The hospital room had a tv, with a remote control that she got to control and as soon as we found the Disney channel, she forgot that she was upset. We were in a hospital room and her blood was drawn within 10 minutes of arrival. And roughly 20 minutes after that, the lab work came back and everything was normal. Relieved doesn't even begin to describe my feeling.
Through all of this, I had spoken to the parents exactly twice. The first call had been to the mother who politely told me "no english" when she answered the phone. She gave me the dad's number, and after a few tries (he didn't have voicemail, so I couldn't leave a message I spoke with him briefly. He spoke some english.
It took a while for the hospital and the transplant team to communicate and come up with a follow up plan, so we were gone until around 12:30. They discharged us but told us we would have to come back the next day for follow up lab work. All three of us were starving, so we made a trip to McDonalds, which kept our little camper happy and content through a bum day of camp.
While the assistant director and I were gone on the first full day of camp, "M" was in charge. Unfortunately, this is one of our biggest weeks, so both 'A' and I were scheduled to help lead activities, but 'M' managed to rearrange. As she was doing that, a 12 year old camper ended up in the health center, vomiting repeatedly. Vomit happens- it's not a crisis, but the nurse (who I had aggressively told to "pull it together and chill out" before I'd left because she was FREAKING OUT), was apparently still pretty freaked out and unable to handle it on her own.
We got back just in time for first afternoon activity period. The puking camper was resting comfortably, the poor 7 year old we'd poisoned was distracted by her happy meal toy and quite eager to go to fishing (and, as it turns out, not poisoned). I got in touch with the mom, this time, with the 14 year old sister translating. I told her what happened and that we'd taken her to the clinic to get checked out and that everything was fine.
Around 4pm, I got another call from the transplant clinic and the transplant team had met and decided the camper needed to be seen. Apparently the labs can come back normal but she could still reject the kidney, have a seizure or a number of other terrible things. The local hospital wasn't able to do the tests they needed done on her and so we were back to full blown crisis. I told her that she needed to get in touch with the parents because this was beyond my ability to make decisions on.
The dad called me an hour later and let me know they were on the way up to get her. I tried to prepare for their wrath- I'm not a parent, but if someone gave my kid the wrong dose of medicine I would LOSE MY MIND in anger. I would not be understanding or kind.
The vomiting kid had woken up and was back to vomiting every cracker and sip of water/7up/gatorade we attempted to give him. His mother was not super concerned, so we all agreed to keep him resting and continue to try to get something in his stomach.
Around 8:30pm, the parents arrived. If looks could kill, the mother would have taken me out in an instant, but the dad was as nice as he could be under the circumstances. He was concerned and said, "she could lose her kidney" as I told him I was so sorry. I explained that it had been a mistake- she read the bottle incorrectly and we'd reacted as soon as we realized it. I tried not to say more than that- there wasn't much else I could say. I had looked at the medication and instructions and it was easy to see how she'd confused the dose. I am not trying to make excuses- it was a terrible mistake. But, other than human error, she was organized, camp has a very good system for medication and I don't know what else we could have done to prevent it. I don't know how often medical professionals make errors- I'm sure more than we realize, and it is terrible. But I don't think there is anything we will change moving forward.
The parents asked to see their other two kids, so I led them to the locker room/shower area where both boys were with their groups getting ready for bed. The parents smiled and said hi to the boys and then were on their way. They were disappointed and obviously concerned, but they didn't scream or threaten me (which I would have done if I'd been in their position) and they didn't take their other kids home. So I guess it went as smooth as it could have, considering the situation.
We got all of the cabins though showers by 10pm and as 'M' and I headed home for the night, we went to check on the Counselors-in-Training. The CITs are 16 and 17 year old campers. During the all camp game, while I was talking with the parents of the kid that camp almost killed, one of the CIT boys had twisted his ankle.
Except that he hadn't just twisted it. It was about twice the size and purple and he couldn't move it at all. I've only been trained in basic first aid, but even I could see it was broken. Back to the ER- two trips in one day is a first for me.
I wanted to cry, but luckily, I just didn't have time. I grabbed my purse, computer (the hospital has wifi, so I figured I could get some work done this time, rather than just reading old magazines like I'd done the first time), and called my fiance to update him on my day.
The CIT who broke his ankle (confirmed by the x-ray when we got to the hospital) has been a camper for 7 years and last year even came back after being a Leader-in-Training to volunteer for a week. He is one of my favorites. When I said he needed to go to the hospital, he said, "will I have to leave camp?" and I said, "if I say your options are 'go to the hospital and get a cast and then leave camp OR stay at camp with a broken ankle, what are you going to do'?" to which he replied, "I could tough it out for the next two weeks." He loves camp and I adore him, and this time around, I wasn't terrified of possibly killing a camper, so the ride to the hospital took the full 45 minutes. Luckily at 11pm at a tiny up north hospital, there aren't any patients, so we were in and out in under an hour.
The puking camper vomited twice more while we were gone, but by the time we got back at 12:15am, everyone was asleep and the first full day of camp was over.
This morning I woke up, ready for a new day. When I walked into a 100 degree wall of heat in the dining hall, I knew Day 2 wasn't going to be as smooth as I'd hoped.
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"What is wrong with this building" were the first words out of my mouth. Property Manager T explained that one of the fridges (luckily the one that just holds leftovers for the staff) had overheated and almost started on fire. Not the end of the world, but the dining hall was sweltering.
It was vomiting kid's 12th birthday, so we did an extra sweaty version of the special birthday march around the dining hall and then sent him back to the health center to revisit his breakfast.
His mother wasn't real excited at the idea of leaving work to make the 6 hour round trip drive, so we agreed to revisit the conversation at lunch, even though it had been 24 hours of puking, which generally means they have to go home.
By noon, she was on her way to camp to pick him up. I had spoken to the nun who sends all of these kids to camp as well as my board president and everyone was still feeling confident in my ability to run a camp.
The sun was out, the kids (and staff) have all settled into camp and are happily enjoying activities. I feel like I've been hit by a train, but as I stood off to the side at the campfire tonight, I looked around at smiling kids eating s'mores, staff who were leading songs and glowing with excitement, the sunset was as phenomenal as ever and I sighed with relief that even though I want to burst into tears and send everyone home, the despair seems to be contained to just me. Which is 100% the way I want it. I will shake off the bad day as long as everyone is still doing fine.
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