Swing Hits Head stitches
When I was in third grade towards the beginning of the year I was at recess with my class. Kindergarten through second grade has recess on one playground, while third through fifth has the larger one. That doesn't really make a difference because what happened to me could have happened anywhere.
One day when recess started, myself and my friend Isaac ran to the swings on the far end of the playground so we could claim them. There were only three swings on this side and so they were coveted so you had to stake your claim fast. Isaac and I were able to get to the swings first and so I chose the one furthest to the right, and there is one more swing to the left of that to which Isaac began swinging in.
After selecting our respective spots, we began swinging and having fun, nothing out of the ordinary. Then Isaac started to swing higher and higher until he hit the highest point to which he jumped out of the swing onto the playground as children do. The problem was, he jumped perhaps at an angle because on the rebound the swing veered right and hit me in the back of the head while I was sitting in my swing. If you aren't familiar, these were swings with metal linkages, so what happened was the metal chain of Isaac's swing hit me in the back of the head, basically like getting hit with a slab of metal dropped from a second story height.
I remember after it hit me I got out of the swing and ran forward with my hands on the back of my head until I laid down at the end of the gravel area. Someone went and got the teacher while I was sitting there in fetal position, crying, and holding my head. Once the teacher arrived Isaac was next to her and I remember his comment was "look at all that blood." I didn't even know I was bleeding, but I was.
The teacher's solution was to have me hold my head while she walked me to the nurse. She would ask me questions to test my if my cognitive functioning had been mired by the injury, which I was able to supply answers to provide evidence I wasn't. Then the teacher used another test to see if I was ok in that she watched my walking and was testing to see if I ever lost balance. Eventually, I don't remember how long passed, but my mother came and picked me up from the nurse's office and drove me to the emergency room where I needed several stitches to close the wound. Thing is I was never analyzed to see how this may have impacted my cognition and brain development, not just from the trauma of going through the experience, but being nine years old and the brain is still developing. Who knows?