What should have been a beautiful day turned into a nightmare. I still bear the consequences of an accident that happened during my school trip. My school trip ended in brain injury.
It was sometime in July 1991, when I was in group 7. We were going to go on a school trip with the class that day. At first everything seemed to be going well. The bus arrived on time, we left and we drove full of expectation towards the discovery corner in Rotterdam. We stayed there all morning and I have to say, we all had a great time. What has stayed with me the most is making homemade chips, why exactly this? I'll come back to it later….
After dinner we went to Plaswijckpark (playground in Rotterdam). Once there it quickly became a mad mess and everyone ran from one place to another. All attractions were soon occupied by what appeared to be a runaway gang of playful monkeys 😉
At one point my attention was caught by some nice ship swings. You had to stand in this with two people and then you could swing. Initially I sat in such a swing with my sister, but she did not want to swing very high and soon I started to get bored. So we stopped and I randomly assigned a boy from my class to rock with me. The condition was that the boy had to dare to swing very high. Anyway, all the boys acted tough and actually I just blindly designated someone.
And off we went. Because it still didn't go high enough, we stood on the edge of the swings (this was an iron box in the shape of a boat with a thin edge and bars in the middle to which you could hold on) . Everyone did this and there was no indication that this was not allowed. Until we got to a point where I said, "Gosh, we're going really high now, we're going to flip over!" I thoroughly enjoyed myself, until………..
From this point I can only tell what I was told afterwards. The teachers stood looking at us from the side and came to the same conclusion as I did. Namely, that we were about to go bankrupt. However, it never came to that. However, the following did happen:the moment I went down, I was seen falling from the swing.
Everyone who witnessed my fall held their breath, but later told me that there must have been angels who carried me. The case is that I could never have survived the fall in a normal way. Behind the swing was an iron gate with pointed iron triangles on it (it would have been a real horror if I had landed on it and there was a real chance). Had I made it over the fence, there would have been another fence (could have broken my neck).
And the way I finally fell, I should have landed face-to-face in the sand and received another thump from the swing. Miraculously and I am truly thankful to God for that, I have not fallen in any way described before. I twisted during the fall and ended up under the swing with my face turned to the sky. I would have survived!
I think the teachers didn't know what hit them. There you see a student going through the air and you fear the worst, but it is not so bad in the end…. The ambulance was called in while I was being resuscitated. I only remember being told that the ambulance was coming and that I had had an accident… Then I was gone again.
When I arrived at the hospital, I was found to have 'only' had a concussion. I don't know anything about the studies themselves. At one point I woke up because I was asked something, but then I fell away again. The bus with students even went to the hospital to be told that I was reasonably well. I also only learned that afterwards.
Later that afternoon, a taxi drove me and a teacher who was with me the whole time home. I was already throwing up in the back seat of the taxi and each time the smell of the homemade chips came to my memory, although I could not place it at that moment, because I don't remember it at all. In retrospect the stupidest thing the hospital could do, but I insisted on going home. Well, who listens to a 12-year-old child????
Well, when I got home I had to crawl up the stairs. My parents didn't lift me, guess they didn't realize how serious the matter was and one more flight of stairs and then I was finally in bed. Well in my sister's, because I was normally on top of our bunk bed. Now I have to go back to what my mother told me because I lost the following hours. I was unconscious all the time and only in between when my mother woke me up and asked me for my name etc (check to see if my memory was okay) was I there for a while, although I don't remember anything about it. Only more than a day later (that was on a Thursday) I could eat a little soup and be up for a while. My memory was reasonable, but I still noticed that I had 'lost' a lot of things.
Friday I got out of bed more and started to eat something again. And Saturday? Then there was the smurf festival in Scheveningen. This festival was held every year and from experience I knew that Kellog's handed out samples and if you were smart you could get a lot. Now it was warm early that Saturday, but I had to get out, despite my concussion. And no one to get in my way! My parents had little medical knowledge at the time and I seemed so much better and they allowed me that pleasure, so I was allowed to go. I stayed away all day. Unfortunately, I would have to bear the consequences for the rest of my life…
Initially everything seemed to be going well, although I often lost things in my memory, but soon I started having migraine attacks. And I'm talking about severe attacks where I threw up, wanted to smash my head in because of the terrible pains (all over my head) and especially where I became unconscious after vomiting, once in bed.
Reading tip :living with migraine
Unfortunately I still suffer from migraines. It has now been improved a lot. I have adjusted my diet and now wear insoles. The insoles have changed my shoulders and neck, so there is less pressure.
If the doctors had kept me in the hospital and given me complete bed rest, my life would probably have turned out differently. Now I had to learn to deal with severe pain at a young age and I couldn't do many things that I did before. I lost my wild hair instantly, no more attractions in parks for me, not even a carousel, no swing, nothing! Even now I can't do certain things, because my body reacts to certain fluctuations, etc. (although I can no longer consciously remember it, my body does).
My family also has to take this into account and that can be difficult at times. The playground has only afterwards placed a sign with the warning that one may not stand on the swings (what do you mean “if the calf has drowned, the pit is filled!”)…
And even though I had extra angels who saved me, it is a day that changed my life forever.
