Since many of us take our grandchildren on outings I wanted to share what happened to my 3 year old DGS yesterday so that this might not happen to anyone else.
My DD and DSIL took DGS to a new art museum in our city. It has a fancy glass elevator. I am sure you all know to be cautious of the doors closing on yourself or a child that might be under your care. Did you know that serious injury can occur as the doors open? Typically, there is a small gap between the elevator door and the frame around it, which the door slides into as it opens. If a small hand is touching the door as it slides into this gap, the small hand can be pulled into the gap crushing the fingers. You can stop doors from closing by pushing the “door open” button but there is no way to stop the doors from opening.
DGS started screaming and DD was able to extract his fingers from the gap but not without injury. A trip to the emergency room and no bones broken but 4 painfully swollen and scraped fingers. A little internet research indicates that this injury is not uncommon especially in glass elevators where everyone, especially a little one, is mesmerized by looking out through the glass.
Hopefully, enhanced awareness will help prevent another little person from being injured. Some of the injuries I read about on the internet were much worse than what my grandson had. Although the x-ray showed no broken bones, he is going to see a hand specialist this week to make sure there are no other problems (you can’t be too careful with hand injuries).
