Good Samaritan

SO today, I along with my family, were able to be Good Samaritans. Let me set the stage...

I was helping my mom make homemade pizza for dinner, as Melissa and Greg were visiting from KY and coming for dinner. All of a sudden we heard screaming through our front screen door. A girl was screaming hysterically, "PLEASE, PLEASE, someone help me." We rushed to the front door as she continued to scream "PLEASE, PLEASE help me!!!! PLEASE call 911. PLEASE help me!!" She started running to the neighbors' house and it was clear she had a child in her arms. I was thinking the worst....that the child was unconscious or having convulsions or any number of things. She turned to us and said, "Please, she fell from the monkey bars and cracked her head open. There's so much blood." My mom immediately stepped in with a calming voice telling her to calm down, to bring her inside, and insisting that she did not need to call 911. She (we'll call her Suzy) followed us into the kitchen and my mom told her to sit down on the chair. Instead of sitting down with the girl on her lap, Suzy sat her in the chair and started to leave. My mom asked where she was going and she said she had to get the other kids. The girl, Karis, was no older then 4. She had a cut on her forehead that was bleeding into one of her eyes. She would need stitches, but her head was not cracked open. After running to get my mom a washcloth, I went to the front door to help with the other kids. Meanwhile, both my parents were calming Karis down and wiping away the blood, which was not excessive and letting her know that she would be just fine. When I got to the front, Suzy was there with a little girl only 2 and boys about 6, 8, and 11. Suzy looked to be H.S. age, although maturity level was about middle school. She wanted me to run her 11 year-old brother, Chris, home in my car, which I wasn't so sure about. He ended up running home to tell their families, while Suzy was trying to call them. She was still pretty hysterical and told the kids to "just sit down" in the front yard and she ran back inside. (My parents told me later that Suzy came inside and got Karis all worked up again by telling her "it looked so bad" and "it must hurt a lot".) Meanwhile, I was trying to figure out the situation. I found out that the three of them, 2, 6, and 8 were siblings and that Karis was their sister. Chris and Suzy were siblings and they had agreed to take their neighbors (the four kids) for a walk to the park. I knew that Karis was in good hands, so I worked at keeping the 3 siblings calm and occupied. I took them to the backyard and got the boys involved in a game of catch, while I held the little 2-year old. Long story short, their mother came to pick them all up and take the 4 year-old to the Dr. for stiches. Suzy calmed down a bit and I helped them collect their things at the park.

The situation was not as bad as we had anticipated upon first hearing the screams, but it definately added some excitment to the evening! We were able to keep those kids calm and cared for, even if we were not able to spare them from nightmares. The one thing that I learned was that I would never trust "Suzy" with any of my kids. Not because the accident happened, but because of her ballistic, panicked, unreasonable response, that heightened the kids' (and our own) anxiety levels. Hopefully those children will not be having nightmares as a result, but needless to say, they are all in one peace and safe at home.