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"We Gotta Go to the Hospital"
But the fall had done more than pinch Carter's ear. The blow against the corner of the stand had sent a shock through his skull and ruptured the middle meningeal artery, which runs near the surface of the brain just below the dura, its lining. Nothing but a small red mark on his ear showed outside, but inside, Carter was bleeding and the trapped blood was compressing his brain.At bedtime Aaron and Annie noticed their son looked groggy. Just a busy day, they thought. Dressed in red and blue Superman pajamas, he stumbled going to bed. "My ear hurts," he told them. As Annie tucked him in, she suggested that he turn over and sleep on his other side, then kissed him goodnight.
Just before dawn the Engstroms were awakened by piercing screams. They rushed to Carter's room and tried to soothe him. He was talking and lucid and eventually stopped crying. But when the two returned to their bedroom, Annie heard a small cry. They ran back and found Carter unconscious -- and they couldn't wake him.
Aaron carried his son into their room and laid him on the apple-green duvet on their bed. He discovered that Carter had wet himself. As he changed the boy's pants, Carter's arms and legs flopped like a rubber doll's.
Aaron checked his son's eyes. Lifting one lid, he saw that the pupil was fully dilated and not responding to light. Frantic, he pulled back the other lid; the pupil was completely contracted. Uneven pupil dilation is a sign of a life-threatening head injury. "We gotta go to the hospital now," he said.
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