I seriously thought my heart was going to break as I watched my 10-year-old son lying in the hospital, covered in blood. earlier today Michael was driving down a steep hill on his bike and lost control. Besides the fact he lost nine teeth, we know very little about what happened.
Mike left the house with his friend to spend the afternoon bike riding — the last thing Monique said was “don’t race down the hills.” A few minutes later she walked into the family room and said “I hope he listens to me about going down the hills too fast — I would hate for him to crash and knock out some teeth.”
She turned around, walked to the front door as a strange car drove up and stopped in front of our driveway. The passenger’s door opened and a young woman got out with Michael, completely covered in blood. Monique screamed and I ran to the door.
After we made sure he had no broken bones, I hopped in the truck and went to the accident scene to recover the missing tooth. It was still in the middle of the road where it landed. I grabbed it drove home, picked everyone up and went to our dentists office. He quickly told us to go to the IWK Childrens Hospital.
They took care of us pretty quickly at the hospital. First they had a doctor check him out, both physically and mentally — until then Michael had no idea where he was or what happened to him. He checked out okay, although they were a bit concerned about him.
When the dental sergeon came, he didn’t have good news. He said they could not put in the front tooth that got knocked out. In addition to that, they had to pull three other teeth because they were so loose. To make matters worse five other teeth had to be wired in place or he would lose those too.
Even though those teeth are now wired in place, Michael will have to go through five root canals in order to save them. The doctor said those teeth are already dead.
Michael spent two or three hours in surgery this afternoon. We left for the hospital at 1:30 pm and arrived home at 8:30 pm.
At least he is alive and has all his limbs, eyes and was wearing a helmet or it could have been much worse.
June 28th, 2005 at 8:55 pm
Oh, jeez, Jim — I’m so happy he was wearing his helmet…
All the best — we’re thinking about y’all here.
June 28th, 2005 at 9:05 pm
Thanks Dave. Now that it’s done, Monique and I are really starting to freak out.
June 28th, 2005 at 10:00 pm
So sorry to hear about Michael. I can only imagine the shock your family has had. Thank goodness for the helmet!!
June 29th, 2005 at 7:02 am
So sorry to hear about the accident. Hate to hear of the lost teeth, but it sounds like the helmet probably did its job.
Hopes for a speedy recovery.
June 29th, 2005 at 9:19 am
Wow. Extremely sorry to hear about Michael’s accident… I’m glad he’ll hopefully be ok, and that he was wearing a helmet… As they say, if you don’t have a helmet, you don’t have a head…
June 29th, 2005 at 9:29 am
Sorry to hear about that Jim. I’ve had a lot of work on my teeth and it isn’t pleasant. Hope he doesn’t have too much trouble getting through it all.
June 29th, 2005 at 9:52 am
Baby teeth or permanet? If the former, he will grow new permanent soonly. If the latter, there is some hope (tho not great) I had an uncle who did the same thing and lost a number of permanent teeth. He grew a new set ( Iguess the roots were still good)
Glad it was nothing more serious.
June 29th, 2005 at 10:00 am
Pops, It was both. The side teeth were baby, but all of the front teeth were permanent.
Figures!
June 29th, 2005 at 10:06 am
Hey Jim and Monique;
Sorry to hear about the young lad and the crash.
I’ve got a littel 6YO who’s probly going to do the same.
We watch alot of spiderman.. and we thing we can climb the walls just like him..
Take care, hope everyone gets feeling better. I’m sure by now the excitement of the crash has worn off and pain has set in.
Todd
June 29th, 2005 at 10:43 am
Jim, just trying out the comment section and again to express my hopes Michael will make a full recovery as soon as possible. Its a heck of a note for something like that to happen. One day at a time friends.
June 29th, 2005 at 7:53 pm
Jim & Monique:
Not sure if you got the last comment from us but just wanted you both to know that we are thinking of you both and Michael and that we are thankful that michael will be ok and that the helmet protected his head. Keep us posted.
love Cathy and Grammy
June 29th, 2005 at 8:50 pm
Hey Cathy and Grammy!
Thanks for your thoughts. We are thankful that he is okay, but that sure doesn’t help with the pain that we’re all going through.
July 1st, 2005 at 5:49 pm
Hi Jim and Monique:
Joan sent us the pic of Michael - just makes you want to hug him and be grateful at the same time that he will move past this. As a parent I am thinking if ever he wanted anything now would be a good time to ask because it would be hard to refuse him anything looking at his picture. Give him a hug from us and tell him we were asking about him.
love Cathy and grammy
July 1st, 2005 at 6:46 pm
We didn’t include the bad pictures — there was really no need and they are pretty difficult to look at.
We bought him four Game Cube games over the last couple of days, but he hasn’t asked for a single thing.
July 4th, 2005 at 12:10 pm
Hi Jim:
Just checking on Michael - what did they give him for pain? Let him know he is in our thoughts.
Love Cathy
July 4th, 2005 at 12:59 pm
He’s taking motrin for pain. Overall he’s doing much better — his spirits are good, but he still can’t do much.
His root canals start on Thursday.
July 5th, 2005 at 4:28 pm
[...] As if Michael’s teeth problems weren’t enough this past week, Nicole went in today to get braces on her teeth. She was actually looking forward to having braces — Monique and I both had them and neither of us looked forward to having them. [...]
July 5th, 2005 at 9:21 pm
[...] I talked to my parents last night and told them all about Michael’s accident. Then we talked about how freaky my accident was compared to what Michael went through yesterday — the similarities are kind of incredible. [...]
July 6th, 2005 at 9:43 pm
Hi Jim:
Saw more pics of michael - mum sent them. How is he feeling - each day makes a big difference. Tomorrow is his first root canal - good luck. I remember your accident when you were little. Hope you guys have a great dental plan! Thinking of you.
Cathy
July 8th, 2005 at 4:42 pm
Good news and bad news! I’m doing up a fresh post now
July 8th, 2005 at 4:53 pm
[...] After a week of worrying about Michael, we finally have some good news to share. The first may seem small, but him it’s a big deal; the second item is huge for all of us. [...]
July 31st, 2005 at 8:32 pm
[...] After knocking out his teeth a few weeks ago and spending more than his share of time in the doctor’s office, Michael is doing so much better. In fact, tonight he went for a ride on his bike for the first time since he went down. [...]
January 21st, 2006 at 3:54 pm
i love having no teeth the bike accident was not my fault my stupid shoelace got caught in the wheel my bad!!!
March 5th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
[...] You may remember back in June Michael had a bad accident on his bike that knocked out or broke nine of his teeth. For a few weeks it was good news/bad news about whether he would keep his teeth or not. Now we are starting to worry a little again. [...]
May 16th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
I lost 5 teeth in a car accident one month ago. I really feel for michael. I can totally relate. My heart and my prayers go out to him.