April 17, 2016. We left Sharpe Elementary at 5:00AM for Washington DC with Adalynn's 5th grade class for a week of touring and learning. However, 3 hours into the trip, we hear people yelling for Mrs. Elyssa from the back of the charter bus. One of the students was having a seizure! Elyssa was the CPR and medicine administrator for our bus, but when she got back there, the girl was turning blue. The girl's mom (a RN) was sitting next to her, but the seizing girl's teeth were clamped shut and her mom was yelling "I need an airway!" They laid the girl down and Elyssa started chest compressions while another parent called 911.
The girl regained her color and stopped seizing as the motor coach pulled over on the side of the interstate. Another mom volunteered to help carry the girl off the bus because it was hot and no place to lay her down. Elyssa assisted by lifting the girl under her arms, but as she stepped off the bus, her foot rolled on the loose gravel and Elyssa fell. She didn't drop the girl but she did bruise her left arm, hurt her left foot, and sprained her right knee.
We all got back on the bus, and as we continued our journey towards Washington DC, it became apparent that Elyssa had something wrong with both her left foot and her right knee. But we pressed on towards our destination and she somehow hopped off and back on the bus at each stop for restroom breaks.
At 11:30PM that night, we finally arrive at our hotel and get a ride to the nearest emergency room to check on Elyssa's injuries. X-rays revealed a broken bone in Elyssa's left foot. However, my tough wife wasn't going to let that stop her! We got back to our hotel room around 3:30AM, slept till 6:30AM, then I notified our travel agent of our status and started looking for a wheelchair.
Elyssa and I were able to continue the tour throughout Washington DC with Adalynn and her classmates. At each stop on the tour, Elyssa would hop up and down the bus using her right leg, though the knee was obviously injured; and I would then push her in a wheelchair as we toured at each location. One of our most memorable moments was trying to push the wheelchair up Capitol Hill, weaving and dodging streams of water shooting from the early morning sprinklers!When we returned home, some of our friends were able to get us straight into the Orthopedic Institute. They confirmed that she had a broke bone in her left foot, and a torn MCL in her right knee. She wore a boot for 6 months, but ended up getting a screw in her left foot two weeks before school started that Fall so she could start teaching again. I'm so proud of my tough wife for jumping in to help, and we're so thankful that the student who seized is ok!
