No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to shake the images from my head.  The sight of a young boy lying unconscious, pinned underneath a television set, face all blue, breathing extremely labored.  The sight of a young mother, screaming hysterically for us to help her baby.  The sheer helplessness on the faces of my partners (and no doubt, myself).

This particular incident happened just last month.  I still remember it as though it happened only yesterday. 

We were at our station, looking forward to a quiet Wednesday, with nothing to do, when the tones sounded.  The call was for a child down. 

Instinctively, we grabbed our gear, raced towards the scene in only a matter of moments.  Cop cars and a firetruck were already there; a policewoman met us at the scene, told us that a child was lying pinned underneath a television set.  She said it was very bad.

We braced ourselves for what was to come upon entering the house.  Sure enough, there, right in front of us, was one of the most disturbing scenes we'd ever witnessed.  A young boy of no more than two  years was lying on the ground.  A television set lay on top of him, covering him from mid chest down; the poor kid was obviously very badly hurt, not to mention, pinned by the appliance. 

There was blood all over, and the sound of the kid's gasping breathing filled our ears.  We knew we had to get the thing off of him and start treatment on him as soon as possible, which we did.  While the kid's father and two of my partners lifted the broken television off the kid, I immediately C-collared him, and asked for a long spine board.  We log-rolled the boy, then gently placed him on the board, as we immediately set to work, to try to help him.

We put oxygen on the kid, affixed EKG leads to his bloody chest.  His heartbeat was rapid, erratic.  When we took his blood pressure, we found it to be very low.  The kid was in shock!  We had to get him to the hospital, stat, if he was to have any chance of surviving.

We attempted several times to get an IV line established; the kid's veins kept collapsing.  We finally found a nice, fat pipe on the side of his neck.  Once the IV line was in place, we gently placed the kid on the stretcher, then radioed the hospital for directions.  Once those were given, we started a second IV (in the boy's foot), then strapped him down, as we quickly rolled the stretcher bed to our waiting rig outside.

Once we placed the unconscious, gasping boy into the back of our ambulance, we then hightailed it to the scene in less than five minutes.  We had lights and sirens blaring all the way, showing traffic around us that we had a major emergency at hand.

In the ER, doctors and nurses attempted to try to save his life.  We assisted them the best way we can; it seemed that no matter what we did, we could not revive him; his vital signs were on a downward slide; the kid was clearly on his way to checking out.  It was very discouraging.

Finally, after about an hour of trying to help the boy, the main doctor cancelled the Code Blue and pronounced the little boy dead.  There was nothing, absolutely nothing, that could be done; it was already too late when the boy had been brought in.

I just thank God I didn't have the nasty task of telling the kid's parents that their son was dead; however, I still remember the agonizing shrieks that enamated from the waiting area as the doctor delivered the bad news to the parents.  At the sound of those screams, all I could do was bow my head and cry for a little boy who would never have the chance to grow up.

I never thought that something like a television set could be dangerous, but as I recounted the scene in my mind, I tried to piece together what had occurred.  Apparently, the kid wanted something off the top of the curio cabinet, so he climbed the television set, which was set precariously on the end.  The television set then fell, pinning the boy to the ground, gravely injuring him.  It all happened in a matter of a few split seconds.  One minute, he was laughing, playing, enjoying the show that was on; the next, he was fighting for life.

Ever since then, I have made sure that my own kids don't do something like climb appliances because, chances are, they're not that sturdy; they're not made to handle the weight of a human being.  They are only asking for trouble if they attempt this.  Our television (as well as our other larger appliances) are secured to the wall, so they don't tip over; we've had to do this to protect them--and us--, and to prevent yet another senseless tragedy.

~Written by Anonymous, EMT, Elkhardt, Indiana.