By the way . . . home may not be as safe as we think

IT’S hard to believe that most accidents happen not on the road or at sea, but in the comfort of our own homes.

Just last week, I read an article about the dangers of glass shattering in the summer sun. Literally 24 hours later, I was experiencing it first hand. A table in my living room spontaneously shattered, showering my six-year-old in shards of glass. It was terrifying.

Basic first aid is an essential survival tool. In an emergency, you have to think and act quickly. We stemmed the blood with clean towels and bundled her into the car and headed straight for the hospital.

Bear in mind, it was a warm Saturday night at the height of World Cup action. It was heaving with casualties related to heat, sport, drink and DIY. Thankfully the paediatric zone was mainly full of sober adults accompanying minors.

Going to A and E is just a bit mind-boggling. It’s such a busy department and although in our case the service was excellent, my only quibble is you can’t really identify who is who.

The student nurse dresses like a doctor, anaesthetist and radiographer so it can be confusing. You sit and wait for the curtain to be whisked open and yet another person dressed in scrubs appears.

Each step should take you closer to the exit door, or so you would think. No, not so. We ended up staying the night so my daughter could have an operation in the morning. The four-bed ward we ended up on was sweltering. We bunked in with three other sets of parents and their kids and settled down to a chorus of coughing, crying, chatting, snoring and bells ringing for the night. I do not know how anyone sleeps a wink in hospital.

The operation went fantastically well. The irony was we spent a full 24 hours in hospital for a bit of surgery that only took 20 minutes.

There are so many moving parts to a hospital admission it seems almost impossible to make it efficient, without compromising on effectiveness.

But we were lucky — had the glass gone elsewhere things could have been very different. Camping in hospital is a small price to pay for a healthy child.