Monday, August 6, 2007

Bad experience at the mall.

We had quite an experience at the mall yesterday. After a planned trip to the swimming pool failed to materialize, we decided to just walk around the mall. This would allow us to just get out of the house and do something.
With us was Kim and myself, Aurora, Athena, Arianna, and Rachel with her twins, Malachi and Magdalene. We had our double-stroller and Rachel had hers.
Athena was very grumpy the whole entire time. The only time she was happy was when we visited the toy store.
When we decided to go back home we had to take the elevator back up to get to where we parked. The elevator is very small, and our two double-strollers, plus two standing adults and two stranding children made for a very tight squeeze. I was holding Arianna when I heard scream. I looked over to find Athena’s arm stuck in the elevator door. It was trying to open, and with her arm rested against it it was pulling it in to the wall.
I panicked really bad. I was in a frenzy and had little rational control over myself. I first tried to force the door open but it was apparent that the door motors where way too strong for me. At this point I thought for sure that she was going to loose her arm. Kim was pulling on her arm trying to get it out when she yelled to hit the “Door Close” button. Rachel looked and saw that it only had a “Door Open” button. I tried to look but being in a panic I couldn’t see straight. I was finally able to make out that aside from the numbers there was only a “Door Open” and “Alarm” button. I started hitting the alarm button which made a ringing sound. We were all sitting there with the door partially open screaming when her arm finally came out. We are not sure if the Alarm button triggered the elevator door to stop trying to open, if it just stopped trying to open on its own, or if Athena just managed to get her arm undone by herself.
Then Kim yells, “You dropped the baby.” Arianna was lying on the ground behind me crying. I have absolutely no recognition of what happened, but I think I tried to lay her in the stroller and in a panic didn’t set her down properly. I really don’t know for sure though. She probably dropped about three feet down. We all left the elevator being really quiet. I kind of expected there to be someone there waiting for the elevator looking at us like, “What the hell is going on.” But no one was there.
Athena’s arm was just fine. It had a little bruise, but it wasn’t anything bad. We filed a report with the mall security. My adrenaline levels were very high and it took me a long time to come down. When I got home I was still pretty shook up and I had to take a nap. When I woke up I felt much better.
Kim took both Athena and the baby to the doctor and he verified they were both ok.

1 comment:

  1. Holy cow that's scary!!! Glad to see everything turned out okay and everyone is safe!

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