Thinking of Shawn (my previous blog) reminds me of Teddy. Quiet, withdrawn, most days sullen, Teddy, like Shawn, would not participate in class either. It took something special to turn him around.
The day came, though, when Teddy’s teacher told me THAT special thing had happened to Teddy in class.
Teddy, apparently, was thrilled with the hands-on lesson on electricity. He was beside himself when he and three other boys connected the wires to the small battery, made a circuit, and lit up the small bulb.
“Look, Miss, look!" Teddy shouted. "We did it! We DID it! I’m going to do it at home. Hey! It’s dead good!”
The following day, before morning assembly, Teddy’s mum came to see me. She looked very upset, angry, even, as I asked her to take a seat in my office.
Refusing to sit, she looked sharply at me. “Our Teddy’s in hospital. Got ‘lectrocuted. Last night. Ambulance came. Took him. He’s there now. Tried to copy what he did in class. Didn’t have no batteries, so he stuck his wire in the ‘lectric plug ‘ole. ’lectricity went through his fumb and finger. Sparks everywhere. Big flippin’ sparks! Burned them and stuck them, finger and fumb, together. ‘E’s in intensive care………Ashby hospital. Goin’ there now.”
Oh, my God poor Teddy, I thought. That sounds awful. I looked at Teddy’s mother and said, “Hang on, I’ll get Mr. Moore to cover assembly. Won’t be a minute. I’ll take you to the hospital. That ok? Then you can tell me more in the car.”
I told my secretary, Sylvia, what had happened and asked her to go and tell Teddy’s teacher. Mike, my deputy, quickly agreed to take assembly, and wished me the best of luck.
As we drove towards Ashby Hospital, Teddy’s mum talked, talked and talked about what happened. “Didn’t see what he was doing, ‘Eadmaster, just heard our Teddy scream. Ran upstair as quick as I could, saw him. He was rolling on the floor, holding ‘is ‘ands. Amblance came, took him to ‘ospital. Been there all night. Intensive care, you know, the burns thingy room.”
When we arrived at the hospital, we were quickly escorted by a nurse to the Burns Section, and, as we entered the door, told to put on some head and footgear. Teddy was sitting up in his bed. He looked down at the bed cover when he saw me. “My in trouble?” he asked. “Only doin’ the speriment. Stuck a wire in the plug ‘ole to get some 'lectricity for the big bulb. Got burned and it ‘urts. Sorry, Mr. Paull, sorry.”
I assured Teddy he wasn’t in any trouble.
Because his flesh was so burned, the doctors decided to take some skin from Teddy’s thigh – and, much to my surprise, to prevent the blood from clotting, attach a live leech to the wound.
I stayed talking for about half an hour and then left. Teddy’s mother said she’d catch the bus back to Ibstock when she was ready. Teddy’s dad, she said, was probably coming around lunchtime, as soon as he left work.
That evening, I read as much as I could from my Encyclopedia Britannica about the use of leeches in medicine.
Medicinal leeches (Hirudo medicinalis), I learned, are blood sucking aquatic animals that live, like common leeches, in fresh water.
The small, slimy creatures were widely used in the 19th century to cure a variety of ailments. Today, they are used in many parts of the world to help heal wounds and restore circulation in blocked blood veins.
During the 1980's, I learned, the government had approved the commercial marketing of leeches for medical purposes when reports were published that described the successful application of medicinal leeches to rescue surgery cases with complications. During the reattachment of severed fingers and ears, the blood flow needs to be reestablished. This is where the medicinal leech comes to the rescue. The animals are applied to the tissue and they remove blood and secrete numerous compounds that have anticoagulant, and clot-dissolving properties. This prevents the tissue from dying off and allows the body to reestablish good blood flow to the reattached part.
I visited Teddy every day until he left the hospital and returned home. When he eventually returned to school, he sat with me in assembly, holding a jar full of leeches, all bloated with his blood.
Teddy was quite the talkative star, telling his audience what he knew about leeches, followed by me talking about safety issues, emphasizing that you DON'T stick wires in the electrical outlets at home!
At the end of the week, I checked in with his teacher.
"How's he doing?"
“Teddy’s great,” she said, “writing and drawing leeches. Telling other kids what he had learned about the blood suckers. Seems like a different kid. Really enjoys science............”
And the moral of this story?
Don’t know quite…….what do you think?
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