- Emma and her son Landen were in the kitchen making lunch one day during the school holidays
- When Landen accidentally tripped backwards and fell into an open dish drawer, Emma’s nightmare began
- After gently helping him to his feet, Emma found he’d been impaled by a steak knife
- Then the police arrived to question whether she’d stabbed him!
- Here, Emma Sturman from Dawesville, WA. shares her real-life survival story and the shocking X-ray photos. Warning: Graphic images
Wiping my brow, I turned to my son Landen, who was watching a show on his iPad.
“Fancy some lunch?” I asked. “I’m starving.”
It was January of this year and I’d been cleaning all morning, readying for our rental home inspection, taking place the next day.
“You’re busy,” Landen, 10, replied. “I’ll just make myself a cheese toastie.”
“Okay, great,” I said. “I’ll have leftover spaghetti from last night.”
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I popped the spaghetti into the microwave to reheat.
As I did this, Landen grabbed a clean plate and cutlery out of the open dishwasher, which hadn’t been emptied yet, and began putting together his toastie.
As I sat down to eat my food, I heard a crash.
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I spun around to see Landen lying on top of the dishwasher drawer, on his back.
Oh God, what if he’s broken it? I fretted, thinking about the inspection.
“Come on, clumsy,” I said, yanking him to his feet. “Start looking where you’re going.”
Then something caught my eye, turning my stomach.
“Don’t move,” I said.
“What is it?” Landen asked, his face full of fear.
Poking out of his back was a steak knife!
Incredibly, there was only a thin trickle of blood coming out of the wound.
“You’ve fallen onto a knife,” I told him gently. “I’m going to get you some help.”
“Am I going to die?” he asked, the colour draining from his face.
“No, definitely not,” I said.
I called my friend, Ally, and asked her to come and look after my other kids, as my husband, Reece, was at work in the mines.
I then called an ambulance.
“Keep him still until we get there,” the operator said, then told me they were sending the police.
“Why the police?” I asked.
“Your kid has a stab wound,” he replied. “We have to.”
Oh my God, they think I’ve stabbed my own kid, I thought in horror.
When the police and the ambos turned up, medics checked Landen while I spoke to the police.
By now, the shock had worn off and he was in pain.
After I gave them a detailed run-down of events, they were satisfied it was an accident.
Once Landen was carefully placed on a stretcher, lying on his stomach, medics offered him the green whistle in case he felt any pain on the way to the hospital.
Arriving, we were swarmed by doctors and nurses.
Landen was checked for internal bleeding. Thankfully, the knife hadn’t punctured any vital organs.
Then, he was transferred to Perth Children’s Hospital to be operated on by a team of specialists.
On the way, I managed to get in touch with Reece.
“I’m getting the first flight home,” he assured me.
After we arrived, Landen was taken for a CT scan.
When the results came in, a doctor pulled me aside.
He explained the knife was lodged in his backbone, just millimetres from Landen’s spinal cord.
“He could be facing permanent paralysis,” he said gravely. “We won’t know until we operate.”
How to keep kids safe from knife injuries at home:
- Keep knives, forks, scissors, and other sharp utensils in a drawer with a safety latch.
- Keep glass objects, such as drinking glasses and bowls, in a high cabinet far from reach.
- Store appliances with sharp blades (like blenders or food processors) out of reach or in a locked cabinet.
Source: kidshealth.org
All I could do was hope and pray that my child would survive a knife injury.
Before Landen was wheeled into theatre for surgery, I hugged him.
“I love you,” I told him. “I’ll be here waiting for you when you wake up.”
I paced the waiting room relentlessly until a doctor finally came with some news.
“Your boy is going to be just fine,” he said, smiling.
“Oh, thank God,” I cried.
After a night in ICU, Landen was moved to a ward. The next day, Reece came straight to the hospital from the airport.
“I’m so glad he’s okay,” he said.
Landen had to lie flat on his back for nearly three days to prevent spinal fluid from building up around the wound. He hated it.
“I’m so sick of this, Mum,” he moaned.
Once he was able to get up, he started joining in the hospital’s arts activities and discovered a love for puppeteering.
“At least something good came out of this,” I said watching him play with the marionettes.
He was discharged after a week, and a week later he was back at school.
Landen’s two-centimetre scar definitely gave him something to talk about!
“Everyone is amazed when I tell them what happened to me,” he grinned.
I wish I could share his enthusiasm. The ordeal still gives me nightmares!
I hope this is a warning to others to always put knives into the dishwasher the pointy end down, especially if you have kids as it could prevent a child from suffering a knife injury.
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