After years of chasing after Sasuke's heart i had finally won him over, and we had three very beautiful happy children. Suki was in 4th grade, Sasuke Jr. was in the 2cd grade and my baby boy Daisuke was in preschool when this tragic event happened. It changed our lives, to know that our child could have been snatched away from us in a matter of minutes.
Fridays are Mommy and Daisuke time … the one special day of the week when my rapidly growing 5-year-old isn't in preschool. This particular Friday began with a beautiful breakfast at my other kids' elementary school to commemorate the veterans in our village. After the breakfast ended I rushed Daisuke out the door of the school to avoid being caught in the commotion of a planned fire drill. I shuffled Daisuke into the minivan while I chatted with my friend, Ino, who had pulled out of the slot next to mine and rolled her window down to talk for a bit. I left the sliding door open as I always do, but closed it when another car parked next mine began to pull out. Despite three noisy leaf blowers blaring in the background, our conversation shifted to politics and we continued talking for about 10 minutes.
Daisuke is not my quiet kid, so I was pleased to think that he was peacefully reading in the car and not opening and closing the door incessantly. As I stood about five feet from my car I felt confident that he was in a safe place. Oh how i was so wrong.
You know that little voice in the back of your head? Mine started quietly reminding me that Daisuke would normally be climbing over the seats or running around the parking lot or climbing a tree or finding some other way to distract me from my conversation. I ignored that voice the first time, but the second time I decided to step away from our conversation to peek at Daisuke. What I saw changed my life forever. He was standing in the third row of seats facing the back window. I knew something was wrong because he wasn't moving. My first thought at that horrible moment was that he was dead. I told Ino something was very wrong and quickly opened the back hatch. Daisuke had apparently been playing with the seatbelts and got two of them tangled up and wrapped around his neck. I could tell he had been screaming and crying and his face was bright red. He lifted his head when the hatch opened and his big oxny eyes looked right at me. The one positive was that his feet were still touching the seat, which may have been enough to keep it from completely cutting off his breathing. I'll never know how long he was like that … but it was too long.
The next part is a bit of a blur. Ino and I tried to unwrap the seat belts from around his neck, but as we tried to loosen them they got tighter. Over and over again Ino kept encouraging Daisuke and I to stay calm as we worked to free him. I frantically scrambled to find a key or anything sharp to unhook the middle seat belt from its latch so we could unwind it from around his neck (I had dropped my keys during the initial frantic moments when I climbed in the hatch to try and get him out). When we realized we were not going to be able to unwrap the seat belts and as they continued to get tighter, Ino ran to the school to grab a pair of scissors. Bless her heart, because she kept running toward the school even as I was screaming her name.
I'm not sure I will ever be able to fully put into words how horrible the next few moments were. I was watching my son being strangled to death. I was frantically trying to find my keys or any sharp object to release the middle seat belt from its anchor. Daisuke was turning purple and it was clear the situation was deteriorating quickly. I finally grabbed the keys from Ino's ignition and reached over the back seat to unhook the middle seat belt. I felt a brief moment of relief as I expected that to release the pressure around his neck, but nothing happened. The seat belts were so tight at that point I couldn't unthread the middle seat belt from around his neck … it just wouldn't budge.
Just then Ino handed me the scissors. At that point I was having visions of sawing through the belt while watching as Daisuke slipped away. Fortunately the scissors were sharp enough and cut right through. The seat belt STILL didn't release at that point, but we were able to untangle and loosen the belts and pull Daisuke from the car. He was limp and bright red, but he was also breathing and looking at me.
A long day at Hospital revealed that Daisuke suffered no internal damage to his neck. He is still mad about the IV he endured for his CT scan and essentially equates all his aches and pains to "The Shot." His eyes have lost a bit of their sparkle and he is a bit subdued … which is saying a lot for Daisuke. We have a long road ahead of us to ensure there is no long-term emotional damage for either of us. There have been many hugs and snuggles. It is difficult to drop him off at preschool, although I know how good it is for him.
The hardest part for me is overcoming the guilt. Everyone tells me things like this can happen to anyone and that they happen so fast. Deep down I know that is true, but that doesn't erase the images in my head. As parents we vow to always be their for our kids, so it's hard to come to terms with the fact that if even for a second I wasn't there when Daisuke needed me.
I keep reminding myself that this situation was scary, but fortunately not tragic. For that I do feel blessed. Our angels were looking out for us.