I almost made it 10 months before my son needed stitches. I went 10 years before I ever needed stitches. And under my watch, my 10 month old ends yesterday with 9 sutures in his knee.
I couldn’t have felt worse than I did being that it was my brilliant idea to put a glass on a stool. I’m really not used to his new mobility. So of course he wanted to check out that shiny glass. The whole thing came tumbling down and he landed on a big piece of glass.
While I would really rather that not have happened, I had no idea that I couldn’t have been in a better city for this sort of thing.
Akron Children’s Hospital has a nationally recognized suture program. August happens to be their busiest suture month. They do about 900 of these in August.
I had no idea there was such a thing… a nationally recognized suture program. And it’s right here in Summit County.
I was told by one of the doctors that he probably wouldn’t pass up a local hospital for an ear ache if he lived closer to it. But he probably would for getting sutures. Facinating.
These people are serious about their job. We had 3 doctors stop in at various times. They all were kind, attentive and really reassuring. They let me know that I wasn’t the worst dad ever. In fact, they would probably be doing 30 of these in that day alone. I came in on a Saturday morning.
The doctor, Albert, said the kind of cut Indiana had was a lot like a skin graft. Albert was really focused on not just getting this sewn up, he was trying to make it as clean and good looking as possible. He was focused on saving skin and doing a really good job. Writing that sounds silly. You would think all suture doctors would do a good job. But I’ve had sutures twice and my wife just had some a couple years ago. This experience was different. This was a high end job.
I just can’t say enough good about this program. If you have a child who has a deep cut and you live in Medina, North Canton, Seville, Bath… really anywhere near Akron, I would recommend you consider coming to the Akron Children’s Hospital suture program for your child’s stitches. It is going to be a much happier experience for you and your child.
To top it off, we came in at about 8:00am and were done and out by 10:00am. I really thought I was going to be there all day.
You can read all about the program here:
Akron Children’s Hospital suture program
This is a tricky topic because you probably aren’t thinking of researching this sort of thing on the internet while your child is bleeding with a major cut. But if you happen to come along this in your surfing travels, just keep it in mind in the event you ever need to go somewhere for stitches.
You might also consider sending a link to this page to any friends who have children so they know about it in the event of needing stitches. I’m telling you from personal experience, you are going to be glad you know about this service.