Injured boy treated at local hospital
Posted on Thursday, November 8, 2007
BELLA VISTA - "He's alive. He's home. "That's good news for Steven Crain, father of the 6-year-old injured Monday in an accident involving a Bentonville school bus.
That day, Crain said, he was about halfway up Oxford Lane in Bella Vista when he saw a man holding his son, who had blood streaming from a cut on his head. Crain took his son and carried him into their house.
"I just wanted to get him in the house and wipe off the blood to see how bad it was."
The boy - whom his father declined to name - and several other youngsters had just gotten off a bus driven by Donald Espeseth, 75.
Wendy Lott, who was in a vehicle behind the bus, told Crain that his son was knocked straight down at the front of the bus, then the whole length of the vehicle passed over him. Lott was amazed that no tires or any part of the bus drove over the boy, Crain said.
An ambulance arrived within about five minutes after Lott called 911, Crain said. The boy was taken to Northwest Medical Center in Bentonville.
The injured boy spent about 5 1 / 2 hours at the hospital while the medical staff treated him, which included a CT scan and a check for broken bones, his father said.
They put four staples in the child's head, then sent him home, telling his parents to wake him up every two to three hours.
"I had to see if he was coherent, if he knew his surroundings," Crain explained. The doctors were worried about post-concussion syndrome, he added.
The Crains' son stayed home from school Tuesday and Wednesday because he still had headaches, and his bruises were very tender, the parents said.
The boy's teacher called Tuesday morning to see how he was doing, after one of the other kindergartners at Cooper Elementary School told her about the accident, Crain said. He said he was very glad to have her call and ask about his son.
However, he said, no officials with the school district have called.
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