Imagine a fishing lure––a treble hook––attached to a rod leaning against the wall inside a friend's garage and within seconds Beau had grabbed the rod and the lure had him hooked.
By the time I got to the doctor's office, Beau had conked out. Dr. Klepper called this the body's natural defense against pain.
My daughter, seated in a chair while elevating Beau's arm, had a barf bucket next to her as Beau had thrown up several times. Both boy and boy's mother looked white as ghosts. Mother of four, her eyes conveyed that familiar expression, "Can you believe this?"
The hook was embedded deep in Beau's thumb so that the large looped part stuck out more than an inch. Friend Randy had used wire cutters to cut first the lure from the fishing line, next the 2 other 3-pronged hooks off the lure, and then the other 2 equally sharp hooks off of this one. Randy told his wife Robin that he had just bought the wire cutters yesterday, replacing the pair he had lost 6 months ago.
The doctor used locking forceps to push the hook in before pulling it out from its point of entry. "There's lots of ways to do this. I've tried them all. This is the best."
First thing twin brother Beck said when they got in the car, "Beau, you need to be more careful." And then a few seconds later he asked, "Beau, are you okay?"
And what does 4-year-old Beau remember? At the end of the day he said, "I was brave."
