I am beginning to think my department is jinxed or is it pure coincidental? Let me start at the beginning.

A month ago, our cake decorator, Sue transferred to a new store that is closer to where she lives. She was on her way to work one early morning and on her way she was in this horrible car accent caused by a drunk driver. The accident was so bad that the jaws-of-life had to be used to get her out of the car. She suffers severe head trauma and a broken pelvis. She recently has been moved to a rehabilitation facility. At the present moment they still do not know how severe her trauma is. We do not know if she will have the ability to return to a somewhat normal life. One of our co-workers has gone to see her. She follows with her eyes around the room and can only have a one-on-one conversation. I am not sure how much she can talk or if she really knows who is in the room.

Yesterday, as I was going inside my store there was two cop cars and a ambulance there. My gut told me it wasn't a customer but an employee. Within minutes, the stretcher comes out and all I see is the person with a bandage around their head and the person has her/his hands covering their face so you can’t make out who the person was. Again, my gut told me that was Ruthie that is in our department. I just had that strong feeling. I waited until they loaded up the person in the ambulance and went inside. Sure enough, I see the cops walking away from my department.

Something really awful happened and I am glad I missed it all. I asked my boss what happened. He said Ruthie tripped and fell and hit her head on the sink. Everyone was busy doing their thing and we all heard this loud thump and then she let out a horrible scream and kept screaming. Our assistant manager, is a former EMT and quickly came to her aid. Trying to keep her calm as she instructed her to calm down because the blood kept squirting out of her head. Of course, every one in the store stopped in their track and followed the sound to the bakery area.

Our assistant manager just happened to be finished with her shift. She gave her report of what happened and then went to the hospital and stayed with her the whole time. Luckily the MRI didn’t see anything wrong. Since she hit her head so close to her eye they thought the eye socket would be damaged. She was lucky there. The plastic surgeon came in hours later and she had 18 stitches. She is really lucky because the impact could have killed her.

I later said to our department that we seem to have a bad case of head trauma in this department but it seems to me that everything is in a group of three. We are not done yet with trauma or accidents. Of course, I was told to shut-up. Later that evening, one of the employees left a tray sticking out of the racks and one of the employees smacked her head on it. All I could say was “I think we are done!” We had our severe trauma, our medium trauma, and now our least trauma.

I guess the safety inspector was right when he said “The bakery is a dangerous department to work in!” I couldn’t tell you how many close calls accidents I almost had. Me needs to get out of there soon.