November 29, 2006

• Injuries

  [04.28.06 entry, revisited...]

  Top 10 traumatic injuries suffered in our family [many more, but the incidents below made this final list]

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  #10. Victim: Paul Cho | Injury: mild concussion | Background: Paul, Earnest, Ho, and I were playing some street baseball in my old residence in Lynnwood in the late 80s, and I hit a deep shot to 'center field' which Paul was tracking down with Griffey-like grace [running backwards looking up to catch the ball], and all of a sudden we hear a loud 'boom'. We scurry over to the sound to find Paul laying down on the ground knocked out, his face had forcefully met the metal mailbox head-to-head, and the mailbox was victorious. Amazingly, as he was temporarily knocked unconscious, he held the ball in his glove, he had made the phenomenal catch.

  #9. Victim: Ho Kim [my late kid brother 1977-2000] | Injury: permanent skin damage to foot | Background: We were in Korea when we were kids [early 80s] and having a lovely ramen breakfast in the morning, as my mother brought out the boiling ramen pot to our small circular table. I reached out eagerly in anticipation as I proceeded to knock the pot out of the control of my maternal unit, spilling the boiling soup onto my brother's left foot. The pain was so excruciating for him that it took him at least 20 seconds to commence wailing after shock. :T

  #8. Victim: Ho Kim | Injury: burns to his hand and forearm | It was 4th of July and Earnest's father [Reverend Cho, awesome evangelist in Korea|Japan] was entertaining us with some fireworks display. All of a sudden, he looks at us with mischievous eyes and tells us, "run for your lives," as he proceeded to light a roman candle. Ho, Paul, Earnest, Paul and I ran for our lives, as he started firing on the innocent. Most of us made it out of the range of fire safely, except for one. Ho Kim took a shot with a roman candle 'bullet' on his hand and into his sleeve and received burns to his hand and forearm. We can look back and laugh about it now, but needless to say it was quite the traumatic experience.

  #7. Victim: Paul Chung [Grace's late kid brother 1980-2002] | Injury: loss and damage to front teeth | Background: Paul was being towed by a rope on a skateboard, as the skateboard's momentum suddenly ceased, violently throwing Paul forward onto the cement face down. He lost a tooth and severely damaged others. :T

  #6. Victim: David Cho | Injury: permanent 'dimple' on his right cheek [face] | Background: David was in his backyard as an innocent child and fell as he was traversing the concrete stairs back into the house. His face made impact to the concrete, causing a deep gash and a permanent injury that he can one day tell his grandchildren that he received from a war. ;]

  #5. Victim: Christine Cho | Injury: 'displaced' finger | At the age of 5, Christine Cho was sitting on a metal chair on a tiled floor in the kitchen being tested|drilled by her mother for the spelling bee competition. She rocked side-to-side on the chair, she lost balance and fell over sideways. She held on for her life to the chair as gravity took over. She was on the floor crying as her brother Enoch walked in and said, "CHRISTINE! What's wrong with your finger!?" She looked at her right hand, nothing was wrong... and she looked to her left hand as her eyes made their way towards her ring finger, to find a chunk of her finger just 'dangling' on a tiny piece of flesh, with blood dripping down. She ceased crying, and observed in shock for 2 minutes, then commenced screaming, "AHHHHHHHH-!"

  #4. Victim: Grace Kim | Injury: permanent scar below chin | Background: Grace was driving to downtown Seattle on a rainy day, as her car lost control on I-5, hydroplaned, spun out, and crashed into a median. The impact sent her head forward onto the steering wheel [no airbags] and her teeth tore through her chin, causing a significant puncture. She was treated at ER after a ridiculous 6-hour wait, and the injury never healed correctly. :T [I think it gives her character and makes her look even cuter though... ;]

  #3. Victim: Ho Kim | Injury: stabbed forearm | Ho and I had just finished watching a kung fu movie, and riding on the adrenalyne, I grabbed the nearest sharp object [happened to be a letter opener] and I mocked some dagger throws as the object was accidentally released. Amazingly, the form on the throw was perfect as the letter opener embedded itself into my brother's forearm approximately 1|2" in. He was quite upset and did not speak to me for several months. :T

  #2. Victim: Hun Kim | Injury: punctured roof of my mouth | Back in my college days, I was quite the domesticated one [and proud to say I still am] and was cooking some fried rice for some friends. I was also watching a baseball game as well and had the long wooden chopsticks in my mouth. One of the chopsticks fell to the floor, and as I reached down quickly to pick it up [with the other chopstick in my mouth], I hit the table in a perfect location where a groove was present. I saw a blinding flash of light, and when I opened my mouth, the remaining chopstick was still hanging from the roof of my mouth. I pulled out the chopstick [I think endorphins were rushing into my body, as I didn't feel any pain] and quickly ran to the bathroom, and found myself looking like a vampire who had just fed on a prey [blood gushing out of mouth, et cetera]. Still ate dinner that night though, that was some exquisite fried rice [same chopsticks were not used for the remainder of the cooking].

  #1. Victim: Earnest Cho | Injury: shot in the neck | It was a lovely Renton evening at the Cho residence, as Earnest was on the phone with Eric Lim [Jean's kid brother]. Paul was playing around with Enoch's pellet gun and bursted into the room, mocking gun play at Earnest. What should have been an empty shot fired, a pellet was in the picture, and Earnest was startled to find a sting on his neck. He touched the impacted area, looked at his fingers to find blood, and let Eric know that he had to 'get off the phone now'. He proceeded to the bathroom [as calm as he can be] in a futile attempt to 'squeeze' it out like a zit. Up to this point Paul is still in trauma [probably more than Earnest] knowing that he may go to jail for shooting someone and possibly fatally injuring him. To make a long story short, they ended up in ER, Paul was yelled at and rebuked by an officer, and the doctors found it too risky to perform a surgery to remove the pellet [to this day the pellet remains in his neck]. The doctor also noted that had the pellet been millimeters to the left or right, it could've hit a major vein to cause worse damage or even death. Hallelujah it did not. Earnest ultimately benefited from this incident, as he moved to Nashville and as he was making his name known as a talented sound engineer [in the r&b+hiphop realm], he informed his collegues that he had thug|street creds as he was shot in his lifetime. :]

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  Grace 1 week after her auto accident:
  

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  Honorable mentions:

  A. Victim: Paul Cho | Injury: sliced finger tip | Background: Paul was doing some yard work with a heavy duty machine to cut bushes down at his current residence, when his grip slipped and the machine got a hold of some of his finger. Needless to say it was a bloody mess.

  B. Victim: Ana Cho | Injury: 6 stitches to right hand | Background: Ana was going out on a sunny day to meet one of her girlfriends. In her excitement, she forgot that there was a set of stairs in front of her door step [walking out of her own condo], and proceeded to fall face forward down towards the gravel. She got up and wiped her pants, and found blood stains all over her pants, so she commenced crying. She went inside the house and her mother reassured her that it was going to be ok, but her playful older brother Earnest came after and sat her down and conveyed, "Ana, I love you, but you're gonna die." Ana was 13 at the time and genuinely believed her brother's words. She began to repent of ALL her sins [every single one of them] that she committed in her life, and things did not get better when she went to see the family doctor and he said "WHAO!" in surprise of her injury. She began to cry again with such passion|fervor|length that the doctor actually got up and left. He eventually came back with the apology of Ana's mother and she was treated. :]

  B. Victim: Hun Kim | Injury: dislocated pinky fingers | Background: A long long time ago I was rather upset at my lackluster performance during a pickup game of hoops and attempted to release some of the tension by throwing the basketball at the backboard at a high velocity. I missed the backboard, hit the front of the rim instead, the ball bounced back and w/ equal force and impacted my right pinky finger. As I shook my hand in pain, I knew something was 'off' when one of my fingers was dangling around during this shaking process. My left pinky finger was damaged in similar fashion as a good collegue of mine [his name starts with a 'J' and ends with an 'immy'] and I were warming up before a flag football tourney. His first throw was quite short from the distance it needed to cover, awkwardly bounced up from the ground into my right pinky. To this day when I play the bass guitar and there's some intense scale runs during any songs 110bpm and above, the finger often twitches out of control, causing some interesting variations to established melodies.

  C. Victim: Ho Kim | Injury: badly scratched up face, forearms, and knees | Background: When we came to the states in the mid-80s from Korea, our family wasn't very well off [financially speaking] so my kid brother and I were forced to share one bicycle purchased from a Payless or Fred Meyer [forgot]. Still we treasured this fine piece of American engineering [every half-mile or so we had to put the spokes back on] and constantly bickered and argued to see who gets to ride it. I implemented a schedule system for switching shifts every 15 minutes, one rode as the other watched enviously from the sideline. One particular shift, Ho got pretty greedy and decided to ride 2-3 minutes past the end of his shift, so in anger and vengence I took a stick and throw it at him. Unfortunately I completely missed hitting any part of him, but the stick managed to get lodged into the front spoke as he was travelling at a very high speed attempting to flee from me. The bike stopped abruptly, he didn't, he flew and landed... and 2 ladies that were in the parking lot proceeded to yell at me for 30 minutes, though I didn't comprehend an ounce of the english language. :T

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  If you have any of your own cherished stories to share and they are rated PG-13 or below, please feel free to add to this ongoing list.
  

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