Kudos to Dorm Staff

runnersmom
Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:12:38 +0000

My D, a first year, spent much of last Sunday in the U of C Hospital ER dealing with a badly sprained ankle. She had hurt it Saturday afternoon and woke up in extreme pain, with limited range of motion, on Sunday morning. As a former HS runner she knew something was wrong as she has an extremely high pain threshold and has had many previous stress fractures. With the help of her friends she negotiated the SCC phone system, and was told by the physician on call to go to the ER. She knew there was no way she could walk there, so she called her RHs. And boy did they come through. He arranged for the UCPD to come and transport them (my D and her RH) to the ER and he stayed with her for the entire 4 hours she was there. Her friends also did yeoman’s duty by accompanying her, hanging out with her in the exam and x-ray waiting rooms, and heading to the pharmacy to pick up her prescriptions.

I’m posting this to reassure parents of incoming first years that there is a terrific support system in place on this campus, should your child need it. The way the house structure works, with RAs, RHs and Resident Masters, insures that there is a community of people looking out for and supporting each other. Now she clearly could’ve called a cab, or tried to find a friend with a car, but I was very reassured to hear that once she involved her RH he took over and made the appropriate arrangements. As a parent whose kids have all gone to college more than 1200 miles from home it’s really nice to know that there are people who care, who will help provide the “adult” assistance when necessary. And I can now see the difference between on and off campus living in this regard. My eldest, a 2007 U of C graduate, became quite ill his 3rd year and had to negotiate these things with only the help of his terrific friends. Calling a taxi to go to the ER at 3am was a very different experience for him. And finally, though spending the day in the ER with finals approaching would not be anyone’s idea of a great weekend day, she was treated in a timely manner (for an ER, with a non-life threatening issue), by terrific staff.