Not everyone can lift an 8yo kid. They're not all small/light. That might be why she called husband for help. She hoped she could depend on him for help, like ANY spouse should be able to assume. Also, in the US ambulance rides are not cheap. People *often* drive themselves to the hospital when they probably shouldn't because of this.

In that moment, she was in shock and not thinking clearly - her own fear was just realized and turned into serious trauma.

I may be misunderstanding, but it sounds like it's a one-car household. She ended up going with the neighbor when the neighbor offered.

We don’t if she could drive or had a car s available. We don’t know if she knew her neighbors well enough to ask for a ride. We know when it happened she did what she’s planned to do in an emergency like this. Call her jsinand and have him assist. If I were home with my kid and didn’t have a car or couldn’t drive, I’d expect my husband to make the 5-minute trip to come get him & rush him the 5 minutes back to the ER. Still quicker than an ambulance. All we really know is she took the kid herself once the neighbor offered because it was the immediate option presented to her. Had she opted to wait the additional two minutes, only then would I also blame her.

@BoyGanesh Unless someone is a psycho, they will help an injured person. You don't have to be close with your neighbours to ask for a ride to the hospital. I once drove my neighbour after he'd cut off his finger, and I didn't even know his name. I heard him screaming in his garage and ran over to see what was wrong. Another neighbour heard too and came. He wrapped the guy's hand whilst I put the finger in a cloth and put that in a bag with ice (best way to preserve). The other neighbour said he'd clean up the blood and make sure the woodworking machines were all shut down and also call the injured guy's daughter. I drove to the hospital, waved down security at the ER doors and they brought a stretcher to my car. I gave them the bag of finger and went back home. It took less than 30 mins from first scream till I was back home. His daughter popped by the next day with a bottle of wine and told me that they'd managed to reattach, and then I finally found out his name is Eddie.

Not every neighborhood is like that.

@Rachele... well, the neighbour who shut down the saws and cleaned up the blood is also a crack dealer. Maybe it's a Canadian thing, but most people will help someone injured.

But you just said you HEARD the screams. They didn't ask you for help: you happened to be there and were in a position to help. Where were your -other- other neighbors? Most people work during the day, so I don't blame her (or Eddie) for not running around the neighborhood banging on doors that probably wouldn't be answered. She reached out to her husband instead because she knew he would answer the call and get there faster.

@Aelin Oh, I just realized that a lot of my neighbours are retirees. The guy who cleaned up the blood is also a crack dealer, but he works from home, so to speak.

if i was home with a kid who broke a bone unless its arm even then i know better than to move said person ambulance no matter what end off ok so ive got training to a degree but not the point 911 or 999 depending on country pure n simple then call husband n tell him to meet them at hospital sorted !

In my country, we dont have an all in one service like 911, you have to call an ambulance or police station specifically. the government funded ambulance can take up to an hour to show up. The private ambulance companies are a lot faster but way to expensive to call for a broken bone if you have any other option. She had an option, he just let her down. And the kid was probably moving around and maybe even sitting up on his own right after it happened

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She also could have called an uber or something rather than waiting for him to come home from work.

Assuming she could afford an Uber, or that one is available in her area, or that she can lift her 8 year old son?

She had to ask the neighbour, so it is VERY safe to assume that she does not have a car. And the cost of an ambulance in the US is easily more than whatever they pay for mortgage or rent per month, which is why many Americans don't even think of calling an ambulance in an emergency. I know of cases when Americans abroad, where transport by ambulance is free, totally flipped and hat panic attackes when they had an emergency and someone called an ambulance for them.

Maybe she didn't have a car, wasn't feeling well enough to drive (panic, stress, anxiety, wanting to hold your child during the ride). I get that she didn't want to go to the hospital alone, and maybe his work was 5 minutes away

AMBULANCE even in usa they have to help in an emergency no matter what only they should have moved the child safely no excuses

@Debbie This is what ambulances are for. So I guess, they probably live in a country with 3rd-world health care.

Like the US, where ambulances can cost thousands of dollars?

that alone is reason to have universal health care

Unless you're indigent homeless or on Medicaid. Then they use them like cabs.

Which would probably mean the USA. For profit healthcare has made it so only the very wealthy can get proper health care. Even with the piratical insurance companies, most middle class families cannot get more than the basics.

@Parmeisan- Yeah, like America, where an ambulance ride might bankrupt you

not in emergency n less so for achild ! tbh id be sending cps round neither appear to be decent parents

@Mike F It's possible that an ambulance would be too expensive and that she physically could not move the child on her own. But that's when you ask a neighbour for help unless Husband works 5 mins from home. I don't think it was about dependency so much as forcing the issue of Husband's compulsion to "prove" to him that he didn't need to spend that time in the car. He failed the test; therefore, divorce. Also, as someone with severe PTSD, I know there's no way that Hubby could hold down a job if his trauma is so bad he can't get out of the car to help an injured kid. This is not PTSD. This is... something else, and I don't think he cannot control it. I think he doesn't want to, because he likes the power it gives him. Best off they divorce. Perhaps living with her parents, OP will learn to parent a little better.

@Royal Stray I agree with you completely. If a compulsion is that severe, there's no way he's functional enough to have a job. PTSD in particular does not remain so neatly locked into one compulsive behaviour. It spills into many aspects of someone's life. I think this is a weaponized behaviour he uses to control people around him, make himself feel important. She needs to get out.