Hypothetical car crash question!

[tigwig]

If you were involved in a car accident (not badly hurt) with 2 of your own children and 1 mindee who would you stay with in the ambulance? Mindee or your own? Sorry for being so morbid but this has played on my mind since yesterday when this scenario almost happened. I was driving along doing the speed limit with a car driving very close behind when an elderly man pulled out right in front of me. I braked hard and stopped, the car behind had to swerve to avoid me. I was shaken but thankfully that's all. The kids commented on it but were all ok too. Then it went over and over in my head! If I had of hit the car and the car behind had hit me it's likely 2 ambulances would have been called. So if I was able to make the choice what an earth would you do? I would obviously want to go with my own children but would feel a total responsibility for mindee. God I know it's an awful thing to think about but I just wondered what others thought.

[muffins]

I can see your dilemma, I think of things like this when in all honesty there is no way of knowing till you ended up in the situation. You would decide at the time who you felt needed you the most and what the best course of action would be.

[nikki thomson]

You cannot answer this hypothetically, it's like saying if my 3 children were drowning and you could only save 1 which one which would you save? You can't answer it, don't worry about it, life is far far too short. X

[munch149]

Honestly probably whichever was in the worst condition. I suspect that unless all really badly hurt and needing immediate attention they would aim to put you in the same ambulance. The other ambulance would be for the other car. Chances are if a child was that badly hurt tho you would be too so the decision would be taken out of your hands

[HTSMumma]

They covered this (lightly) in our childminding course.
Paramedics have the ability to take on parental responsibility (not sure if I'm using the correct term here), they can make medical decisions in the absence of a parent/carer.
Our tutor told us that, in the event of a medical emergency involving a child, you would stay with the majority of the children and let the paramedics take the injured child to hospital. You would then try to make contact with the injured/sick child's parents and tell them which hospital they are attending. You would then contact all other parents, informing them of the situation and that they need to collect their child immediately from your emergency back up person. You would then head straight to the hospital and provide as much information to the doctors and parents.

Going back to your scenario, I guess it would work in a similar way. You couldn't leave the other children unattended so whether it was your child or not going in the ambulance, you'd have to deal with getting the others to a safe place before attending the hospital. If more than one child were hurt and needing care, go in the ambulance with the most seriously injured. But you'd still need to make sure all other children were safe. (I'm using 'you' as in 'one' here, not you specifically!!)
Could we leave children in the care of a police officer in this situation so we could go in the ambulance? How would that affect the other children? Would the police officer bring them to the hospital too?

Where there's a case where both mindee and your own child/ren are injured, I can see emotional ties being a massive issue. If my 2 year old was in one ambulance and my baby mindee is in another, both receiving care for a car accident, I don't know which ambulance I'd get in. I think I'd get in with my child. Going back to my first comment, paramedics have legal powers to make decisions in an emergency. My son has me to make those decisions but I can't make those for the mindee.

It's a tough scenario you have proposed!! I hope that in the situation I'd just do what I believe to be right.