Let's Give Wounded Greta a Rest!

I'm Ellen Kushner, a writer, broadcaster, and passionate admirer of the compassionate creative force that is Greta Ward.

This is a woman who works every hour of the year, determined to give her life to making beauty in every way she can. Yet she is never too busy to help a friend. She doesn't sleep much. In the past few years she's somehow figured out how to become a stained glass artist, done portraits of friends' dogs, had a major show on Desert Wildlife, and, well, stuff like that - all while dealing with with a diagnosis of severe diabetes, increasing hearing loss, a beloved son's major health crisis, ongoing pain from longterm rheumatoid arthritis, and, of course, the threat and isolation of Covid.

Greta's response to all this? "My solution to pain is usually to distract myself with art/work. Which obviously isn’t an option right now."

Why not?

Here's Greta's own Facebook report of what happened the night of September 1:

"Today was an eventful day. And not really in that good way. Woke up at 5am (when it's still dark) and noticed a flashing blue light in the studio. Went downstairs to figure out what it was (I had left the soldering iron plugged in, like a dope.) Being half asleep, and unsure what the light was, I didn't turn lights on, thinking that would make it easier to pinpoint the blue light source. And because I didn't turn the lights on, I missed the bottom step, which sent me falling into a milk crate of stained glass sheets which were in the crate, on end. I did a really good job of major lacerations on my right arm. Sliced it open in a few spots, really deeply in two. Went to sink to wash it off, and realized I absolutely needed to go to the ER.

I called [boyfriend] Gene, but he didn't answer that early, and being rather not-clearly thinking, I didn't leave a message. So, i wrapped my arm best i could and drove myself (in my standard car) to ER. They triaged me quickly - which happens I guess when you show up bleeding on their floor. Both my studio and my car looked like a crime scene. Eventually got in touch with Gene and he came and spent the next 8 hours with me while they x-rayed arm to make sure there was no glass in there (there wasn't - thank god). and my low back, which is pretty sore, but i didn't break anything. Though there's some seriously herniated discage happening down there. They also poked me 7 times (3 different medical professionals) before they managed to get an IV in - which was never needed!

It took a good hour and a half to 2 hours, I think, for them to suture the lacerations. They were quite deep, though amazingly, no tendons effected - i.e., I can still move my fingers! Probably 20-something stitches, so my arm looks a bit Frankenstein-ish at the moment. But its wrapped until tomorrow.

There are no photos of the actual lacerations because honestly, no one needs to see that. Let's just say they were deep, gaping wounds and I could see bits of my insides that I would really rather not be able to see.

Gene was amazing. Helping me through all of it, and then helping to move glass in my studio (out of the danger zone), and cleaning up the blood off the floor. Even going and getting batteries for the motion detection light on the stairs. A very long day for both of us. I am so beyond grateful for his help and support, and hopefully, his hand isn't too sore from me squeezing the hell out of it while they were injecting lidocaine and stitching me up (which involved a bit of pushing things back inside where they belong. This man was an absolute rock today, though I KNOW it was super hard to see the actual damage when they unwrapped the bandage from my arm, before doing the stitches.

I have now received my first major stained glass injury. Art is dangerous, people! And I am quite sure I'm gonna have some bitchin scars on my right forearm, but somehow I managed to not tear through the tattoo. This really could have been SO much worse. I could easily have severed tendons, or it could have been my head instead of my arm. So as bad as this is, I am really grateful it was not far, far worse.

Also, I rescheduled my rheumatology appointment that was supposed to be tomorrow. I think that's a whole lot of nope right now."

What can I tell you? Greta is brilliant in a crisis.

But now what happened is beginning to sink in. She's in pain from the cuts, she doesn't know what happens next (PT?) or how much it's going to cost her. The aftershock of realizing that could of been her head, or a major artery, is pretty traumatic.

And she can't work for awhile. We keep telling her that, anyway. She argues that she can't pay her bills if she doesn't work!

Let's fix that for her, shall we?

I set up an arbitrary goal of $5,000. More would be great. Less would be great, too. I've learned that, with trauma GoFundMe's, so much of the healing comes from the number of friends who step forward, just as much as the amount raised--maybe even more.

Thank you for reading through this. And thanks for any amount you can throw at this miracle of a human.