“We went to PE, and we were playing on the playground like normal,” Crystal said. “I didn’t know they were gunshots, the popping sounded like fireworks.”

On that fateful day, a car filled with teenage boys opened fire on the playground. When Crystal noticed a friend was bleeding, she ran over to help. Quickly after, another classmate told her that she too was bleeding.

“All I remember was my granddaddy being the first person there, and my mom was out of it,” Crystal said. In “Once the first responders got there, I was in and out of it.”

Crystal was rushed to Cook Children’s Emergency Department with a gunshot wound to her hip.

“We got to Cook Children’s and the hospital was amazing for us to be in such a trauma state,” Crystal remembered. “They made us feel like we were having fun in trauma if that makes sense.”

Crystal recalls the medical staff at Cook Children’s making her and her family feel like they were the only family in the entire hospital. “The nurses and the doctors made sure we were good around the clock. I have never seen anything like it,” Crystal said.

Still, Crystal’s mother was afraid she wasn’t going to make it. She remembers the fear in her mother’s eyes as doctors and nurses were yelling orders and pulling tubes. She says she kept repeating, “God you’re going to have to work this out and keep me alive.” Even at a young age, she remembers her faith playing a big part in the whole experience.

Crystal and her mother spent several days at Cook Children’s. Because of where the bullet went in her hip, doctors did not perform surgery because they were afraid it could do more damage than good. They worried she could be paralyzed from the waist down because it was so close to her tailbone.

“The bullet is still in me 31 years later,” Crystal expressed. “They kept an eye on it for several years to make sure it didn’t go near my tailbone or to see if it would surface, but neither happened.”

Crystal says she periodically still feels a sharp pain in her hip.

After the incident, Crystal did not return to finish her school year at Sunrise Elementary. Her mother, a police officer at the time, was afraid of anything else happening to her child. Crystal says it wasn’t unusual to hear gunshots in her neighborhood, and it took a long time for her to adjust to hearing the “popping” sound.

“It took a long time for me to get over it and suppress it in the back of my mind and for everything to be okay,” Crystal said. She spent several years in counseling to process the shooting, deal with sound triggers and move past the event.

Years later, Crystal became a wife, mother, and nurse. She credits the care she received at Cook Children’s to pursuing a career in nursing, as well as her love for serving others. She says her biggest challenge was overcoming the fear she had when her children started school.

“I feared my daughter going to school and something happening to her. Especially now that people go into the schools and shoot students,” Crystal said. “It was especially hard for her going into third grade. I started praying every day for God to protect her and I’m doing the same for my son now who is in second grade.”

Crystal says the increase in school shootings over the years does trigger flashbacks. She always asks the question, “How do we protect our children in school from the playground to the classroom?”

While her shooting was an isolated incident, she believes children in every community deserve better. She also says ‘thank you’ would never be enough for the staff at Cook Children’s that saved her life.

“I appreciate the care that was given to me and my mom,” Crystal expressed. “I’ve never seen a staff work in unison the way they do at Cook Children’s, even over the years when I’ve brought in my children. There’s a culture at Cook Children’s that can’t be beaten, they set an example of what all hospitals should be like across the country. The nurses and doctors care about their patients and that’s something I have always appreciated.”

Crystal says the care she received at Cook Children’s is something she has always reciprocated in her nursing career.

“I always think back to how well they took care of me, and I value that and make sure to model that in my work.”

I'm gonna get my sweet little buddy Carson here to help me.

Corwin Warmink, M.D., medical director of the Emergency Department at Cook Children’s, knows that guns will be a popular gift this holiday season for not only children, but for adults too.

According to the journal Injury Prevention more than one-third of American adults own a gun. Last year, Cook Children’s saw 10 total injuries related to shootings of a gun (ranging from a BB to rifle). Since 2009, Cook Children’s has seen 104 shootings and three deaths.

Dr. Warmink asks parents to explain to children that BB guns can be dangerous, with harm ranging from severe eye damage to liver and kidney injuries.

Dr. Warmink says it’s important that parents educate their children about gun safety and make sure kids know to leave the area if another child, or someone other than their parent, has a gun.

“We live in Texas and I know many kids are raised hunting and have guns in the home,” Dr. Warmink said. “But if you give your child a gun for the holidays or if the adult in the house is given a gun, it’s important to take the proper precautions. The thing we want parents to remember is to keep guns locked, unloaded and separate from ammunition”

1. Lock the gun and keep it out of reach of kids. Hiding the gun is not enough.

2. Unload your gun. Take all ammunition out of the firearm.

3. Store the keys for the gun in a cabinet or safe different from your household keys. Keep the keys out of the reach of children.

Along with guns and replica firearms, such as airsoft guns that use hydraulics to shoot pellets, Dr. Warmink lists these gifts as dangerous and even life threatening:

• Ripstik Casterboard, Skateboards, roller skates …
• Pull toys with strings over 12 inches
• Trampolines
• Backyard playground equipment
• Hard plastic swords

Sharon Evans, Trauma/Injury Prevention coordinator at Cook Children’s, knows that owning a bike or scooter is part of growing up. But she encourages parents to take the proper precautions before placing wheeled gifts under the tree.

“Parents, please don’t forget a helmet for all riding toys,” Evans said. “Make sure the helmet is on properly and read the instructions.”

For younger children, Dana Walraven, manager of Community Health Outreach at Cook Children's and coordinator of the Safe Kids Tarrant County Coalition, warns parents to be aware of any small parts or potential choking hazards from their own toys or perhaps older siblings.

“The holidays can be an especially dangerous time for the little ones,” Walraven said. “Pick out toys and activities that will be appropriate for their age. On Christmas, designate an adult to supervise the children. It’s surprisingly easy to lose track of small children and with just a little planning we can keep choking hazards away from them. When it comes to young children, preparation is key.”

Ensure school-age children know when to wash - before eating and after playing on a playground at recess, using the restroom, and coming into contact wiht friends and classmates. Teach kids that it's important not to chew their fingernails or touch their faces.

"Hand-to-mouth transmission is a major way children are infected by viruses," said Vanessa Charette, M.D., a Cook Children's pediatrician in Fort Worth. "Keeping hands out of the mouth is a difficult behavior for certain children to master, but it's important that they do."

Little hands can pick up a lot of germs. At any given time, you have close to 150 different bacteria living on your hands, and 80 percent of illnesses are spread by direct human contact. For kids, stomach bugs, strep throat and other bacterial illnesses can spread quickly, particularly in environments such as schools and day cares.

"I also tell young children to keep their hands below their neck. They don't rub their eyes, such their fingers or pick their nose," said Kim Mangham, M.D. a Cook Children's pediatrician in Keller. "Kids can have all the germs in the world living on their hands, but they don't put their hands in their mouth, nose or eyes, they won't get sick."

Having trouble convincing your children to get with the hand hygiene program? Let them know that fighting the spread of germs can be pretty cool. A recent study published in the American Journal of Infection Control concluded that fist bumping transmits far few bacteria than handshaking.