Craftsman Makes A Damn Fine Door Remover

When is a screwdriver not a screwdriver? Why, when it's an emergency door removal tool, of course! The item in the image above may appear to be a pretty pedestrian Craftsman 3/8" flat head screwdriver, but it's the tool my husband used to take the hinges off our daughter's bedroom door late one night, several months ago.

It goes a little something like this: It was after midnight, and we were all tucked snugly in our beds. I woke to the sound of heavy footsteps in Rachel's room, and then a couple of hard stomps and a loud bang, as if someone had punched a wall. My husband Brett and I both jolted up out of bed, and made tracks for Rachel's door. The door was shut, and there was no sound at all coming from her room. The video monitor showed that she was not in bed, so we tried to open the door. It would only open about 6 inches, because Rachel was collapsed behind it, and leaning up against the wall on her knees.

We called and called to her, but she didn't respond, and we couldn't push the door open more, being afraid of injuring her, and not knowing how injured she might already be. Stewart was pacing around, sniffing at her, licking her, and looking at us through the cracked door, probably trying to figure out why we weren't doing anything. I was beginning to panic, but Brett assured me that he could hear her breathing, and he ran off to get something to pull the hinges out of the door.

Enter the screwdriver. I held the handle side of the door, while Brett worked to get the hinges out, which fell into Rachel's room as they came loose. Not even that noise roused her, and I was very concerned. Finally the door was loose, and we could take it off. Brett went in to check on Rachel while I gathered a towel and emergency meds. By the time I got back, Rach was starting to come around a bit, and Brett could get her off the floor. She said that she had awakened, but was thinking how cozy she was, and that she just wanted to go back to sleep, but needed to use the bathroom. She said she swung her feet out of bed, and didn't remember anything else. So, we assume a complex partial seizure started, which used the momentum she already had going, and took her all the way across the room before it got to the part where she went limp and folded to the floor.

So, the humble screwdriver now perches just outside Rachel's door, in case anything like this should happen again. The hinges will come out more easily next time, but I sure hope there isn't a next time.