Young Pianist, Injured in Quake, Intent on ‘Hanging in There’ : Aftermath: A doctor has told Emerson Palame, 10, whose finger was crushed, that a part of it will have to be amputated.

Emerson Palame is no complainer.

Not about the asthma that prevents him from playing ball with his friends. Nor about the allergies that keep him indoors more than he’d like. And not even about the finger on his left hand that may require amputation since it was crushed and nearly severed during the Northridge earthquake.

Moments after the quake, Emerson, 10, a gifted pianist, calmly asked himself, “Why is it hurting so much?”

“I didn’t feel pain right away,” Emerson remembered, looking at his finger wrapped inside a plastic, removable cast. Two doctors had wanted to amputate the finger immediately, but Emerson’s parents, Emil and Ellen Palame, refused.

They’re happy that they did. Last week, Dr. Gregory Hanker, the third specialist that the Palames have consulted, told the family that the finger’s bone is still alive.

Though a portion of Emerson’s finger will have to be amputated, skin grafts and other surgical techniques will give the rest of the finger a chance for survival.

“It’s a blessing and a waiting game,” said Emil Palame.

Thinking back to 4:31 a.m. Jan. 17 when the quake rocked his world, Emerson said, “I was kind of shocked and my hand felt numb, but I thought that was just earthquake nerves.”

The youngster, who has been playing piano since age 3 and writes and records his own music on cassettes, was spending the night at the home of his grandparents, John and Mary Dulaney in Woodland Hills, about two miles from his home.

“I had talked my grandparents into letting me sleep in a sleeping bag in the playroom. So when the earthquake started, I got up and was kind of stuck inside the bag. I tripped and went forward and fell.”

An eight-pound shadow box containing a clock above the room’s doorway came crashing down on Emerson’s left hand, crushing his little finger.

“I was right about to get up when the clock hit my hand. So now when I think about it, my guardian angel sort of protected me because if I would have moved some more, the clock would have fallen on my head. It could have killed me,” Emerson says.

After the clock fell on him, Emerson decided not to struggle out of the sleeping bag and hopped with it into the middle of the kitchen where he and his grandparents huddled together.

His grandparents rushed him to an emergency room in West Hills. Within 30 minutes, Emerson’s parents and his 4-year-old sister, Emily, were at his side.

Later, back at his grandparents’ home, Emerson remembers seeing the clock on the floor “right where the pool of blood was. This little finger lost a lot of blood,” he said, laughing.

Keeping his sense of humor--despite occasional bouts of depression and trauma, including sleepless nights--has been important, he says. So has his faith in God.

“Without God I probably wouldn’t have been able to get through this as well,” said the fourth-grader at West Valley Christian Church School. “I’ve asked myself ‘Why has this happened to me?’ But then I realize that this may be a test to see if I still believe in God--like God tested Job--which I do now more than ever.”

Still, there are times when Emerson says he gets “sort of depressed that my finger might have to be amputated.”

When depression sets in, his parents step in.

“He’ll sit there very quiet and I’ll know that he’s either in a lot of pain or very depressed,” says his mother. “I know that he just lets go within. He tries to find the strength. As parents we have to reach out for him and hold him and let him know that it’s going to be OK.”

His parents reassure him that if he has to lose part of the finger or all of it, he can still continue playing the piano with a prosthesis.

Even now, cast and all, Emerson plays duets with his father in the evenings.

“It’s very difficult so I just play with my good hand for now. At first I didn’t want to play because I was in so much pain, but I didn’t allow myself to miss a single piano lesson.”

Emerson’s teacher, Karen Militello, who has been working with Emerson the last four years, says her student is amazing.

“He goes with the flow and deals with it. I have students who didn’t come for their lessons the week after the earthquake because they were petrified to leave their homes. And here was Emerson coming for his,” Militello said.

“He’s been so brave,” said Emerson’s father, a piano accompanist for Peggy Lee and a studio musician for the TV show “Frasier.”

But Emerson doesn’t think he’s brave at all.

“I just see myself as hanging in there,” he said, and then offered this advice to others injured in the earthquake: “Pretend like the earthquake never happened and go on with life. Don’t keep hanging onto the past; look again to the future.”