Matt Sturniolo: Stay By My Side

Chapter 6

Caleb's POV

The nurse ran in after a few moments. "What happened?" I looked up from Matt, "I don't know, we stood up to leave the room and he passed out. His pulse is slow, did you bring a pulse reader?" She shook, "But I can go grab one." I told her yes and I placed my fingers on his pulse again, "Maria he has no pulse, hurry!" She nodded and darted out of the room. I took a calming breath, placing the ball of my hands on Matt's chest and started compressions, I then pinched his nose, tilting his head back and placed my lips over his, breathing twice into his mouth. I pulled back a started compressions again. "Come on Matt, come back to me. Maria hurry!" I yelled out, even thiugh I knew she probably wasn't around to hear me. I repeated the process. Pinching his nose, tilting his head back and placing my mouth over his. I breathed once into his mouth and felt him breath with me. I pulled away from his lips as he shot up, coughing, just as Maria ran into the room with a defibrillator and Matt was awake, "Oh!" I smiled softly at her and Matt looked around the room in a daze. "What happened?" He choked out as he look up at me. "You passed out." He looked at me confused and took a shaky breath. "...Did my heart stop? Is that why I felt your lips on mine?" I pursed my lips together and nodded slowly. His face shattered. "Why?" I shook my head, "I don't know... The only thing we could do, is do an MRI on you and scan your brain." He looked and nodded. "Matt have you had any brain injuries previous to your TBI from the wreck?" He nodded slowly.

"When I was younger, my brother, Justin, accidently hit me in the head with a golf club and I had to have stitches." I nodded and helped him off the floor. "Slowly." He nodded and I felt him grab my bicep for support. I wrapped my arm around his waist and helped guide him over to the table we were just sitting at a few minutes ago. I kneeled down in front of him and looked into his eyes. "I seriously think you should do an MRI on your brain. Maybe we missed something, or maybe the golf club incident on top of your wreck is causing more damage to your brain. I mean, we already graded your concussion to TBI, so maybe it's more severe than we thought." He rubbed his hands together, looking down at them. "We can do the MRI next week instead of therapy... But at the moment, I think you should stay the night at the hospital since your heart just stopped a second time, that way we can monitor you." He nodded and Maria came into the room with a medical bed, I helped Matt onto the bed, and Maria and I wheeled him into a room.

Once we got him into a room, I hooked him up to a pulse reader and I instructed Matt to lay down. He did so, laying down as I grabbed the sticky pads for the heart monitor. I seen him pull his sweatshirt up to his head, "I'm going to warn you, the cords are cold." He looked up at me, "It's fine." I nodded and placed the pads on his chest. He lowered his sweatshirt, and I sat down on the edge of his bed. "Do you want me to call your brothers?" He sat up and shrugged. "They do need to know that I'm here for tonight... Would you call him?" I nodded, "Yeah, I will. You get some rest okay? I'll come check on you in a little bit." He nodded and stopped me before I walked out. "Can you ask him to bring my fuzzy blanket?" I laughed softly and nodded, closing the door.

Once I got to the nurse's station I pulled up Matt's emergancy contacts and call Nick. "Hello?" "Hi, is this Nick?" He sounded confused, "Yes." "This is Caleb Jordan, I was calling because I wanted to let you know that Matt passed out and we're keeping him over the night, to monitor him." Nick was silent for a minute, before he finally said we're on our way. "Also, one other thing. Matt asked if you could bring his fuzzy blanket." I heard Nick giggle on the other end and said yes. After, I hung up the phone and went back to Matt's room to check on him.

I stepped quietly into the room and seen Matt's eyes closed. I smiled softly and walked over to him, I finished hooking him up to the monitors and opened an IV needle. I seen Matt slowly open his eyes and looked up at me. "Hey." I whispered, he smiled, "Hi. What's that?" "A needle for your IV. Since your vitals are low, we're going to hook you up to an IV line that will push Epinephrine into your veins, it's to help raise your blood pressure and will get your vitals to the normal range." He nodded and lightly grabbed his wrist, turning his arm out so that I could find a vein. Once I found one, I eased the needle into his arm. I heard him gasp softly and seen slight discomfort in his facial expression. "It's okay, don't tense up." He nodded and took a deep breath. After I got the needle in, I grabbed medical tape, to tape the needle down on his arm so that it wouldn't fall out. I rubbed his arm lightly, for comfort. He looked up at me and smiled a little. "Get some rest, okay? I'll come check on you in a little bit." He nodded and I watched as he rolled over to fall asleep.

An hour or so, later, I went into his room to check on his vitals and found his brother's in the room, I smiled at them and looked over at Matt, I chuckled softly as I found him snuggled up in his blankets, with just his head poking out. I walked over and checked the monitors and his vitals. "Is he getting better?" I looked over at Nick and nodded slightly. "He's getting better for now, but I do still think that your next therapy session, should be an MRI session instead." Matt nodded and look down at his lap. I pursed my lips and, checked a few others things in the system. Then, Informed Matt that I would come check on him later. He nodded and I stepped out to let his brother's talk to him.