Prescription Endangerment

Chapter 2- Comas Kids and Heartache

CHAPTER 2- 4 hours and 48 minutes, 28 staples and 4 code blues later I walked out of the OR room and pulled off my face mask then tore off the gown and threw it into a trash can as I walked down the hallway of the hospital.

Tears filled my eyes and blurred my vision. 'She is in a coma. She is in a coma. She is in a coma' – 'Never get attached to a patient. Never get attached to a patient.' My mind kept whispering over and over again cruelly to me. Now the hardest part of the job- I have to go tell the mother and father of this girl who hasn't even begun to live her life that she may never get the chance to.

My eyes stung and my heart ached with a sadness I didn't know I was capable of for someone that I never knew. 'She is going to wake up.' I told myself but there was still that hurting part in my heart that didn't know if that was true.

I sighed, stopped and leaned against the wall feeling the cold white tiles against my skin.

"Get the job done." I muttered lowly to myself. With a deep breath I wiped angrily at the tears that ran freely down my face.

I stepped into the waiting room, my eyes immediately zoning in on a large group of people there was on older man with grey hair and a small petite woman with blonde hair that fell down in soft waves down her shoulders with soft greys streaking through, then there was a young girl about 14 holding a boy who was around the same age.

"She must be loved" I thought as tears once again blurred my vision.

I blinked them back.

I noticed a small little girl about 4 years old sitting in the chair playing with her dolls completely oblivious to what was going on around her. She had soft light blonde hair with bouncy ringlets and chubby cheeks with a light dusting of pink and with big ocean blue eyes. I began to stride over to the family with tear stained cheeks, and bloodshot eyes hoping they wouldn't notice. As soon as they felt my presence they shot up.

"How is she? What happened? Nobody is telling us anything?" They all asked questions, fired from left and right. I cleared my throat and gestured for them to sit down.

"I am Jim Matthews, Laci's father and this-" He nodded towards the woman he sat next to with his arms around- "Is my wife Patricia Matthews and Laci's mother. That is Emily Laci's younger sister-" He nodded to the young girl "And that is Jason Laci's younger brother and-" He nodded towards the little girl still playing with her dolls. "This is Kayla. Laci's youngest sister."

I nodded swallowing down the lump in my throat.

"My name is Dr. Laura Fields. I am the attending physician and surgeon for your daughter- I performed the surgery." I said softly.

They nodded and the woman whom is her mother smiled warmly at me through watery eyes. I nodded and gave her a small, sad smile. "When your daughter was brought in, she was in bad shape and her heart had already stopped once-" I said, pausing to give a moment to sink in and some gasped but the parents just closed their eyes as if they knew it was going to be bad and let tears fall down their cheeks. They opened their eyes still gripping onto each other like lifelines.

"When I was paged in, I got there and it was a very chaotic scene, but it was organized chaos. Your daughter came in and one of her broken ribs had punctured her lung and so she was bleeding out in her chest; essentially drowning in her own blood" I said looking down as a tear fell from my eye I quickly wiped it away hoping they hadn't seen the traitorous drop of salt water.

"I examined her stomach and found that she was bleeding internally. With later evaluation we found that her spleen had ruptured and she was bleeding out in her abdomen. So I performed the surgery." I paused and took a shaky breath. "We called the police and after that we called you. As I performed the surgery, her heart stopped four times. Each time I brought her back. But you see, when someone's heart stops they can only be without their heart pumping blood to give the body and brain oxygen for so long and even though it was only for a moment combined times of her heart stopping – well her brain didn't get enough oxygen. Even though I saved her each time her brain is basically giving up. She is in a coma. I'm very sorry, I really tried everything. There is a small chance that she will wake up but it just depends. I'm so sorry; I will continue to be your daughter's doctor for her time here. I am so very sorry." I said as a tear dripped from my eye, I turned my head as I heard a sob escape out of the mother's throat; she began gasping for air as if she had lost her ability to breathe and with each sob I heard from her it felt as if someone was squeezing my heart out of my chest.