“Are you...are you all here for Faye Ross?” Everyone in the room nodded. Besides Jaymie, Christian, Freeman, and Braylie, Madlaina and Benji sat across from Jaymie with Emily sitting beside them. Emily had her boyfriend, or maybe just a friend, Gabe, with her. Jaymie had only met him a couple of times.
The doctor shook his head slightly, surprised. “Who is immediate family?” Jaymie, Madlaina, and Freeman raised their hands, and Freeman motioned for Braylie to as well.
“Er, alright, come with me.” He held the door open and they all stood, filing one after another into the hallway. “We’ll be right in here.” He pointed to a room that housed a few couches, a couple of tables, a coffee machine, and another TV. Jaymie was almost positive no one on this floor ever watched the TVs.
“Sit down, please. My name is Doctor Raegan, you can call me Chris though, if you’d like.” No one said anything, so he pressed on. “I was the head surgeon for Miss Ross.” He sat down in an available chair, putting the file he had been holding on his lap.
“First things first, she’s stable.” There was a collective sigh of relief in the room. Jaymie felt some of the heavy weight that had been sitting on her chest lift. Dr. Raegan smiled at them all before continuing. “She is not out of the woods yet, however. I was told her heart stopped a few times on the ride over here. It stopped again, once, while we were operating.”
A bolt of fear shot through Jaymie. Again? How many times could a heart be restarted before it became incapable of doing so any longer?
“We were, however, to revive her and keep it steady for the rest of the operation. Now, about her injuries.” He opened the folder in front of him and stood, walking to the other side of the room and turning on the light for the x-ray photo viewer. He stuck a few images up on the ledge and pointed to the first one.
“This is Miss Ross’s skull. If you look down here,” He pointed to an area of the photo that seemed to reflect the front of the brain. “She had multiple fractures around her brow bones and in the front part of her skull. We had to go in and re-align bones to make sure they will heal properly. We were not able to get to down here, because these bones are in her face. However, the fractures here are smaller, and will most likely repair themselves.” Everyone’s faces had blanched as they looked at the images of Faye’s fractured skull.
“Because of these fractures, her brain sustained a bit of trauma…” He moved over to the next x-ray. “Here, here, and here. There is swelling.” Madlaina, who was sitting next to Jaymie, let out a whimper and covered her mouth, closing her eyes tightly. The doctor gave her a sympathetic look before moving on. “Because of that swelling, we have put her in a medically induced coma, and will monitor her progress to see when we can lift that. The coma,” He said, slightly louder, because Madlaina had begun to cry harder, “Will allow her body to heal and keep her out of pain.” Jaymie exchanged a look with Freeman. Both of them were thinking the same thing- how long?
“Um…” Dr. Raegan cleared his throat. “If and when she wakes up-”
“If?” Freeman’s voice was slightly higher than usual.
“Well, yes. She has sustained multiple life-threatening injuries, Mr…?”
“Rodriguez.” Freeman swallowed. “Fiance.”
“Yes, Mr. Rodriguez, like I was saying, the brain swelling and bleeding are life threatening. We managed to stop the bleeding, but it’s completely up to Faye now. Her body will either heal or...it won’t.” The finality in his words caused Jaymie to suck in a breath. Tears spilled down her cheeks.
“As I was saying, if and when,” He emphasized when, mostly for their behalf, Jaymie assumed, “She wakes up, we don’t know what sort of state she might be in. It’s impossible to tell with brain injuries what exactly could be affected, because of how complex the brain is. She will most likely have some amnesia, but to what degree we are uncertain. She could have trouble speaking, walking, seeing, hearing. She might have short term memory loss. She might have a completely different personality.” Freeman groaned, leaning forward and placing his head in the palms of his hands. Braylie absentmindedly put her hand on Freeman’s back, but her eyes were glazed over, staring at nothing.
“Again, we will not know anything until she wakes up, however. For now, it’s about monitoring the swelling and seeing how well the rest of her injuries are.” He pressed his lips together, and Jaymie was suddenly overcome with the feeling that there was something he was not telling them.
“Is that all, Dr. Raegan?”
“Y...yes, that’s all, for now. Updates will come in as they become available. As for this immediate moment, they are getting Faye ready and set up in her room. You will be able to see her shortly. I do warn, however, there are numerous tubes, bandages, monitors, and the like currently attached to her. Most of the blood has been cleaned off, but she has deep cuts and a large amount of bruising forming already. She may not look like the Faye you know.”
Freeman sniffed audibly. Madlaina had her eyes closed tightly and was shaking her head back and forth. Braylie had her head in her hands and was shaking. Jaymie stood, wiping her clammy hands on her PJ bottoms and extending one to the doctor.
“Thank you so much for the update, Dr. Raegan. We appreciate it.”
He took her hand and looked at her with a genuinely sympathetic smile.
“It’s my job to keep your loved one in the best state I can manage. If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask any member of the staff here. We will do what we can.” Jaymie nodded, her eyes misting over again.
Freeman took her hand and squeezed it as they walked back to the waiting room to tell every one else the news.
