Love's A Real Thing Right?

Chapter 15: I miss him, but at least telling him about it is like including him

"Exactly, let's just give her the diagnoses already and hear her decision, I mean we can try to convince her." The neurosurgeon opened the door to the room for the head doctor to entire, "After you doc." They walked over to Sylvia and woke her up, "We have the forms for you to sign to hook him up to life support, but before, we'd like you to hear the diagnoses and results from the tests."

Sylvia got up from next to Ace and moved over to the screen where the doctor and neurosurgeon had Ace's x-ray's and MRI of his brain.

The neurosurgeon pointing to Ace's MRI, "Ok miss, so this is, what's your name by the way?"

"My name is Sylvia."

"Yes, a beautiful name for a beautiful girl, and you're the patient's sister right, here on the MRI."

Sylvia interrupted him, "His significant other."

"What?"

"The patient, Ace, I'm his significant other, not his sister."

"Oh, you look really young for your age."

"What do you mean?"

"Well the patient is in his late twenties so I suppose so are you, but you don't look a day over twenty-one."

"I am actually just a little over that. I am twenty-four. However, what does that have to do with Ace's MRI?"

The neurosurgeon was stumped, she just shut his conversation down. He collected himself and continued, "Right, here in his MRI you can see there are some cerebral contusions where the impact occurred on the patients cranium. The patient Ace, seems to have sustained a concussion due to the initial whiplash sustained from being rammed from the side. We believe this left him somewhat discombobulated which is why he was only able to take action and jump out the car moments before it hit the rocks. Although this is just a theory since witnesses said the car ran into him with the intention to run him off the side off the cliff."

Aurora interjected, "Well I can confirm that the car that ran into him had the intention to run him off the cliff. But continue."

The head doctor started, "Anyhow, back to his diagnoses, it is believed that when he jumped from the car moments before it hit the rocks and exploded. He either hit here on his head." He pointed to the x-ray where Ace's skull was fractured, "On the car door or the rocks below him and fell into the water. Now because of that he sustained what we call Second-Impact Syndrome."

The neurosurgeon added, "This occurs when the brain swells rapidly shortly after a person suffers a second concussion before symptoms of an earlier concussion, the one he sustained due to the whiplash from being in the crash, had time to subside. Now I must say this is a rare occurrence. And the second blow may occur minutes after an initial concussion."

The Head doctor took over, "I must say that even the mildest grade of concussion can lead to Second-Impact Syndrome. Now this is just a theory and initial observation, more tests must be done and he will be observed further if you decide to hook him up to life support."

The neurosurgeon added, "But this condition is usually more times than not often fatal and almost everyone who survives is severely disabled, this is due to cerebral edema which can also cause memory impairment."

The head doctor concluded, "Now memory impairment means he may end up forgetting a lot, he may even forget his name and age, so the likeliness of him remembering you is really slim. That is again if he ever does wake up, which is really unlikely since he is in a coma and the chances of recovering from a coma largely depends on the severity of the brain injury and their age. Although it really is impossible to accurately predict whether they will recover, how long the coma will last and whether they'll have any long-term problems. So again I'll say this Miss Sylvia, keeping him attached to life support and taking care of him will cost to be exact Fifty-nine thousand six hundred and fifty-three dollars a month. Now I've already given you all the information." He pulled the forms out of his folder, "These are the forms stating you want to hook him up to life support and understand he may or may not wake up as well as payment options. Please think this through carefully." He placed the forms on the table next to Ace's bed.