Oh Ms Believer

17. Tyler

We followed the person who'd called us out of the waiting parents. They were leading us over to a tent that had been set up on the football field. We followed her inside and she led us to a table where a police officer, I think, was sitting.

"The Josephs," the person who'd brought us here said. "Samantha Joseph's parents."

The officer nodded and smiled sadly at us. My heart skipped a beat. He picked up a stack of papers and rifled through them.

"Joseph, Joseph, oh. Okay. Here she is," he said, pulling a piece of paper from the stack and looking through it.

"Samantha Joseph, right?"

"Yes. Is she okay? Where is she?"

"She did sustain a gunshot wound, I'm not sure where. She's been taken to..." he flipped through the list again. "Columbus General.  Take this, go over to the road, one of the officers will get you there."

"Is she?" I couldn't finish.

"I don't know. All I know is she was taken to Columbus General. I haven't seen her."

I nodded. Jenna and I walked towards the road where the officer had indicated. Another officer approached us and asked our name and our student's name and which hospital. She checked our papers and called a car. A police officer pulled up and we got into their car.

"I'm Officer Delaney," she said. "I'm taking you to Columbus General?"

We nodded. Neither of us had been able to speak since we left the tent. We didn't know what we were going to find when we got to the hospital. Were we identifying a body?

The officer put on her lights and siren and drove us to the hospital. As soon as we got there, we leaped out of the car and ran inside. It was chaos. There were parents and students in the waiting area. Everyone was talking and there was one girl who looked like a volunteer trying to answer everyone's questions. I could see security coming in to try and help her.

I took a deep breath and got the poor, frazzled volunteer's attention.

"Hi. I know you're probably overwhelmed. The school sent us here. Our daughter, Samantha Joseph, was brought here from the school."

"Hi. I'm sorry, yeah. It's a little overwhelming. Let me check my list and I'll see if I can help you find your daughter. Samantha Joseph?"

I nodded. She had an iPad and started scrolling.

"Samantha Joseph. Yes. She was brought in about an hour ago. Ummm she was in trauma room six but now..." she stopped as she kept checking the iPad. My heart stopped. Was in trauma room six? What did that mean?

"Oh, she's in surgery right now. She'll be transferred to the fourth floor from there. Go on up and register in the surgical waiting room. They'll let you know when she's out of surgery."

"She's in surgery? Do you know what happened? Why is she in surgery?" Jenna asked, trying to keep her cool.

"Looks like a gunshot wound to her left leg. The surgeon will be able to fill you in when he's done."

We nodded and ran to the elevators. Once the doors closed, Jenna broke down into tears and threw herself at me.

"She's alive. She's hurt but she's alive," she cried. "But, her leg..."

"We don't know the extent of the damage yet. Let's wait for the surgeon to tell us, okay?"

We got upstairs and registered with the person in the waiting room. Jenna and I sat down. There were a couple of other couples in the waiting room.  We looked at each other and nodded. We knew we were here because our kids had survived, so far. They were hurt, but they were alive. We knew, at least right now, that we were among the lucky ones.

I pulled out my phone and texted Mark, Josh and Debby.

"Samantha is in surgery. She got shot in her left leg, but she's alive."

All three of them sent back a flurry of texts asking us to fill them in when Sam got out of surgery and told us they were praying and hoping she'd recover quickly. I was worried about her leg. She'd already lost her right leg. We didn't know how bad the damage was to her left. What if she lost her left leg, too?

Jenna was texting as well. I looked over.

"I'm letting Erin know where Sam is. That she's alive and in surgery and we'll fill her in when we know more," she said. I wrapped my arm around her and held her close to me.

We sat there for what felt like hours. A surgeon came in and approached one of the other couples in the room. The mother let out a wail that cut into my soul. 

"I'm so sorry," I heard the doctor say, his hand on the parent's shoulders. They'd lost their child.  The volunteer approached them and spoke quietly to them. They were led out of the room, presumably to see their child's body.

My heart leaped into my throat. There was another couple in the room with us and they looked over at us with the same fear in their eyes that I was feeling.

Another doctor came in and spoke to the other couple. They started crying, but were smiling. Their child was going to be okay. They were nodding and listening to the doctor as he explained whatever he needed to explain to them.  The volunteer went up to them, and led them, presumably, to their child's bedside.   

We stayed put, waiting to hear about Samantha. Where in her leg had she been shot? How much blood had she lost? Would she lose her left leg, too? And would she survive that, if she did?

Jenna and I held on to each other, waiting with anticipation and dread for any word on Samantha.

A doctor came into the waiting room and looked around. We were the only parents still waiting.

"Mr. and Mrs. Joseph?" He asked, coming over to us. We stood up and nodded.

"We're Samantha's parents, yes," I said, terrified about what we might learn.

"Okay, hi. I'm Dr. Angleford. I operated on your daughter," he introduced himself.

"How is she? Is she okay?  Is she...?" I couldn't finish.

"She's going to be just fine. She had a single gunshot wound to her left thigh. The bullet missed her major arteries and just nicked the bone. The bone slowed it down, so it did get lodged in some muscle. We were able to get the bullet out, repaired a few vessels and cleaned up the wound. I don't anticipate there being any issues. She'll have to stay off that leg for a few weeks, but she should make a full recovery. Obviously, we're going to keep an eye out for any infection and we've started a prophylactic antibiotic, so hopefully that won't be an issue. She's just getting settled in her room and then our volunteer will take you to her once she's settled.

She did very well through the surgery, and she might be groggy for a couple of days. She lost a pretty significant amount of blood. We gave her two units during surgery and were pretty sure that should be fine, but we'll keep an eye on her levels and see if we need to replace any volume. But she's doing well."

I smiled with relief.

"Thank you," I said to the doctor, shaking his hand.

"I'm sorry this happened to you, and to her. I would suggest getting her a therapist to help her with what happened at school."

I nodded. I'd be calling Doc as soon as Sam was awake.

The volunteer came over and told us Sam was in her room and she would take us to her.  

We walked into her room and saw our girl lying in the bed. She looked like she was asleep. She only had nasal cannula. I went over to her and took her hand. I looked at her left leg, which was wrapped in bandages. They'd propped it up on a pillow as well. I sat down and held her hand as she slept.

Physically, she was going to be okay.

I texted Josh and Mark and let them know Sam was okay. Then I picked her hand up again and held on tight to her.