If I Have To

And So It Begins

New York, New York
May 8th

Kasey L.

"The impact of the collision did some grave damage to your daughter. She fell into a coma due to an extracranial event." I explained to the parents.

The older woman with red hair turned to face me. "What's the extra-extra..."

"Extracranial." I helped her out. "It's an external event that reduces oxygen and blood flow to the brain. The collision caused the brain to bleed and shift, so blood flow stopped and oxygen reduced." I explained further.

"Which explains her being on the ventilator." Tee added. I nodded in agreement.

"So, what does that mean?" The father questioned while holding his daughter hand. "Will she wake up soon?"

"Unfortunately, sir, she fell into a coma because of the injury." I answered.

"I get that but I've heard people waking up from comas within hours." The father continued.

"That doesn't always happen." Tee chimed in. "Unless, induced, it can take a moment to wake up from it."

"I didn't ask you." The father angrily snapped. I stared at him, not liking the way he was speaking to Tee. He was definitely a racist and I didn't like that. His daughter wasn't even my patient but they've been waiting for two hours to find out what happened. I decided to be nice but I refused for Tee to be disrespected.

"Sir, I'm going to need you to be respectful to my nurse. She's in here for a reason and everything she's saying, you need to hear. Now, if you don't want to hear from the both of us then you can surely wait another three hours for a doctor to help. Do we have an understanding?" I forcefully asked. His face turned red then he nodded.

"I understand." He responded through gritted teeth.

"Good." I look down at Tee. She thanked me and I gave her a smile. No one was ever going to disrespect her.

"Back to what we were saying, in a situation like this, it's never clear when someone might wake up. It can take days, months, weeks, and even years to wake up from a coma that wasn't medically induced. It all depends on the patient and when they feel like waking up. We have your daughter hooked up to many machines to help keep her alive. I'll have my nurses maintain intensive care, checking brain activity, blood flow, and external stimuli." I informed them both.

"This is too much." The mother cried out, sniffling. It never felt good seeing children in this manner. But it was a common sight in this area of work that I was slowly starting to get used to as days go on.

"You both are welcome to stay by her side. There's a cafeteria that you are more than welcome to go it whenever you please. We are here to take care of you and your daughter, so let us." I said.

"Where's your cafeteria?" The mother questioned.

"I can take you." Tee offered.

I made sure everything was settled before exiting the room with Tee and the mother. The two of them walked in the opposite direction of me going to the cafeteria. I started in the direction to my office, having the time to myself now and wanting to use it to call Xena. Soon as I turned the corner, I saw Doctor West and Nurse Ginny coming out of the janitors closet. I was going to keep going right past them but West turned to face me.