The Curse of Once Upon a Time

Chapter XXIII: Dying of the Light

"Is she okay?"

"We're not sure."

"What do you mean you're not sure? You're a doctor. That's your job."

"It's a bit complicated, Mr. Ellicot." Dr. Ravaish said, crossing his arms as he was talking to Mr. and Mrs. Ellicot. "You see, your daughter had a brain tumor, as you know. We removed it, but she was left brain dead."

"She wasn't brain dead though." Mrs. Ellicot shook her head. "Lani wasn't brain dead. If she had been, she wouldn't be alive today."

Dr. Ravaish sighed. He could understand their frantic state. Lani had been in the hospital for a week years ago after she had passed out during the middle of the school day. They had commented about her strange behavior beforehand and when she had been in the hospital, they'd discovered a brain tumor.

It immediately went from a little panic about her passing out without much of a reason to full on fear wondering if she was going to be okay. They could do surgery to remove the brain tumor but considering that it had been there for a while and it was big, it was more likely for something to go wrong and for her to die.

Lani had agreed to take the chance to get it undone rather than spend the rest of her limited days going mad. They had the surgery, removed the tumor, and she didn't die, but she didn't survive either.

Lani had gone brain dead. The doctors had been one hundred percent sure that Lani was brain dead and that there was no coming back. The last option was to pull the plug and wish her family the best.

Then a miracle happened.

Nobody knew how it had happened, but Lani survived. She woke up. She was no longer brain dead. For a while, people thought that the doctors had made the wrong call. They wanted them fired for almost killing a little girl, but they had been positive that she was brain dead.

Lani's situation was a true miracle. Nobody knew what had happened. She'd visited a few times for checkups just to see that she was doing okay. It was almost like nothing happened. Lani herself changed, but her brain functioned just as well as any other. No signs of any injury.

Doctors said that it was temporary. They believed that soon enough, brain would go into a state of shock and she would be back in the hospital for treatment. If the previous time had been any sign, she was lucky.

But even her luck ran out. Lani could only last for so long. But she had lasted far longer than anybody had expected her to. She had gone for over a year without any problems. Then her brain seemed to just crash. She collapsed and she was rushed to the nearest hospital, then later transported to a better one.

The problem was that there seemed to be no problem. Nobody could understand what had caused Lani to crash. They checked over and over. She wasn't brain dead, they could tell that for sure. She was still alive and holding onto whatever little ounce of life she might have had left, but she didn't have that much more.

All the doctors wanted to help her. They wanted her to get better. It was their moral code that they help her get better, but they didn't know what had happened and they didn't know how they could make her much better.

"Perhaps not..." Dr. Ravaish trailed off. "We're not sure what happened with Lani. Her survival was a miracle beyond our understanding. And now that she's back and having issues again, we're not sure what is causing them or how to fix it."

"Is she going to survive?" Mrs. Ellicot asked. "Can you tell us that? Can you tell us anything at all?"

"As of right now, we don't know. If her condition worsens, then her odds of survival are much lower. If they stay where they are right now, I would give her a few months to live with all the hospital help." He said. "But I can't promise that."