Safe

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

The two paramedics look at each other. They look at Poterek. And then they look at me. 

"At this rate we can get her to the hospital faster if we move her now than if we wait for another helicopter to come."

"Then there's no question," Poterek says. "Let's get her on a stretcher and into that ambulance."

The two paramedics and three others rush towards me. "Don't worry, Kat. I'll be right here. Just keep your eyes on me. Keep them open, Kat. Stay with me." 

I continue to cough up blood. I can see the pool growing deeper and wider beneath my head, and I feel it start to seep down my neck now as well. I try not to listen to the paramedics as they talk to one another to get my potentially mangled body out from under this hunk of metal. I try and go to a happy place in my mind, and all that comes to me is Niall. I picture him on the first day I met him, on our first date, laying in bed next to me as I lightly stroke his hair. The images calm me down, but not for long as I realize that I have probably ruined any chance of having those images again. He probably hates me. I would hate me. I was such an idiot. I love him. And now I'll probably never get the chance to tell him that again. 

Suddenly I feel a huge release of pressure on my torso and chest. 

"We have to move quick, people. The blood is going to rush to her organs and if we don't get her to the hospital in time, she'll bleed out in the ambulance. Let's go!"

I feel my body as it is hoisted up onto a stretcher and rolled swiftly into the ambulance. Officer Poterek hops in the back with me, still holding my hand. I am in a position now where I can clearly examine my body: I have two legs, two arms, and a body. Nothing has been disconnected - yet. I still can't feel my legs, and I'm not sure that's a very good sign. 

"Am I going to be okay?" I say in a dazed state to Officer Poterek. 

"I won't let anything happen to you, honey. Just hang in there. I've called your mom - she'll be at the hospital when we arrive. Just hang in there, Kat. Hang in there." 

"What about Izzie? And.. and Niall? What about them?" 

Poterek looks at the assisting paramedic. I can't decipher the look, but he avoids my question. "We're going to give you a drug that puts you to sleep, Kat. They're going to need to take you into surgery as soon as we get to the hospital. Your mother will be there when you wake up. Can you count backwards from 10 for me?"

I feel too tired and woozy to address Poterek about my question of Izzie and Niall.

"10.. 9.. 8.. 7.."

___________________________________________________

I wake up in a room full of machines and beeping. My whole body is killing me. Even though I'm positive I've been asleep for hours, I still feel exhausted and fuzzy. My throat is dry. I blankly search around the room for a cup to fill with water. Nothing. 

I have an IV stuck into the vein in my left hand, and I quickly realize that I also have a tube shoved down my throat. My breathing becomes difficult and I reach up to rip the tube out. As I scramble to remove the tube, one of the nurses rushes in to help.

"Hello, Ms. Mason! Let me help you with that." She painlessly removes the tube from the throat and I am able to breathe again. "Let me go get your doctor for you. In the meantime," she gestures towards the sliding glass door and I turn my gaze to see what she's referring to. My mother is standing in the doorway with a smile on her face and tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Kat! Oh, Kat! I was so scared. I was so scared you would never wake up! Oh, Kat!" She rushes over to me and sobs into my chest. I'm finding it hard to speak, so I gently hug her and rub her back. 

"I was so scared, Kat. I love you. I love you so much." She kisses my forehead and pulls up a chair next to my bed, never letting go of my right hand. I give a weak smile and look at her with weary eyes. Just then, the doctor walks in.

"So good to finally meet you, Kat. I'm Dr. Reilly, the attending surgeon who's been on your case for the last few weeks."

Few weeks? 

I glance nervously at my mother, who is still sobbing. 

Dr. Reilly continues, "As soon as you arrived here from the scene of the accident, we had to immediately rush you into surgery. When we got in there, there was massive internal bleeding, and we thought that was it. We spent about six hours in surgery for your internal injuries. However, scans showed a few hours later that there was also massive bleeding and swelling in your brain. We rushed back into surgery and have been waiting ever since for you to wake up. You're very lucky, Kat. It's very rare that a person with such extensive swelling to the brain will ever recover, but it seems that a miracle has been performed by the grace of God's good will, and it seems you will make a full recovery. You were very stable throughout the past few weeks, and it was just a matter of waiting for you to wake up."

I reach my right hand up to my head to see if this was a bad dream or if it was real. As my hand meets my head, I am not greeted by the usual silkiness of my brown hair, but instead, the texture of a bandage wrapped around my skull. 

"Your hair will grow back, Kitty Kat. I'm just so happy you're alive." 

"Your stats seem very good, Ms. Mason." Dr. Reilly points out. "You'll still be here for a few more days, but I think it's safe to move you out of the ICU. I'll arrange for a room transer onto the regular floor." Dr. Reilly gives me a warm smile and scurries out of the room, leaving me with my emotional  mother. I was still trying to process the information that the doctor had given me. I needed to know exactly how long I'd been in a coma for. I try to speak, but nothing but air comes out of my throat. 

"Honey, please, don't strain yourself. Here," she hands me a notepad and a pen. "Whatever you need to say, write it. Dr. Reilly said it may be hard for you to speak for a while because of the ventilation and the surgeries. It's okay, honey. Just write it down." 

I take the pen in my right hand and put the notebook on the tray in front of me. I write down my first question. 

"It's been about 13 days, sweetie. It's close to November."

Have you been here this whole time?

"Yes. I have been. I wanted to be here when you woke up." 

Where's Izzie? 

She lets out a deep sigh before she answers this question. "Hold on, sweetie." 

She rushes out of the room with her cell phone in hand. She's probably trying to call Izzie now. It seems like it takes hours before she finally returns to me. I point to the question on the notepad again, signaling that I want to know where Izzie is. 

"She's at work, Kat. She'll be here soon." Her eyes look distant and her face looks tired. She looks very worn out and very sad. But I have one more question for her.

Where's Niall?

She shoots out an answer as if she was waiting for me to ask this. "He's at work, too." She won't make eye contact with me, and her face seems to have sunk since she came back into the room. I wasn't sure what it was, but something was up. 

Something was wrong.