Capturing Ella

Chapter 49 - Joe

Nine hours later

Ella made it through surgery – just. The second she was raced into theatre they started working on the burns, taking off the skin too damaged and prone to infection before putting some new graphed skin on the her legs. I was taking down into a prepped ward to sort out my burns on my arm and cuts and bruises. They bandaged my arm up with some cream, prescribed me a course of antibiotics and discharged me from hospital – but I didn't leave. Instead, I found my way up to the operating theatre. The doctors said I couldn't go any further but Jake managed to pull some strings and allowed me to sit in the nursing deck for trainee doctors so I could watch Ella in theatre. I watched as they operated on her shoulder and her legs to remove shrapnel – bits of fragmented metals with tiny poison capsules on the end – as well as diffusing her blood to get the poison out of her system. Several times the doctors had said if she survives this it would be a miracle and I thought they were right as her heart had stopped on the operating table four times.

After a while, she had become more and more active in her thought patterns and she was responding to me talking telepathically to her. Well, at the beginning she wasn't replying but I could hear her thinking about her reply, so I was able to reply to her. In the end, she was able to reply back telepathically but kept waving in and out as she continued to decline in a state before improving and so on. I told her so many times that I loved her, and if I could do anything to help her in her state to try and remain constant. She was thinking about me singing – so I did.

For the six hours she was in theatre I sung to her constantly, talking to her when she started to regain some more consciousness. They then took her out of theatre saying she should be okay but it's still in a critical state until the drugs ware off. Once she was out of theatre, she stopped thinking, singing and replying. But not only that, they don't know the damage until she is awake.

'Joseph Matthews?' The doctor said coming into the room. I stood up numbly and shook the hand he offered to me, but always kept the corner of my eye on Ella's inert body laying in her hospital bed. They had put a tin foil sheet over her as well as an insulation blanket as her body temperature was incredibly low, and she was still tubed from the operation. They said everything had gone the best it could but they couldn't guarantee everything was okay. However, they felt she was well enough to stop the medical coma drug that was making her unable to wake up, and they'll take out the tube and she should resurface but it could be a process that could take up to a few weeks. Some have even been known not to come out of medical coma's but that's normally after extensive use of the drug – Ella only had one dose to keep her brain at rest and reduce any further swelling and concussion. They had already warned me if she wakes up within the next 48 hours the chances of her remembering anything of the last week was minimal. She was very badly concussed, and they were unsure she'd even remember that we were together.

'You're the next of kin for Ella, correct?' The doctor asked and I just nodded.

'We've done the first post-op X rays and all the metal shrapnel have been removed. We've finished going her blood and removing the poison but she'll have to go onto antibiotics when she wakes up to try and thin down the poison and reverse any effects it may have had. Until then, we'll give her the liquid form in her IV drip. The coma medicine has been taken off her, so she'll be under for another five or six hours, and then she'd be asleep but she should wake up. We'll continue to monitor her closely for the next few days until she's conscious and talking.' I nodded, every word he said taking a few more seconds to sink in and to process the meaning.

'Will the baby be okay?' I asked quietly and the doctor frowned at me.

'We have considered the foetus through every treatment to make it safe for the baby and all the medicines so far are safe for pregnant ladies, but we can't perform an ultrasound until Ella is conscious to sign it off, I'm afraid. As it's not the reason she's been signed under Maui care, we can't do extra treatment without her acknowledgement and without her valid signature. We've tried to do it so you're the next of kin, but as she's now out of theatre that won't even work.' The doctor informed me and I nodded.