The Forgotten One

The Case

“That’s all of what I remember”, said Wylie. Beside Wylie, is Adrian hearing through the end of his story. He wrote down the important details in his small red book, the story itself was appealing but he knew something was off. He also had some questions on the incident, he asked:

“Could you tell the model of the car you were driving?”

“Yes, it was a 2013 Black Chevrolet Tahoe.”

“Why didn’t you try to take your mother out of the car first?”

“Uh, I really don’t know, it could be because I was in shock. I couldn’t think well due to all this happening at once and because it was all my fault.”

“Okay, that would be all, thank you.”

“Welcome, detective, may my parent’s legacy live forever.”

As the detective opens the room’s door, he turns his face to see Wylie, he sees as Wylie glares at the large window in thought. He leaves the room and encounters the doctor. The doctor’s face shows content and he says: “It’s a miracle that boy survived what he did, he is going to be dismissed within the next 2 days. Under these circumstances many patients undergo a prolonged therapy or a series of clinical procedures.”

“What kind of circumstances?”, the detective asks.

“Let me show you this case in detail”, the doctor says.

The doctor leads the detective through a series of hallways throughout the hospital, before reaching the designated room. As they enter, it could be seen that room was lit and filled with many photos, including x-rays. At the center of the room, was a desk, filled with files and books. Beside the desk was a large shelf with a plethora of books. On the other side, was a door that lead to the bathroom. And behind the desk, was a large window covered with long white opaque drapes. The doctor walked over to the desk and turned behind it, he opened one of its drawers. As he searched, he took a file and showed it to the detective.

“It really is a peculiar case, no one would have survived this, if he weren’t brought here at the right time.”, the doctor continued saying, “let me show some of his x-rays”.

He went toward the other side of the room, where the switch of the room was located and pressed it. A certain darkness rose over the room and surrounded both individuals. As the room went pitch black, something else shines its light on them. It were the x-rays. One showed a chest from the front side, other showed the chest from the right side, and the last one of a neck from the left side. The doctor walks closer to them and points the first one, the one that shows the chest from the front side.

“Now, if you see closely,  the lungs are fully inflated until here down, his left diaphragm is higher than the right one, the sternum is a little bit wide, the scapula seems fine, the right clavicle has a little dent on its acromial end, and the ribs don’t seem to be affected.” The doctor continues to the next one, which shows the chest from the right side, and points it with his right ring finger. “However, if we look this rib series, as we continue with the path of the ribs”, he slides his ring finger over each until reaching one and continues mentioning, “ right here you see a rib fracture, another two that follow it, this might have been cause to the pressure from the seatbelt and the car rollover at once.” He follows to the last film and says, “as you can see the neck is normal, curved behind which is something rare, since he should have developed a side-whiplash neck due to the constant side impacts he was having because of the car rollover. But I found something interesting, it was this X-ray I brought up two days ago, it’s about his brain.”

He takes the film, puts it on the screen with his left hand, points with his right forefinger on a tiny black line at the surface of the skull and says: “He has a small fracture on the frontal bone of his skull, it didn’t lead to a hemorrhage, thankfully, but the force that led it, created a mild concussion between his brain and skull, leading him to a deep sleep. It could be said that he suffered a severe traumatic brain injury before falling unconscious.”

“So, could you translate this to me into more simpler terms?”, the detective asked. The doctor chuckles and then speaks in a rather serious tone: “Well…  seeing these fractures, he would have been admitted for more time or in a coma. Nonetheless, during these past four days he has recovered successfully, even when encountering such a life-threatening situation, it seems so unlikely. Even I could say, that throughout my medical career, I’ve never seen such an odd case like this before. Not only did he recover his speech, he also remembers what occured before his state of unconsciousness.” The detective looks closely at the doctor and asks a question that has been sitting on his mind for a long time: “What if he was never present during the car crash?” The doctor looks at him in surprise, looks back at the X-rays and states: “Yet, it wouldn’t let us explain how the ribs were actually broken or why was the skull fracture made? Do you mean he… ?”   

“Yes, leave that explanation, to me”, the detective proposed. He thanks the doctor for the information and heads out of the room. He walks past Wylie's room, watching him again. He sees Wylie looking at his hands and then out the window. He, then, goes, down the elevator, and thinks if his remark was correct. He was certain of it, he thought. The elevator's doors open and he walks through the lobby. As he walks out of the hospital, he sees the bright sun and prepares himself for the upcoming battle.