Grassi-Hoying Family

10

Blake is finally able to go back to school after a few weeks, but he can't take tests or participate in gym class.

"We have a new student today—" The teacher starts and gestures to Blake, who's just sitting at his desk.

"I'm not new..."

"Then why are you just joining now?"

"I couldn't exactly come to school when I was in a coma."

"I'm sorry, what happened?"

Blake takes a shaky breath, "That's all in my presentation."

"You have it done?"

"Finished it last night. My friend told me it was due today."

"How'd you finish it in one night?"

"The assignment was about something that changed my life, I didn't find it hard to choose."

"Would you like to go first?"

"I suppose." He gets up and connects his iPad to the big screen.

"I'm Blake Grassi-Hoying and over the summer I went to Hawaii." He sees people lose interest until he goes to his next slide.

Blake hears a few gasps before he continues, "I was going for a bike ride with my little sister when a car came out of nowhere and hit me. This is a picture from a street camera of the car... and me."

Someone raises their hand, "Yeah?" Blake calls on her.

"Where's your sister in the picture?"

"She's on the corner of the sidewalk outside of the frame. She was unharmed and she saved my life. I was bleeding and she used her sweatshirt, I think, to stop it as she called 911. I was taken to the hospital and into the trauma room, which is when I went into Ventricular Tachycardia. It also caused me to go into cardiac arrest and they had to—" His voice breaks and he looks at the picture on the screen.

"They had to get the crash cart and shock my heart until it started again. Then they had to take me to the O.R. for an emergency surgery that took over 12 hours."

Another question, "Why did it take so long?"

"I had internal bleeding in my abdomen, it took a while to stop. Then they realized I had a tear in my pulmonary artery, that's the artery carrying blood from the right ventricle of the heart to the lungs for oxygenation. Doctor Yang was my heart surgeon and she able to fix it but the amount of blood I was losing was critical. I also dislocated my knee, fractured my left ankle, and shattered my left wrist. My wrist had to be fixed in surgery as well because of the damage."

He flips to the next slide, which is a picture of Laine sitting next to him on the bed, "This my sister and me the next day after we went on a walk, which was really just her pushing me in a wheelchair around the hospital."

Another person asks, "How old is your sister?"

"She's 15."

"Wow."

"Shortly after my mom took this picture and Laine got up, I started having a seizure. Doctor Shepherd, my neurosurgeon, told my parents that he thought I would be okay, but it was just a waiting game. He said that there was a chance of me waking up and having a seizure but they had no way of knowing that I would even wake up." He flips to a picture of the hospital he was sent to in California.

"After a while, I don't know how long, they sent me back to the hospital here so my family could be home."

Another question, "How long were you in a coma?"

"Six months. I'm okay now but I can't do gym class or take tests because of the head trauma I still have to deal with." The next slide has three pictures, each one is the members of his family hugging him when he woke up the second time.

"The top right is me with my dad. He doesn't usually cry, but I remember he did when I woke up. The middle is me with Laine, again, and she always cries so that's nothing new." He says with a chuckle, "Them the bottom left is me with my mom, who also cries a lot so I wasn't surprised."

"Any more questions?" The teacher asks and two people raise their hands.

"Katarina?"

"How did this change your life?"

"I can't cross roads anymore unless I'm with somebody. I have nightmares almost every night, and I get flashbacks at the most inconvenient times. My sister has been sleeping in my room because she's scared she's going to lose me again. I have anxiety attacks and my mom has to help me through them because he has them too. As for physical stuff, I'll have to wear a brace on my knee and wrist when I can play sports again. I had to retrain my brain to do certain things because I simply couldn't anymore."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry, it's okay. I wouldn't be talking about it if I couldn't handle it. Lauren, what's your question?"

"You keep saying your mom is doing stuff, but where is she in those pictures? Why are you referring to her as a guy?"

Blake goes to a picture in his camera roll and puts it up on the screen.

"This is a picture of my Aunt, Dad, and Mom, also know as Momma. He didn't feel like dad or papa fit him so he wanted to be called Momma, it's that simple. Anything else?" Nobody raises their hand, everybody just claps as Blake goes back to his seat.

***