"I'm not talking about this with you anymore, mom. Please drop it." Luke rolled his eyes.
"Honey. You never talk to me about all of these things. I'm a girl and I'm just trying to give you advice on how to get one of us." Eleanor laughed, a teasing smile stretched across her face.
"There's a reason I don't talk about these things with you, you're weird. I'm asking Bethany out to homecoming. That's it, I don't really need your help."
"Well how are you going to ask her? I know Beth loves snacks so it should probably involve some. I bet you probably didn't know that which is exactly why you need help."
"Mom-"
You know how they say when you see a car coming at you, it happens in slow motion? How the lights are the last thing you see and the horns send you into the everlasting darkness. It's a lie. The truck came out of no where. The lights weren't as bright as they say. The horns blasted a little bit too late. It all happened so fast.
***
The paramedics jumped out of the ambulance in a frenzy. The sight was gruesome to put it nicely. The side of a Nissan Altima crushed into the head of a huge 18-wheeler. Peeking out of the front window of the Nissan laid a young boy that could without a doubt be labeled critical.
In a rush, first responders worked together to gently pull Luke's limp body from the car and onto a backboard, where the paramedics could start working to save his life.
Medical language was thrown around, medication in needles were shoved into Luke's body, tubes were entered into his mouth, stickers were plastered on his chest.
"He's in cardiac arrest, re-charge to 250. Clear."
"Starting a central line."
"He's got a pulse. Start bagging him."
"Let's go."
Luke was lifted into the ambulance and loud sirens rang out signaling the urgency of the matter.
"Where's my son? Lucas! Luke, where is he? Please, please you have to tell me where he is- Is he okay- stop! Where is he!" Screams sounded from the car.
"Ma'am your son is good care. He was just transported to the hospital via ambulance and they're going to do every thing they can to help him, but right now we need to get you out of this car and make sure that you're okay so you can be with your son." A paramedic tried to soothe a distressed Eleanor.
It took a couple of minutes, but Eleanor was calm enough to be transported to the hospital behind her son.
***
"Mr. & Mrs. Watson, your son is in very critical condition. He's suffered an epidural hematoma, multiple broken bones, and we believe he is internally bleeding. We have to get him into surgery now."
Luke was now located in a hectic ER where many doctors and nursers frantically tried to stabilize his pulse, and temporarily stop his internal bleeding.
A doctor, clad in a white jacket and stethoscope, stood in front of a distraught Eleanor and Thomas, breaking the news on their son, who's life was truly hanging on by a thread.
"Okay... okay we'll do the surgery." Eleanor spoke barely above a whisper.
"Eleanor-" Thomas interrupted, appalled at the fact that his wife would just trust this doctor they've never seen before, right off the bat.
"Thomas we have to do this surgery- I can't live with myself if he- We're doing the surgery." she spoke brokenly.
"What are the risks of doing the surgery" Thomas asked, grabbing his wife in a tight hug.
"There is always the risk of bleeding out, and with this severe of an injury, there can be effects on his brain for the rest of his life like TBI, ABI, or epilepsy, but if we don't do the surgery, there's a very slim chance of him making it through the night."
And with those calm but threatening words, Eleanor and Thomas watched as Luke was wheeled off into surgery.
L U K E
If there was a word to describe how my body felt, it would be raw. It feels like all of my limbs have been scraped raw and numb but painful at the same time. Everything hurts. Not just a mild pain, but a pain I would do anything to escape.
Not only was a trapped in a world of unimaginable pain, I also had no idea where I was. I couldn't move a single limb in my body. It felt like there were boulders placed on top of me and I hated it.
I tried to look around, but I was ultimately trapped. I felt panic begin to rise up in my body. I don't like this. All of a sudden a rapid beeping sounded throughout the room sending me further into a state of panic. Everything was foreign so I couldn't use anything to ground me back to reality. I was in to much pain to even try to count my breathes. In conclusion, I thought I was going to die.
"Luke? Oh my gosh Luke, hey hey look at me. You're okay."
I let my eyes shift over to my big sister, Amber, who's face was leaned over into my sight of vision. I felt a hand grasp my limp hand and looked over to see my oldest brother, Tyler, smiling down at me with concern displayed all over his face.
Confusion couldn't even begin to cover the emotion I felt. What is happening? What is that beeping and why does it keep blaring. My siblings must have saw the confusion and panic plastered on my face because they slowly looked at each other before cautiously looking down at me.
"Hey bud. Do you know who I am?" Tyler asked.
I blinked at him. Of course I knew who he was, why wouldn't I?
I barely nodded. My throat was a different kind of scratchy, like haven't talked in a couple of days scratchy. Not that I could even talk seeing as how it felt like there was a long wire embedded down my throat.
"Do you remember what happened? Blink once for yes, twice for no" Amber said softly.
I immediately blinked twice. The last thing I remember was dreading over the amount of homework I had over the weekend. I would go back to the moment in an instant if it meant I could gather a sense of normalcy.
Amber and Tyler glanced at each other once again. I was growing impatient. What is going on? I felt Tyler's grip on my hand tighten. I rolled my head over to look at him and examine the look of conflict on his face. I slightly cocked my head. What did he have to be conflicted about?
It took a moment before he finally started speaking again.
"Well Luke, you were in a car crash and have been in a coma for 9 days."
YOU ARE READING
Crash and Burn
Teen Fiction"Uh, my mom and I got into a car crash with an 18- wheeler, and I had an epidural hematoma, shattered my leg bone and dreams of playing football, had some seizures and was diagnosed with epilepsy and I stuttered for a little while, but those have go...
