Bea's eyes fluttered open before she thrust them closed again with a grimace as the light in the room stung at her eyes, a jolt of pain rushing to her brain and blending behind her eyes and bridge of her nose.
With a conscious effort she kept her lids tightly sealed as she tried to focus on the sounds around her. Despite the sharp jolt of pain that ran through her head just moments ago, her brain felt fuzzy, almost like her entire head was filled with cotton wool. She realised her internal voice was slow as her mind struggled to process her thoughts quickly enough. She tried to silence the voice inside her head to allow her brain to focus on the sounds around her.
Despite a soft constant buzz in the background, a beep echoed monotonously every few seconds. She recognised the sound but couldn't place it, she strained against the boundaries of her muddled brain and tried to force it to remember what the source of the sound was. The harder she tried to force herself, the more anxious she felt as the memories wouldn't materialise on demand. She realised that the distance between the beeps had shortened causing a faster recurring beep.
"Ms. Smith, can you hear me?" The voice was not one she recognised, although it felt warm, and comforting and homely.
She tried to open her mouth to answer, but only a soft groan erupted from her dry lips. Her throat scratching against the effort causing a cough, which quickly developed into a hyperventalated choke.
She felt a warmth behind her neck before a pressure lifted her head away from the softness she was resting against. Her throat instantly improved a little as she pulled in deep gasps of air. The next thing she felt was a cool moistness against her lips.
With a satisfied and thankful groan, she attempted to open her eyes again, starting with just a few millimetres to allow her eyes to adjust to the light before opening them fully. She tried to glance at the person supporting her head, but a fuzzy form was the only thing stood before her.
She blinked her eyes a few times, feeling the sand and grit being forced around her heavy eyes. After a few more blinks, her surroundings finally began to materialise as her eyes began to gain focus.
She looked to the woman stood before her, a warm smile on her face as a pair of blue eyes glanced almost questioningly at her.
"Feel better?" The woman asked as she eased Bea back down against the pillow before moving to raise the back of her bed so that she was resting in a seated position.
Bea's lips opened to speak, but remembering her last attempt she changed her mind and instead nodded.
With her newly achieved vision, she glanced around the room, left to right, taking in the machinery, the beige walls, the window with shuttered blinds, a tall sky blue curtain and finally a woman wearing navy scrubs.
'Hospital' her internal voice called triumphantly. 'The beeping was the damn heart monitor... wait, why the hell am I in hospital?'
Upon noticing Bea glancing at her surroundings, her facial features expressing the internal battle that waged on behind the frail woman's eyes, the nurse decided it was time to try and explain things to her patient.
'Ms. Smith...' she started.
'Bea' the red heads voice interrupted, nothing but a gravelly gasp.
"Bea..." the nurse corrected with another warm smile "you're in hospital, you had an accident... can you remember having the accident?"
Bea thought for a second, her brain still feeling slow as she tried to force herself to remember the last thing before she woke up. After a few moments she began to tire mentally from the effort and gave her head a soft shake when she decided to give up. She moved her right arm to raise it to her face to rub her stinging eyes, but after it raised a few inches, it met a solid resistance.
Looking down to see what her arm was snagged on, she was confused to see her arm restrained at the wrist by some kind of material. Glancing to her left arm she saw the same thing around its wrist. She traced the material from her wrist till it connected to the metal sidings on the bed.
"Bea, do you remember where you lived before the accident?" The nurse frowned, concern filling her as she watched her patient intently.
Bea tried to force her memories again, her eyebrows cinching into a tight knot when she failed to recall her living arrangements. She began shaking her head, unsure herself if the shaking was in answer to the question directed at her or in confusion of the situation she found herself it.
'why the hell am I in hospital? Why the hell am I restrained to the bed? Why am I struggling to remember where I live or what happened' Bea's internal voice began racing, the panic evident to herself as she was forced to listen to it. The fog inside of her mind lifting enough to allow her to think, but not enough to allow her to recall any memories other than her name, Bea Smith.
"Ok, you were in an altercation which resulted in you being stabbed 17 times. Each incision was in your abdomen, of the 17, each was deep enough to penetrate something internal. Are you following so far?" the nurse asked softly, trying to speak slowly and calmly. When the red head nodded she continued.
"the internal injuries you sustained were severe, you were rushed to this hospital by an ambulance, in which you coated several times… but you fought like hell to stay alive, you're one tough cookie" the nurse paused again to allow Bea the opportunity to digest all the information being thrown at her.
"one you arrived we rushed you straight into the OR and after sedating you, we opened you up. Of the 17 wounds, 13 penetrated your intestines, 2 into your kidney and two managed to hit just muscle. Now, we managed to patch up the muscle, there are several internal stitches which will hold the muscle together to allow it to heal."
With a deep breath, the nurse prepared to delve into the deeper medical report.
"now, we attempted to repair the kidney but unfortunately it sustained too much damage to repair, and so we had to remove it. You still have your right kidney, and with a maintained diet you should find that it doesn't cause you too many issues in your future. Your intestines were a different story all together, to be frank, the damage was incredible. We began to stitch the wounds in hope we could repair your intestines, unfortunately three days after the operation, you coated and we had to rush you back into the OR and discovered that the stitches had ruptured." The nurse paused again to allow Bea more time to digest the information, her face was beginning to pale slightly as she stared off towards her feet, her eyes full of haze. The nurse handed her Styrofoam cup of water, and gained Bea's attention before handing it to the thankful woman.
"when we got back in there, we discovered that the ruptured stitches on the whole had caused more damage. Unfortunately there wasn't enough viable tissue to be able to restitch them, and so we had to begin cutting out parts around the wounds and reconnect them to viable tissue. Now in order to allow the new stitches time to heal, we have had to insert a tube that will direct from your small intestine, which only received three minor wounds, which the original stitches held. The pipe will lead all your fecal waste direct to a bag at the side of the bed, which we change out daily. This stops any feaces from travelling through your large intestines, and allows the incisions chance to heal."
The nurse stopped to allow Bea chance to catch up. She stood silently as she made work of noting Bea's stats on her chart.
"any questions?" the nurse asked finally having recognized the alert look on Bea's face.
"How?" Bea asked eventually.
"I'm afraid I can't give you the answers to that, but there is a guard just outside who will be able to fill you in" the nurse smiled warmly, she had heard rumors about the notorious Bea Smith from the news and other medical staff, but the woman laid before her was not at all what she expected.
"any medical questions?" the nurse prodded softly.
"why can't I remember?" Bea asked.
"well we will have to run several tests to confirm, however I suspect what you are experiencing is a mild form of amnesia which is occurring due to your body being in a medically induced coma for the past month" the nurse soothed hoping not to add any further worry to the patient.
"right well, if you don't have any further questions for me, I will go and let your guard know that your awake and have some questions" the nurse awaited for Bea to nod her response.
"someone will be along shortly to take you for the scans we talked about. Once we have a diagnosis I will be able to determine further what we are looking at and how to manage it. I will catch up with you soon, just press the buzzer if you need anything" the nurse nodded towards the buzzer clipped next to Bea's restrained hand before leaving the room.