Ch.2 The Hospital
The trip from Harold's to the hospital did not go smoothly. Chloe opened her eyes a few times, only to look off purposelessly into the distance. Wires and tubing ran in all directions from her chest and arms, and she somehow looked even paler than before. For one happy moment, Aaron thought she was going to look him in the eyes, but her unfocused gaze slid past him without pause. He saw her lips move, speaking softly, but he heard nothing over the siren or the incessant rhythmic beeping of the monitors. Her lips had turned an unnatural grey, he noticed now with alarm. He couldn't help but worry that she wasn't going to be ok. The EMT he'd spoken to at Harold's was to his right, holding Chloe's wrist stretched out with one hand and a needle in the other. Her ID card had decided, uncharacteristically, to turn right-way forward and reveal her name. "Emma," he said. She made no response but continued to stare at Chloe's wrist intently. Several long seconds passed. "Is she going to be ok?" In a moment the needle was in. "She's in critical condition," she said, her attention still on the new IV as she hooked it up and taped it down. That done, she turned briefly toward Aaron. "We're going to do everything we can to help her," she said, pausing before adding, "I promise." He didn't dare to ask any more questions after that for fear of interfering, but he overheard an EMT talking to someone on the radio. A lot of things that he didn't understand. "Young female, gunshot wound to the chest," he understood, but then a lot of things he didn't. "Tachy," he'd heard that one before on TV. An ER scene, not one where the patient was doing well. Chloe's breaths were coming faster, meanwhile, and with difficulty. With each breath her flesh was pulling back from her collar-bone into her neck. A large needle hovered over her breast, but Emma reached out to stop her colleague and shook her head. "They'll do it at the hospital."
And then they were there, the ambulance had made good time, though it hadn't felt like it. Aaron hopped out of the way the instant the doors opened so the EMT's could unload Chloe quickly and get her to the Emergency Room. A flurry of nurses and doctors met them the moment they passed through the door. Aaron followed passively in their train until someone, a nurse maybe, grabbed him by the arm. "Family?" she asked. He nodded. She led him after the congregation but stopped him as they approached a large open room flanked by glass doors. "You can stay, for a bit, if you want to," she said, "but you're going to have to stay with me." He nodded again. "Here, I'll get you a mask." She dressed him up in a mask and made him throw on a cloth gown over his clothes, and then led him through the doors and into the corner of what had become a very busy room.
"If you start to feel dizzy or nauseous, let me know right away" the woman said. Chloe was on a bed surrounded by doctors and nurses in gowns and masks. A tall young black man stood at the foot of the bed next to an elderly man with snow-white hair, listening to the others and occasionally giving orders in a measured voice. A young man was kneeling at Chloe's right side, already cutting into the side of her chest with a scalpel. She barely winced. Aaron felt an unpleasant twinge in his belly and looked down with his hand to his mouth, but he was able to suppress the feeling. When he looked back up, the young man was forcing a clear plastic tube the size of a small hose through the hole he'd cut in her chest using a pair of metal clamps. "Alright ma'am" a woman said from the head of the bed, "we're going to give you some medications to make you fall asleep, ok?" Chloe gave no response. Meanwhile the man at her side was stitching the still-exposed end of the tube into her skin with practiced ease. He released the clamp, and immediately the tube was bright-red with Chloe's blood. Bile rose up into Aaron's throat and his head felt light. He started feeling around behind him for somewhere to sit down, but there was nothing but cabinets of medical supplies set into the wall. He pushed his back up against the wall and pulled himself down into a crouch. He looked up just in time to see another doctor stick a large white needle into Chloe's groin. An arc of blood shot almost straight up in the air and splattered on her thigh. Then another, and another, with every beat of her heart. Aaron looked down and fell hard to his knees.
That was the last part he remembered. When he woke up, his chaperone was at his side shaking him and a few other masked figures were standing around him. "I'm fine" he said. "Where are we?" "Same place" she said, you just passed out. Come on, let's get him to a bed." A male nurse and one of the taller women grabbed him under the shoulders and drug him out of the room. "Do you think you can stand?" He felt a little unsteady, but with some help from the two nurses he managed to get to his feet. He didn't really feel dizzy anymore once he regained his footing, but the nurses insisted on wrapping his arms around their shoulders for support. They led him to a dark, empty room and made him lie down on a rather uncomfortable little bed. "Ever passed out like that before? Any diabetes?" his chaperone asked as someone pressed a disposable container of juice into his hands. He shook his head "no" as he gulped down some of the sugary drink. The trio proceeded to grill him with a series of questions about who, where, and why he was here and such things as that. Satisfied with his answers, the nurses left. "You hit your head when you fell, so they're probably going to keep you here for a little bit" the chaperone said, "one of the doctors will come take a look at you when they get a chance." "What about my sister?" Aaron asked. "Someone will keep you updated" she said, lifting the rails on either side of his bed. "In the meantime, make sure you drink all your juice. And don't try to get up for now, can I trust you on that?" Aaron nodded reluctantly.
A new nurse came in briefly and asked him some questions about his medical history, but there wasn't much to tell. She put in an IV and drew some blood, but from then on, he was basically left alone. He lay there for a while, he never was sure how long, trying to process what had happened. The images cycled back and forth in his head, but he didn't feel any less bewildered. Only the (seemingly) icy-cold fluid flowing into the veins on the back of his hand offered any distraction. He hoped desperately that Chloe was ok. His tears had long since ceased, replaced by a cold, muted terror for his sister deep in his heart.
This is how he was when the tall black doctor from earlier walked into the room. A handsome but tired-looking young man, maybe in his late 20's or early 30's, he flipped on the light switch as he entered the room. He started toward the bed but then stopped himself as if remembering something. He hastily swept the blue surgical cap off his head, revealing imperfectly short-cropped curls (self-cut, as it happened). He was dressed in plain blue scrubs, almost indistinguishable from those of the nurses aside from the "Dr. I. Onyeneme" in frayed white thread emblazoned on his shirt. He washed his hands with some sanitizing foam, wiped his hands on his flanks, and then came over and shook Aaron's hand.
"Dr. Ike," the man said in a Nigerian accent, "How are you doing?" "I'm fine, how is my sister?" "Ah," Dr. Ike said, "much better than before. The bullet fractured her right clavicle – her collarbone," he corrected himself, "The fragments cut one of her blood vessels. She was bleeding into the space between her lungs and her ribs, which made her lung collapse. That's why she was having so much trouble breathing before." Dr. Ike waited to make sure Aaron was processing what he said. Receiving no response, but also no signs of incomprehension, he continued. "The vascular surgeons are repairing the vessel right now." Hope fluttered in Aaron's heart. "So, she's going to be ok?" he asked. "There's a good chance now that she may pull through" the doctor replied as reservedly as he could, but Aaron felt an enormous weight lift from his chest. Tears again streamed silently from the corners of his eyes.
"Are you ok, sir?" the doctor asked, grabbing a box of tissues off the counter. "Never been better," said Aaron, smiling weakly. "Look, there's nothing you can do now, we'll all have to wait and see," the doctor said, and paused thoughtfully. "Why don't you give me your number? I'll give it to the trauma resident. That will make it easier for them to call you when we know something." Aaron readily complied, and the young man sent a text from his phone. "There, now tell me really how you're doing. Your symptoms I mean, how's your head?" he said, walking around to the side of the bed, "that was quite a fall you took there." "Yeah, I'm not sure what happened there, never had anything like that happen before." "Well probably – do you mind if I touch your head?" Dr. Ike asked, not really waiting for an answer before pressing his fingers on the back of Aaron's head. It hurt. "My friend, you hit your head pretty good. Don't worry, I won't do that again." He paused again, trying to remember what they'd been talking about. "Ah, yes, probably you had a vasovagal reaction, lost blood flow to your brain when you saw blood." He smiled. "Nothing to worry about," he said, chuckling softly, "same thing happened to me my first time." Aaron did his best to smile in return. Dr. Ike ran down some questions with him, mostly the same ones the nurses had asked. "You're young and healthy, I'm sure you'll do fine" he said, "we'll just keep an eye on you for a few hours, keep asking you silly questions to make sure your head is doing ok. We should be able to let you go before your sister's surgery is done."
After the Doctor left, Aaron lay back in his bed, trying to hold back tears. He realized he hadn't called anyone to let them know what was going on. He pulled out his phone. 5 missed calls, not very surprising. It took a few minutes to calm down enough to call Mark. Mark answered almost immediately, "Az did you make it to the hospital? Is Chloe ok? What's going on?" Aaron tried, with rather limited success, to sound like he hadn't been crying. "Yes, we made it to the hospital and they've already taken Chloe back for surgery." "Does that mean that Chloe is going to be ok?" Mark asked optimistically. Aaron went into detail about Chloe's condition and how she had lost a lot of blood and how they hadn't been able to stop the bleeding before taking her for surgery. After explaining Chloe's condition and what the doctor had told him, he reassuringly added, "I guess they're going to do everything they can to save her, the doctor sounded like he thought she had a good chance." "Good. Good, that's good" Mark answered hopefully, and both men fell silent for a while.
"How's Elly holding up?" Aaron asked, breaking the silence. "Are you two on your way to the hospital now?" "We're actually still at Harold's. Elly's still crying and hasn't said much. I wanted to give her a chance to calm down before we left for the hospital." Mark was looking at Elly, who was still staring at the spot where Chloe had been lying not that long ago with tears in her eyes and a blank expression on her face. "I totally get it, she's been through a lot. Give her a hug for me and I'll see you two when you get here" Aaron responded. "Yeah will do. We'll be there soon, love you bro."
After Aaron got off the phone with Mark, he put his face in hands and closed his eyes. He tried again to wrap his head around what happened. He still hadn't called his husband to let him know what was going on. The call with Mark had brought his feelings back to the surface, and now he had to calm himself down again. He took a deep breath and started to dial David's number, just hoping that Chloe was going to pull through this.
Back at Harold's, Mark was trying to explain Chloe's condition to Elly. "Chloe lost a lot of blood and needed emergency surgery to fix all the damage from the bullet." Elly didn't seem to be hearing him though, because she just kept asking, "but she's ok right?" Mark wasn't sure how to answer her question. "She must be ok" she mumbled to herself, almost in a whisper "I need her to be ok." "Aaron said the doctors think she has a good chance," Mark said. Elly's eyes lit up, as if waking up from a dream. So, there's a chance she won't make it? No, that's not possible, she thought to herself, she's my best friend. She always knows how to put a smile on my face, I'd be so miserable without her!' She found to her surprise that she couldn't bring herself to imagine a world without Chloe. She needed to be brave, so that's what she would do. She composed herself and stood up. "We need to get the hospital!" she said with a determined voice. Mark just nodded and took off after Elly, who was already halfway out the door.
Back at the hospital, Aaron was back to sitting in his bed with his head in his hands. His husband was on his way. David had tried to reassure him that Chloe was going to be ok, he told him Chloe was young and a fighter. Aaron desperately wanted to believe him and find comfort in his words, but all he could think about was how frail and pale Chloe had looked in the ambulance. How she had a mask on her face to help her breathe, blood oozing implacably through every new layer of bandages and the EMT's frantically trying to keep her stable. He couldn't stop the images from coming when he closed his eyes, or the thought that he might lose Chloe tonight. He should have exhausted all his tears by now, he thought, as he once more started to cry.
Elly and Mark arrived at length, escorted by Aaron's ER nurse. "How's Chloe?" Elly demanded, "Is she still in surgery? Do we know anything yet?" Aaron shook his head, "No one's come by to speak with me in a while. They're supposed to come by when they have something to report." "They didn't tell you if she was going to be ok or anything like that?" Elly asked. Aaron just shook his head. "The doctor said he thought she had a good chance" he said, struggling to hold back tears in front of his family. Elly softened, realizing she wasn't the only one in pain. She walked over to Aaron's bedside and threw her arms around him, tears welling in her eyes also. Mark was just standing there trying to hold it together. He knew he hadn't always been the nicest to Chloe, but he was hard on her because he loved her. All he wanted right now was for her to be alright. He needed her to be alright.
Mark was still staring at Elly and Aaron, lost in thought, when David arrived. David rushed to Aaron and wrapped him in a strong embrace. "Any news yet?" he asked sympathetically before pulling back slightly to look his husband in the eyes. Aaron shook his head and fell back into David's embrace. All four of them stood there in the ER room, leaning on each other and not sure what else to do.
Just then an exceedingly short east-Asian female doctor came through the door. "Brennan family?" she asked, looking up from a folded, rumpled sheet of paper. They all broke apart and took off toward her. Aaron was the first to speak, "Yes, we're the Brennan family, how's our sister?" The doctor looked at Aaron, "I'm Dr. Lee with Vascular surgery. Your sister is stable." Seeing a blank expression on Aaron's face, she added "She's doing well. Tell me, what do you know about what's been going on with her?" Aaron did his best to give a coherent account of what he'd heard so far. He felt he hadn't done a very good job of it, but Dr. Lee just nodded along. "That's about right," she said when he had finished, "the bullet hit her collar bone and shattered it. One of the fragments hit her right subclavian artery – that's the blood vessel that supplies the right arm. She's very lucky" she added, "lots of people die before they ever reach the hospital with this kind of injury." "So, she's going to be ok?" Elly asked. "The immediate danger is likely over" Dr. Lee said. "The trauma surgeons have taken back over her case, but I had a look at the images they took after the surgery. No other major organ injury or active bleeding. Now, she's still on a ventilator in the ICU." "A ventilator?" Elly asked. "It's a machine that breathes for her. They were able to wake her up at the end of surgery, but her breathing wasn't strong enough to take her off the vent. They're giving her medications to keep her sedated while she's on the vent, they'll probably try to take her off tomorrow morning. She's young and healthy otherwise correct?" Dr. Lee asked. Everyone nodded. "There's always things that can go wrong after losing a lot of blood like that. She might get pneumonia. She might have a blood clot. But," she smiled, "if I had to, I would bet that she'll do just fine." "When can we see her?" Aaron asked. "Now," Dr. Lee said. "She won't be very awake, but you can go see her one at a time. The people at the front desk here can tell you how to get there." Aaron thanked her profusely for saving his sister's life, but the doctor told him "not at all, I hope they let you out of here soon so you can go see her."
After the doctor had left, all four released a breath that they weren't aware they had been holding. Aaron and David hugged each other, both crying happy tears. Mark and Elly were doing the same, shedding tears of relief. They were all so relieved that Chloe was going to be ok. They took turns hugging each other, and only after everyone had hugged everyone else in celebration did, they set about trying to decide who would get to go see Chloe first.
Aaron, David, and Mark were all discussing who should go first, but Elly wasn't really hearing any of it. All she could focus on was that the doctor had said Chloe was going to be ok and she would get to see her shortly! Until that moment she hadn't been able to stop seeing Chloe with a blood-soaked shirt, looking down in surprise, gasping for breath. The sound of the gunshot, Chloe falling to the ground, unconscious. All the moments she had shared with Chloe flashed in front of her eyes when she saw her go down. When she had gone to find Chloe after she had run away from her weekend get-away with Pierce and the time that she had just been sacked and Chloe dropped everything so she could be there for her. Then there was the close moment they had shared during the pajama party. These moments ran on a loop while she felt her heart breaking at the thought of losing Chloe. All Elly had wanted ever since the shooting was to know she could make more memories with Chloe, see her beautiful smile one more time. And now she could! All these thoughts were swirling in Elly's head while she tried to focus on the matter at hand.
The boys had realized that Elly wasn't really paying attention to the conversation. They all noticed that she seemed a bit lost in thought, staring at the doors the doctor had just went through. Mark went and stood in front of Elly, putting his hand on her shoulder, and asked, "Hey, are you ok?" Elly shook her head, "sorry, yes, I'm ok. I'm just worried about Chloe" she replied. Mark didn't look convinced, but he nodded and asked, "Do you want to be the first one to go back and see her?" Elly just nodded in response.
The boys all agreed that Elly should see Chloe first. She was there when it happened and they hoped it would set her at ease, physically seeing that Chloe was alive and ok. After Elly left the room, it occurred to David he should prepare Elly for what she might see. He caught up to Elly in the waiting room before she made it to the front desk. "Listen, Elly," he said, "I wanted to talk to you before you go and see her. She might not look like the Chloe you're used to seeing. She'll have wires, IV's, chest tubes, a breathing tube, bandages – she's going to look very sick, and I just want you to be prepared." "Thank you, David, I'll try to keep that in mind," Elly replied giving him a hug and with that she took off towards the front desk.