Author's Note: Wow! I can't believe that it's been more than two long months since my last update! Well, since I'm finally done with school for now, updating shouldn't be too much of a problem. (Plus I think I'm getting a bit lazy. I'd better break this habit, and fast!)
Chapter 13: An Unlikely Donor
"Th-this just makes no sense!" Dr. Renoltis read over the test results over and over again. Some excess fluid was building up over various parts of her body, which is one of the symptoms of heart failure. Luckily there was no fluid build-up in her only one lung, but her arms, legs, and neck were starting to show signs of swelling. Dr. Renoltis finally took his eyes off the clipboard went to get Sonic and the gang.
Meanwhile, Knuckles, Tails, and Rouge had just been through another checkup. Knuckles arm was still in a sling and his skull injuries were finally gone. Tails seemed to cope very well with having a prosthetic ear and was very amazed at how real it looked. Most of the time, he doesn't realize that he has an artificial ear (unless he touches it and notices that there's no feeling). Rouge's wing had completely healed and was useable once again. She decided to go flying around later on to exercise them. Sonic sat on a bench while waiting for his friend to finish their checkup. When they saw Sonic, they noticed that he was deep in thought. He wasn't exactly worried because he believed that Amy was in good hands, although he felt very concerned for her after seeing what happened yesterday. Images of her screaming, squirming, and crying out in agony were constantly flashing through his mind like a slide show and he was having some difficulty in resisting anxiety.
"Hey Sonic," Tails called out to him, "lets go visit Amy. Visiting hours started almost three hours ago."
Sonic nodded and left with them to Amy's room. When they arrived, they noticed that Shadow was already in the room watching over her. She was still asleep and sedated since the painkillers no longer have an effect. Luckily, the sedatives have painkiller qualities, but the doctors were afraid that she would eventually become immune unless a new sedative is created.
"I decided to talk to her a little," Shadow stated, "although I'm not really sure if she could hear me or not. With Maria gone, I figured I should at least talk to someone. Besides, Amy looks so peaceful right now especially compared to yesterday, I just have to say something."
Sonic and the others understood and they all watched Amy contently. She was still wearing an IV tube since the doctors say she needs it for her medications until her body and health becomes stable, if ever. They all were amazed at how calm and peaceful she was. She was breathing normally and wasn't even snoring. A stark contrast from her appearance yesterday and they all remembered every detail. Amy was definitely full of pain and agony, but they could also tell that she was very frightened. These kinds of feelings were unlike anything that she's ever experienced before and it took her completely by surprise.
"Well, at least she's not experiencing that again," Sonic simply stated.
Dr. Renoltis then shows up in the room, "ah, here you all are. Um, how is everyone." Sonic and the gang could tell that his voice was slightly uneasy.
"Hey doc," Sonic asked, "Amy looks a little different from yesterday. She kind of looks like she's putting on some weight." Sonic and the others noticed that Amy looked slightly puffed up.
Knuckles and Rouge seemed a bit concerned as well. "Yeah," Knuckles spoke up, "I notice that she seems kind of swollen. Her arms and legs weren't that big yesterday."
Tails noticed the swelling on her neck, "doctor, does she have the mumps or something. Is she having some kind of allergic reaction?"
"Um, no. I'm afraid not," the doctor stated as calmly as possible.
Sonic and the others didn't like the sound of his voice and they knew that something was happening.
"Doctor," Rouge spoke up, "do you know what's wrong with Amy? Do you know why she looks a bit swollen?"
"Yes, I know exactly why," the doctor stated almost flatly, "this is pretty serious, do you think that he should listening to this?" The doctor said while pointing at Tails.
"Hey! Amy's like a big sister to me," Tails complained "if I leave, then I feel like I'm abandoning her."
The doctor complied, "all right. Just don't complain to me if you become depressed." The other reluctantly agreed for once.
"Okay," the doctor tried to stay as calm as possible, "I find it kind of hard to break this to all of you, but . . .," he looked over the notes on the clipboard to reassure himself on what he'll say, "Amy is . . . . she's beginning to show signs of . . . of heart and kidney failure."
Obviously, everyone was just totally shocked and dumbfounded instantly by what the doctor said. Sonic didn't seem to react immediately, the shock didn't really strike him just yet.
The doctor continued, "it seems that her heat and kidneys were damaged in the car accident many months ago. The damages have been hiding from us the whole time. Now do you see why we need more information on her physiology?"
Rouge had her hands over her mouth and made a loud gasp. Tails was equally stunned and was shaking his head in disbelief, trying his best to deny everything that he just heard and tears started to form in his eyes. Knuckles mouth hung halfway open and then started feeling a bit sick in the stomach.
Sonic just stared at Dr. Renoltis and blinked a few times. Surprisingly, at first he didn't seem affected by what he just heard. He watched everyone else's reactions and he hanged his head down while shutting his eyes very tightly. A few seconds later, he clenched his fists so hard that his own knuckles started cracking. Then he began to see red and just completely lost it.
"AAAAAAAGH!!!" Sonic screamed while running right at the doctor. (Knowing how fast Sonic is, he covered the short distance in less time than you could blink). He jumped up and grabbed the doctor's collar with both hands and his feet were on doctor's midsection. Since Dr. Renoltis is almost a good three feet taller, Sonic almost looked like a rock climber hanging onto a cliff! The doctor almost lost his balance with the sudden extra weight hanging on him and Sonic got into the doctor's face.
"What kind of a hospital are you running here!?" Sonic was totally livid, "you're supposed to be helping Amy! Why is all this happening to her!? Hasn't she been through enough already!?"
Despite how furious he was, a tear started to form in his eye. His friends were very surprised by his sudden actions and the doctor was very shocked. Shadow rushed up to them and pried Sonic off of the doctor after a bit of struggling.
"Hey, we're doing everything possible to keep her health stable," Dr. Renoltis spoke as calmly as possible, "you have no idea how hard it is just to keep her alive. Keeping her body and health stable is about as hard as balancing a pencil vertically on its tip. If her health were to change even the slightest amount in any direction, any number of negative affects can occur. She could have a stroke, go into shock, have some kind of allergic reaction, fall into another coma, . . . . or even die suddenly."
Sonic calmed down a little, but he was still extremely upset.
The doctor continued, "believe me, I'm just as surprised as all of you guys. Right now, several very important objectives need to be done to help Amy right now."
"So, you've got a plan to save her now, huh?" Tails asked very anxiously.
The doctor continued, "simply put, she needs a heart and kidney transplant, but using human organs is just far too risky. We're still in the middle of studying her physiology and we're also trying to crack her genetic code. This will really help us in deciding what to do or what medication to use without placing further risk on her health." Dr. Renoltis was trying his best to turn the situation around and bring some hope into this dismal moment.
Sonic calmed down a bit more, but was still very tense, "how . . . how long does she have if this isn't fixed?" Sonic almost felt like kicking himself for asking that kind of question.
The doctor rubbed his chin a bit, trying to remember the numbers, "well, judging by her rate of fluid build-up in her body, I'd say somewhere between two to four months. I'm hoping of course that it's closer to four months, . . . maybe more than that hopefully. Of course since our study of her physiology isn't quite complete, this number could vary a bit."
Sonic just blinked a few times in surprise and made a load groan. He sat down on the nearest bench and buried his face in his hands. The others just stared at each other with very worried faces.
The doctor continued, "you see when a person has heart failure, one symptom is excess fluid build-up throughout their body and Amy's case isn't any different. This mostly occurs in the arms, legs, throat, and abdomen, which is why she's beginning to look swollen. The kidneys actually help remove some of the excess fluid, thereby slowing down the rate of fluid build-up."
Everyone except Sonic listened carefully. Anxiety was filling up in the air.
"But, like I said earlier, her kidneys are failing as well. Therefore, the fluid will start building up in her body much faster. If this isn't stopped, she could develop infections all over her body and that would be VERY bad. I'm sorry to tell you all about this, but I figured that you should know so you can understand how serious this is."
Despite not paying any attention just now, Sonic did overhear a few words and took his face out of his hands. "Doc, didn't you just say that an organ transplant could help her?"
"Oh, absolutely," the doctor replied, "of course donating a heart isn't very smart. One can't really live without one, unless they don't mind using an artificial heart. Although donating a kidney can really help. It's best if the donator is at least the same species to reduce any possible unnecessary risks."
Sonic gave a deep sigh while clenching his fists and gritting his teeth. He relaxed a little and made a huge decision. "All right doc, I'll -"
"I'll do it," Shadow interrupted.
Everyone immediately turned their heads at just stared at Shadow, completely dumbfounded. Sonic even did a double take from what he just heard! They all just couldn't believe Shadow would actually volunteer for something like this!
"Uh, Shadow?" Sonic asked, still not recovered from the shock, "are you feeling all right? Did you . . . did you just say you'll do it? You'll actually donate a kidney to Amy!? But . . . why?"
"Hey, what are complaining about?" Shadow seemed a bit insulted, "I heard that you donated half of your blood to Amy when she was first admitted to this hospital. Besides, I want to help for once. I haven't done anything nice in a while, so I figured that maybe I could try doing this. I wasn't able to save Maria all those years ago, but maybe there's a chance I can save Amy."
Sonic was still in shock and speechless, "but . . . but . . ."
Shadow continued, "I have no idea what relations you have with Amy. Whether you like her or hate her, I can't just stand here and watch her suffer like this. Just think of this as a huge favor from me."
Sonic was still at a loss of words. He looked over at Amy and noticed how peaceful and relaxed she looked. But he knew that eventually, that peaceful look on her face will be filled with terror and agony if nothing is done to help her. He actually wanted to help her, seeing Amy like this has taken a huge toll on him. He believes that Amy has suffered enough. A long time ago, he wanted to see her suffer for being such an annoyance in his life, but this is just way too much. This is just overkill plain and simple.
Sonic swallowed hard and very reluctantly agreed, "all right. Just make sure that her body doesn't reject it." He gave a quick nod to Shadow and Dr. Renoltis.
"Okay then," the doctor clapped his hands and rubbed them together, "it's settled then. Shadow, first your blood will have to be tested to see if it's compatible with Amy's, that way there's less chance of her body rejecting the transplant. We've already done this with Sonic's blood, so it's not exactly a new thing anymore. Um Sonic, Shadow, you do realize that if Amy's blood isn't compatible, we'll have no choice but to turn to Sonic for the kidney transplant?" Both Sonic and Shadow nodded in agreement.
"There is one problem though, "Dr. Renoltis continued, "I'm going to have to find an alternative solution for a heart transplant. Like I said earlier, using a human heart is far too risky. I believe I have a plan, but I'll need some help from certain resources."
About two hours later, the results for Shadow's blood test were complete. It confirmed that Shadow's blood is indeed compatible with Amy's.
"Wow," Doctor Renoltis said to himself, "since all three of those hedgehogs have compatible blood, I wonder if they have blood types at all?"
During that time, Sonic stayed in the room with Amy and started talking to her for once. He finally had a chance to apologize to her after all that's happened. Of course since she's asleep, she couldn't respond to what he said, but Sonic figured that it's a start.
Shadow and Tails talked with Dr. Renoltis and his assistants so they can find out the details about the transplant. Tails wanted to know since he was fascinated by their job. Shadow wanted to know the details since they will be the ones operating on him later on.
Knuckles decided to go for a walk so he can clear his mind. He planned on returning to visit Amy one more time before the operation. Rouge also wanted to do something to take her mind from what she heard, so she decided pay Dr. Carbana a visit. She wanted to know some information on Emily and why he has more feelings for Amy than any of his other patients. Rouge arrived at Dr. Carbana's room, but there was a nurse standing by the entrance.
"I'm sorry, but you can't go in right now," the nurse spoke persuasively, "he's resting right now and shouldn't be disturbed."
"It's all right nurse," Dr. Carbana spoke from his hospital bed, "I'm not really tired right now and wouldn't mind a little company." The nurse reluctantly moved allowed Rouge through.
"Hello Rouge," the doctor seemed quite cheerful, "I've got some great news. Well, it's not really that big of a deal I think, but maybe you can tell the other."
"Oh? What is it?" Rouge replied, a bit curious.
"I've completed my recovery," the doctor replied happily, "I can finally go back to work tomorrow! Now I can give Dr. Renoltis a break and I can now take care Amy and my other patients."
"Well that's great. Uh, doctor? I wanted to ask you something, but it's a bit personal."
The doctor didn't seem to mind, "well then, we'll just have to see just how personel it is. Okay, shoot."
Rouge thought about what exactly to say, "call it a hunch, but I've noticed that you seem to have some very strong sympathetic feeling towards Amy. You haven't known her as long as me and others have, but you seem very close to her for some reason."
The doctor hesitated for a moment, "I always feel some sympathy for all of my patients. As long as it doesn't interfere with my job and that has happened a few times in my career. By the way, did Dr. Renoltis tell you and the others about Amy's new problem?"
Rouge nodded, "yes, he told us everything. Sonic was so torn by what he heard that he actually lunged at Dr. Renoltis. Shadow managed to pull him away before the situation got any uglier."
Dr. Carbana hung his head a bit and sighed regretfully. "It really sucks don't it. I can't believe that all of this is actually happening to her. This is supposed to be the most technologically advanced hospital in the entire country. Yet despite this, Amy's condition keeps fluctuating. Sometimes it even gets out of hand, and now this happens." (Actually the hospital has a counterpart at the other side of the country that uses similar technology).
Rouge continued her questions, "if you don't mind me asking, can you tell me about your wife Emily?"
The doctor was very shocked that she asked this, "who-who told you about Emily?" He sounded slightly offended.
Rouge was a bit surprised at his reaction, "Dr. Renoltis told us about her because we were all concerned about the way you feel towards Amy."
The doctor relaxed a little, "did he tell you everything?"
"No," Rouge replied "but he said that to get more detailed information, I'd have to talk to you."
Dr. Carbana gave a deep sigh, "I figured that this would happen eventually. I guess it's too late to deny it now. All right, I'll tell you everything. Besides, it's been a while since I talked to anyone besides nurses and other doctors."
Rouge walked over to the door of the room and shut it to get some privacy. (That nurse is still out in the hallway.) She then pulled a chair next to his bed and sat down to listen.
Dr. Carbana continued, "as you already know, Emily is my deceased wife. She died six years ago."
"That's exactly what Dr. Renoltis said to me," Rouge reiterated, "I'm very sorry to hear that, but what does she have to do with Amy? Why are you so overly sympathetic towards Amy?"
Dr. Carbana replied in a rather tense manner, "do you know how she died? I'll tell you, but it's going to sound very familiar."
Rouge was slightly surprised, "huh? What's that supposed to mean?"
The doctor continued, "she died in a car accident. She was in her car in a parking lot when a thirty-five ton eighteen-wheeler smashed into the back of her car. I think the driver lost control of the truck or something. Her car was crushed between the eighteen-wheeler and the brick wall in front of the car. The car was so badly crushed that it looked like those beer cans that those tough guys smash against their foreheads. It took several hours of cutting open the car to finally get her out and she was rushed to this very hospital since it was the closest. By the time she arrived, she had lost almost fifty percent of her blood! That alone should have put her in shock, yet she miraculously stayed conscious. I was called into the emergency trauma ward where she was kept at the moment. I wasn't told that it was my wife until just before I entered the room. Obviously I was so horrified that I actually hesitated for a minute, but my wife needed me so I rushed in."
Rouge's mouth hung open in surprise. She knew exactly what the doctor was getting at with this.
Dr. Carbana continued, "some quick body assessments and scans were performed to determine the extent of her injuries while some blood was taken at the blood bank to replace the blood she lost. It was found that both legs were broken, both arms were broken, her spine was snapped in half, her rib cage was shattered, both lungs were damaged and even her heart took some damage, there were some skull fractures and even some brain swelling."
Rouge was taken completely off guard that anyone could have those injuries. She her hand cupped over her mouth and tried to fight back tears because those injuries sounded familiar indeed. "Those . . . those injuries that you wife had, they sound almost identical to Amy's!"
The doctor slowly nodded, a tear forming in his eyes for recalling such a painful moment in his life, "yes, except there's one big difference between Amy and my wife."
Rouge blurted out, "uhh, she a human and Amy's a hedgehog?" (Duh!)
Dr. Carbana ignored the remark, "the difference is that Amy's alive and Emily isn't. She died right in my arms less than fifteen minutes after she was admitted in this hospital. I was so depressed that I took a leave from my work to go see some psychiatrists to help keep me from having a nervous breakdown. Heck, as you already know, Amy even had that eighteen inch piece of metal impaled through her head and she still lived! Now, six years later, every time I see Amy, it's like I'm seeing my wife again. It's like having a second chance to save my wife. Although I couldn't save Emily, I can make up for it by helping Amy."
Rouge got up from her chair, "I . . . I had no idea. I understand now. I'm sorry that I had to get that kind of information from you, I can barely how painful it must have been."
The doctor wiped the tears from his face, "no, it's all right. Sometimes it's best to talk things out of your mind. Keeping certain painful memories locked in you without venting some of it out can make you go crazy eventually."
Rouge nodded and was about to walk out of the room, "doctor, do you want me to keep this as a secret?"
Dr. Carbana shook his head, "no, actually I think it's best that the others know as well. I'm sure that they have similar questions about my feeling for Amy. I don't want to keep them in the dark."
Rouge nodded in agreement and left the room. Dr. Carbana gave a huge sigh of relief, he felt much better after telling Rouge about his wife.
About an hour later, the transplant operation began. Shadow was rather nervous for being operated on, but he knew that it would help Amy so he forcefully pushed his nervousness aside. Surprisingly, the operation only took two hours and there were no signs of Amy's body rejecting the transplant. Everyone including all the doctors were very joyful that the operation was a success. Shadow felt very proud of himself that he was able to help in a way that he never thought possible.
Dr. Renoltis walked up to Sonic and company, "all right! It worked!" He stated ecstatically, but he quickly started to feel a bit nervous and unsure about the next part of his plan to help Amy. "You do realize that she still needs a new heart? And since we can't risk using a human heart, there's not very many options remaining. And I don't want any of you to volunteer donating a heart! That would obviously be suicide on your part."
Sonic was starting to feel very concerned about what the doctor was getting at. "So, uh . . . so what do plan on doing then?"
The doctor rubbed the back of his head nervously, "well, there are at least two options, and both of them have their own problems. One simple solution would be to implant an artificial heart, although we've never done it to a non-human before so this could pose a slight risk. The other option is probably much more problematic."
"What do you plan on doing then?" Rouge asked, slightly curious, "what's the other option?"
The doctor replied, "you have to realize that a transplant is usually better in the long run than an artificial implant. Implants wear out after a while, but transplants can last a lifetime, assuming that theirs no complications."
"So what are you getting at?" Knuckles asked, sounding a bit impatient.
The doctor answered a bit nervously, "um, well, to make this as simple as possible, we'll have to literally grow a new heart for Amy."
"HUH!?" Everyone was taken totally by surprise from this.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sonic asked with some confusion in his voice.
The doctor continued, "I mean that Amy will need an exact replica of her heart. In other words, the hospital will have to literally clone a new heart for Amy. The only problem with this is not the technology, but the fact that this procedure is considered to be very unethical. This cloning procedure has only been done twice in this hospital and they were both a success, but we were in deep trouble by the government. If this is ever done again, the government will shut down this hospital and we'll lose a lot of jobs. Not to mention that all of our patients will have to be relocated to other hospitals and considering the number of patients we have, that's just not an option." (There are over 9,000 patients currently in that hospital. I'll explain more about the hospital itself in the next chapter).
Sonic let out a frustrated groan, "so now what? Are you going to fix Amy's heart or what?"
"I've already spoken to several members of the government and to the hospital board," the doctor replied, "they're all talking over about what to do. I should get their reply soon, I just hope for Amy's sake that it's VERY soon."
The next day, Dr. Carbana finally returned to his job as the chief trauma surgeon and donned his doctor's uniform. Dr. Renoltis was relieved from working on Amy and returned to working on his other patients. Dr. Carbana continued Dr. Renoltis' plan to get Amy a new heart. The timing for his return couldn't be any better because when Renoltis "passed the torch" to Carbana, Renoltis told him to double check some readings on Amy's condition.
"Oh man, this is bad!" Dr. Carbana studied Amy's charts and body scans. It turned out that the rate of fluid build-up in her body is accelerating! "We'll have to remove her heart right away!"
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So, what do you think? Do you think that cloning a heart could save her? Is there another way?
Like I said in the last chapter, there's still two more things that will happen to Amy. The next chapter (chapter 14) will involve the first one and chapter 15 will involve the second. The second one will by far be the worst thing that will happen to her. But luckily, after that the story will finally make a turn for the better.