3- "The Downward Spiral of Sara Sidle"
The next day, Sara awoke to a nurse cleaning her room. It was a female, Sara noticed, and she greeted Sara with a smile and a big "Good morning."
Sara swung herself around while the nurse was turned and attempted to walk over to the bathroom. She pushed herself off the bed and hHer legs collapsed underneath her.
The nurse ran over to her and said, "No, Miss Sidle! What do you think you are doing?!" She ran over to her and flipped her over, and began feeling her head and stomach.
"Why can't I walk?" Sara asked, lying on the floor as tears came to her eyes.
"Miss Sidle, as for anyone who is comatose for as long as you were, your ligaments and tendons have shortened. It will take intense physical therapy and perhaps surgery to get you walking again."
Sara's tears flowed, mostly out of frustration. She had only been awake for three days, but she felt the full effect of being in the same bed for three years weighing down on her. Or perhaps it was the fact she was eight months pregnant. Sara had never felt so helpless, as she, like an old woman, needed to be led over to the bathroom and was helped to use it.
That is when the downward spiral of Sara Sidle began.
Slowly but surely, Sara's life began to sink into depression. After her attempt to walk, her doctor came in and told her calmly that because of the baby, they couldn't take her into surgery until after the baby was delivered.
Also, Sara had to adjust to the new life of pregnancy. By this late into the pregnancy, many women were adjusted to the constant changes that their body held. Sara wasn't. Every pain, every kick of the baby made Sara feel violated. She had never asked for this close stranger. She felt oddly disconnected. As if she was just a holding case to another's baby. A surrogate.
The feeling of constant helplessness was the biggest adjustment. There were tests all the time, and each time Sara had to be loaded into a wheelchair, pushed to the room, and was constantly evaluated and poked and prodded.
About a week after she awoke, she received a call from Channel 18 KYLV. They had covered her accident and the moral battle that followed. He told her about the protests of people for and against euthanasia. He told about her parents touching news conference where they tearfully told the press to "not kill my baby." They were the first to lead a special investigative report into hospital safety after finding out she had been getting raped by the male nurse, who seems to have no name. They asked for an interview.
"Before I accept or decline the interview, can I see tapes of all these things? Do you have tapes?"
"Of course," The man on the other end said compassionately. "We'll have someone personally deliver them today." After exchanging information, Sara nervously hung up the phone and waited.
Was she ready to see this? All that had happened in her controversial case? She took a deep calming breath and unconsciously stroked her stomach, but suddenly noticed and her hand recoiled.
The man entered about three hours later and handed her a box marked "Channel 18 KYLV-Sara Sidle Tapes and Specials/Euthanasia, Hospital Safety, Moral Issues." Sara beeped a nurse to put it in the VCR, and she pressed the play button.
Pixistix: I'm going to name my kids Control, Alt, and Delete.
Pixistix: If they ever get to be a problem I'll just hit them all twice. Problem