"Chris, we don't know what happened." Louis said gently, sitting beside her and drawing the young doctor close. He could tell she was on the point ob breaking down in sobs, tears glistening in her eyes. "Liz was there when it happened and all we know is what she told us. She got to Hook about five seconds after he got hit with the door and she said that he was out for under a minute, then he started to come around moaning."
"Moaning?" Chris asked. "So he did wake up?"
"Sort of. As much as someone who just got hit in the head by a
cabinet door and probably ended up with a giant headache could wake up. He
was moaning, wasn't really with it from the pain, but Liz said that from
what she could tell there was no major damage. Liz is very experienced,
Chris. If she says there wasn't serious damage, I believe her."
"Then how did he end up in surgery, in a coma?" Chris demanded angrily as she brushed away tears. "Where were all of you? Why did Stegman end up treating him?"
"I was on my way home from my shift." Louis said with another grimace. Honestly, he didn't know why he even bothered going home sometimes.
"And we were down in the sleep lab. Doing experiments. Lots and lots of experiments." Elmer said with a slight hint of nervousness in his voice.
"We came as soon as we heard the page." Lona continued, "but by then...."
"Things were crazy in the ER last night. They had the trauma Hook
was heading for when he fell and then two more got brought in after that.
Liz checked Hook and saw that he was fine except for the concussion and
headache so she tucked him into a quiet exam room to rest until she could
get someone called to come check him and arrange for someone to watch him
for a bit."
Okay, that made sense and Chris nodded her head slowly. She couldn't see anything really objectionable there. If Hook had a simple concussion, some nice, quiet rest would probably be the best thing for him and she knew that he wouldn't want a big fuss made when there were patients needing care but.... "How does Steg come into this?"
"For some reason, he decided to come wandering through the ER with Brenda. Probably the first time he's even been down there." Elmer said with a frown. Why had Stegman picked that night of all nights to decide to become better acquainted with the hospital?
"Liz told him that Hook needed to rest and for him to just go back upstairs where he belonged but...." Louis shook his head as he thought about it. "He obviously didn't listen, though, and Liz got called away by a patient that was crashing. When she was able to get back to look in on Hook, Steg and Brenda had already taken him upstairs and were operating."
"What do they say was the problem?" Chris shook her head as she thought about it. She did trust Liz and definitely didn't trust Stegman or Brenda, not after the trouble those two had caused. "What could have possibly have been wrong that they couldn't wait five minutes to get more help or...."
"Stegman says there was a subdural hematoma putting pressure on the brain that needed to be evacuated immediately." Louis said, disbelief in Stegman's report apparent in his eyes as he spoke. "Liz says that there's no way that she would have missed something like that but with Steg and Brenda being the only ones who saw this supposed hematoma...."
Chris didn't even want to think about that right now. All of her
attention needed to be focused on Hook and helping him to recover, not on
trying to get back at Steg and Brenda although she knew full well the
things that they were guilty of. "Okay, you say Hook's in a coma. Why?
What happened?"
"Stegman says that by the time he started the surgery the intracranial pressure had been too high for too long but...." Louis paused before continuing to speak, definitely not wanting to tell Chris this but knowing that she deserved to know the full story, to know what they were dealing with. "You know what happened to Mona Klingerman. It looks like the same thing happened to Hook only on a larger scale. Stegman has all of the reports and he isn't exactly sharing but from the look of things, I'm guessing that he lobotomized him. It just isn't good at all, Chris. I'm so, so sorry."