"I hope not Haley. I certainly hope not."
Chapter 18
By the time they arrived at the hospital, Lucas's condition had worsened. Dr. Li, feeling that the end was near, lifted the restriction on visitors and allowed all five of them in at one time. They pulled chairs up to the bed—Haley and Karen sat nearest to Lucas's head, with Nathan and Brooke beside them, respectively. Peyton sat at the foot of the bed, looking on.
The infection that had begun in Lucas's abdomen had spread. Because he'd lost his spleen in the earlier accident, his ability to fight the infection was somewhat limited. (Although the spleen is considered a non-vital organ, it does play a role in the immune system. The extent of that role is the subject of much debate among the medical community.) The infection was now in his bloodstream, and had begun to spread throughout the rest of his body—a condition known as general septicemia. As the infection attacked Lucas's organs, they began to fail. He eventually entered multiple organ system failure, a state from which few return.
As they sat around Lucas's bed, each was lost in his own thoughts. No one spoke, at least not aloud. There were prayers offered silently, and tears shed silently, but the only noise in the room was the constant beeping of the heart monitor and the hum of the ventilator. All through the night, they maintained their vigil. And all through the night, Lucas fought for his life.
The next morning, Lucas's condition remained critical. Dr. Li informed them that this was not necessarily a bad thing—if Lucas could manage to hold on, then there was a chance that the fever would break and he would recover. He was being treated with massive doses of antibiotics, but the infection was resilient. It would be a difficult fight.
Around noon, Nathan left to go pick up some food, having realized that none of them had eaten since dinner the previous evening. When he returned an hour later, he got the shock of his life.