Fiction #10, chapter 2
They were alone in his room and that's the way Brian liked it. When he returned from the organizational meeting Justin was asleep. Brian settled into the chair by his bed. He now had a bit of time to collect his thoughts. The meeting went well. It had been led by Judy Goldberg, Justin's program manager. Again, another light bulb moment, you now the injuries are horrid when you are assigned a 'program for recovery' manager. She had gathered the doctor, both physical and occupational therapists, and the rehabilitation nurse to discuss Justin's recovery plan. Dr. Lebowitz shared a summary of what had happened to Justin. But Brian was familiar with that chapter of the story. His mind drifted back to Justin's accident.
Brian had gathered enough information from the police, Mikey, and Jennifer to piece together what happened. When Justin finally came around, he could add his two cents as well. It seems that Justin had finished lunch with Mikey. They were going over the next issue of 'Rage'. He had stayed at the restaurant for about ten minutes to check his schedule. He even called Brian to let him know his afternoon had been freed up and he was heading out to the WV house early. Brian was in Raleigh on business and he was coming home sometime the following day. After the call Justin packed up his story boards and headed out.
The car hit him as he crossed the street. Justin had the right of way, the driver, who was advanced in age, was at fault. Brian could only guess at why Justin did not get out of the way. Maybe he was preoccupied with his story boards, or trying to get a quick call into someone - his phone was found shattered on the other side of the intersection, or maybe it just happened too quickly for him to react.
Justin's legs were crushed. He hit his head on both the hood of the car and the pavement. Lots of people, including Mikey, were around to see what happened. The ambulance arrived within minutes. Brain was glad Mikey was with him, even if Justin was unconscious. He never woke up at the scene, well in all honesty, he still had not completely woken up. The EMT's had no way of knowing how severe his head trauma was. It was easy to see the damage to his legs. It doesn't take an expert to see bones sticking out of flesh, and know that it is bad. At least that's what Brian thought when Mikey told him what he had seen. Justin's neck was immobilized and he was put on a board to stabilize his spine. According to the EMT's notes, and Mickey's extensive recounting he had compound fractures in both femurs, right and left. His vital signs stayed strong on the trip to Memorial. They have the best trauma center in Pittsburgh. That was another piece in the puzzle that showed how devastating Justin's injuries were. He stayed briefly in the emergency room while the doctors assessed his injuries.
His right leg was unresponsive to stimulus, so they quickly stabilized the bone and checked for returning blood flow. It came back. One injury dealt with. Miraculously he had no internal injuries. His legs, his head, and his spine had taken the brunt of the impact damage. While a small group dealt with his leg, another checked on the head and neck injuries. His brain swelled, but not to the extent it had so many years ago when his head came too close to a baseball bat. A small favor granted to Justin. He did suffer from a central chord injury. It was dicey at first if he had a class D spinal injury or the central chord injury. Again, if you call it a favor, he was given the less devastating injury. But all that came later. At that time, Justin went to surgery to repair his battered legs. After four hours the surgery was complete.
It was at this point that Brian got a call from Jennifer. Justin's Mom had been waiting for word from the surgical team before contacting Brian again. Mickey had called him from the scene, and Brian had immediately cut his trip short and headed to the airport to catch whatever flight he could to get home. He was waiting to board a flight when he received Jennifer's call. Her voice was weary and alarmingly neutral as she caught him up to speed on Justin's progress. The surgeon had told her that Justin did as well as they could expect. He gave his a 75 chance of walking again. This percentage depended greatly on the extent of his spinal injury. Jen shrank at the number, but Brain smiled knowing that Justin's will alone would raise that to at least 85. He would walk again.
With little fanfare he was moved to ICU. There were still unresolved issues to attend to. It became a waiting game. Would the swelling go down on its own or would he need to have a hole drilled into his skull to relieve the pressure? To what extent was his spine damaged? So time passed.
Brian arrived to this scene several hours later. Enough time had elapsed that family had already gathered. Jen embraced him and Brian could almost feel her relief at not having to lead this horrible show. He took over effortlessly. Justin was his partner of eleven years. He was his life. Brian sent all the other family home, telling them that Justin would need them fresh and well rested later. It took more convincing for Jen, but in the end she gave in, telling Brian she would be back the next day and to call if there was any change.
He took up his vigil with Justin. Brian thought to himself that it did not look like Justin. Every tube, bandage, brace, or machine you could think of was attached to him. He hardly even looked human. You could barely see where the medical miracles stopped and his partner began. His skin tone was gray and when Brian noticed it he broke down. He quietly cried. He gingerly touched the wisps of blond hair sticking out from under the bandage. He wiped his eyes as he told Justin all the cliche things society dictates you say at a time like this. It was an hour later that Brian stood up from his vigil and approached the nurses.
Reluctant introductions were given, no one wants to meet a person at an ICU unit. Brian begged any information they could share. He was told that the swelling was beginning to go down, the doctor was guardedly optimistic that Justin would not need further help in that capacity. Brian smiled to himself thinking that was good news, Justin had enough holes in his head to last a lifetime. He was still completely unconscious and could remain that way for several more hours. When he asked about Justin's ability to breath on his own, he was told that with most spinal injuries the patient is intubated to ease air flow. When Justin regained consciousness his ability to breath on his own would be evaluated. So he would stay intubated until he woke up. In addition, it is usually three days from injury that a full neurological exam is done, that would give a better picture of the extent of damage to his brain. The nurses' explanations were simple and given easily. They both assured him that the doctor on call would make rounds in the next few hours to answer any other questions.
Time passed and the doctor had made his rounds, Brian asked more questions, and continued to wait. When Justin woke up it was slow going. His eyes fluttered then closed. Brian called in the nurse. She held his hand and called out to Justin in a loud voice, she encouraged Brian to do the same. He did. Justin's eyes opened and seemed to see nothing. Then they closed again. But it was just the beginning. In the following hours he made more organized movements and finally, 17 hours after surgery, he really 'woke up'. He tracked Brian's movement and voice. He watched Brian cry and he gave a slight squeeze to his fingers. He watched the nurse do her duties and even nodded to the doctor in response to simple questions. Jennifer had called several times through all this, but at the nurse's and Brian's pleading stayed away until Justin was a bit more settled. She agreed only after Brian handed the phone over to the nurse and she explained that the less people cluttering his room, the more effort Justin could put into waking up. Approximately two days after his accident, he was removed from the ventilator and commenced breathing on his own. This was another indicator that the spine was not damaged as much as previously thought. Another good sign.
Their family began stopping by for brief warm visits. Everyone shed tears, but tried to hide them. A lot of them said prayers, and regardless of Brian's shrug off, thanked God out loud. Through all of this Brian stayed. He showered at the hospital. He slept in a chair, or if there was a compassionate nurse and an empty bed, he slept in it. The family brought him clothes and food. He survived on hospital coffee, which was not as bad as he originally thought. Work was on hold and Brian thought to himself that it was the nicest thing about being the man at the top with great people under you, one thing less to worry about.
This whole time, as the hours ticked by, Justin revived himself a little bit more. He could not hold Brian's hand, but he could sporadically give his fingers a slight squeeze. He did not speak more than a few simple words. Everyone had heard him say, "Bri" on more than one occasion, and he groan to indicate pain. Luckily he was on an IV drip to ease the pain's impact, because it seemed to Brian that Justin had a lot of pain. He winced, and on rare occasions when Brian made a complete fool of himself in some way or another, he seemed to smile.
That was the way the last five days had been. And now here he was, sitting next to Justin's bed. His head was full of plans for recovery, schedules for therapy, tests to set milestones and accomplishments. He had a lot to share. Luckily Justin was more aware of what happening. He improved with each day. It was baby step improvements, but all in the right direction. Brian looked at him sleeping and considered the future. Considered his present condition. He was still silent, he was not using his arms or hands well, and he seemed to keep his legs so still. These were all symptoms of the central chord syndrome he was suffering from. The condition had a horrible prognosis, with so many mountains to climb to become whole again. And even with putting his entire heart into recovery, 'being whole again' might be defined in a different way in the future for Justin. Brian's mind went a hundred different directions. He was thinking of so much. When he opened his eyes he looked down at Justin. Justin, who was still hooked up to more medical machinery than seemed humanly possible. With that thought, Brian watched Justin open his eyes and look back at him.
There it was, the will to continue in a sea of blue. Brian smiled, no tears this time, he was done with those. There was a lot of work to do, and it all starts with this talk.