Chapter 16
A few minutes later a supervisor used that staircase to quickly get back to a meeting in the administrative wing.
As he turned the corner, he saw a body, lying on the landing, bleeding from the head. As he leaned down to check, a sinking feeling occurred as he noted who the prisoner was. Abigail Bartlet lay bleeding, unconscious, and in a heap of twisted limbs.
He quickly ascertained that the prisoner was still alive and called out on his walkie-talkie the emergency code. Guards and medical personnel scrambled to respond.
She was gently lifted onto a back board and strapped to the board so she couldn't move. A quick assessment by the medical office confirmed the worse. A serious head injury which would require a specialist, one not available in Goffstown.
Again, an ambulance was called and Abbey was transferred to Manchester where a neurosurgeon was standing by to assess and possibly operate.
Again, Liz was called and she raced to the hospital, only to find her mother again in surgery. Surgery that, if successful, would hopefully save her mother's life.
Again.
After six hours of surgery, Abbey was transferred to ICU. Again, Liz sat by her bedside, waiting for her to regain consciousness. Liz held her mother's hand and stoked her face, aware of the bandage which had been placed around Abbey's head and the tube in her mouth keeping her alive.
But this time, Liz had called Millie just prior to leaving for the hospital. She arrived from Boston an hour later.
Both women waited anxiously for Abbey to wake up.
Again, a restraint had been placed on Abbey's leg and a guard sat outside her cubicle. It made the other two women mad as hell to see the person they loved treated that way, but down deep they understood the so-called 'rules'.
About three am, Abbey started the restlessness, a good sign that she was awakening from the anesthesia.
"Abbey."
"Mom."
In their own way, they tried to reach into Abbey's very being.
Her eyes fluttered, even as the heart monitor skipped a beat or so.
Abbey struggled but finally opened her eyes and focused on the voices. Familiar voices. Loving voices.
Struggling to talk in spite of the ventilator tube, Liz stopped her.
"No Mom, you still have the breathing tube in."
Abbey gradually realized that and stopped trying to speak. But her eyes were full of fear.
Both Liz and Millie saw that. And it worried them even more.
