Chapter 12
It had been five long hours since surgery had started. Dr. Martin had kept them updated, but they had heard nothing for the past ninety minutes. The last update said that the team had finished four of the five grafts and was working on the last one.
But Abbey knew something had gone wrong. Besides her medical knowledge, her gut was telling her that there was some kind of crisis on the OR.
Was Jed okay? Was he even still alive? She knew that the surgery was complex and life-threatening to certain people. Especially if there were unforeseen complications.
She paced the room until Ellie forced her to sit down. She was so restless sitting that finally Ellie told her to get back up and pace.
An hour later the phone rang. Abbey grabbed the receiver and held her breath.
"Hello?"
"Mrs. Bartlet, this is the nurse in the OR. Dr. Martin asked me to tell you that the President is in ICU and he is on his way to talk with you."
"Thank you. We'll be here."
Abbey turned and relayed the news to her family and Leo. The girls hugged their mother, relived that the surgery was over. But Abbey was not relieved. She had a gut feeling that all was not well.
Dr. Martin arrived a few minutes later. Abbey took one look at her colleague and knew the news was not going to be good. She tried to brace herself for the fallout.
"Mrs. Bartlet," nodding to the others.
Abbey knew that introductions were in order, but she was too anxious to hear what he was going to say.
"How is he?" She was torn between needing to know and fearful of what he had to say.
"The President is in ICU and we're stabilizing him right now. The surgery went well until the last two hours." Dr. Martin looked at Abbey and saw the fear in her face.
"Why don't you sit down, Mrs. Bartlet, and I'll finish." He motioned to an empty chair.
Abbey sat down without even thinking where she was going. Ellie and Zoey had come over and were holding each of her hands.
"Please continue."
"He did well through the first four grafts. But then we had some difficulty with the fifth graft. We couldn't get a proper seal on the suture lines. The location of the graft made it difficult to get a good seal, but after some struggle we were satisfied. Then, as he was being taken off bypass, we had some difficulty getting his heart restarted."
Abbey's own heart sank with that news.
"I'm going to be very honest with you. Because how recent the heart attack is and the severity of it, his heart muscle is weak at the moment. But we were finally able to complete the surgery. He's in ICU right now, critical but stable. But as you know, there are still possible complications. We will just have to watch him closely and be ready to act if we need to."
Abbey nodded. She had said those exact words to many, many people. Some had gone on to have their loved ones go home. But then the others…
'No. I can't think that way. Jed will be okay. He just has to be.'