Changing my plans. A horrifying discovery is made in this chapter and Zack faces his toughest surgery yet.
Chapter 9 Twin Contamination
Cody couldn't get back to sleep. He was too worried about Zack. Carey arrived at around two-thirty. She stayed with Cody in his room as they waited for any word on Zack. Cody fell back asleep at around four in the morning. They still hadn't heard a thing from the operating room. Carey was starting to lose hope. How much more of this could Zack take? Carey fell asleep at around six. She was too exhausted to stay awake and keep worrying. At nine a nurse came in. Carey woke up the minute she heard the door open.
"How's my son?" asked Carey.
"His condition is critical right now. He's out of surgery. We had to take him to intensive care. Zack lost about a foot and a half of his intestine," said the nurse.
"Is he going to make it?" asked Carey.
"At this point we can only hope. We lost him once during surgery. He has a lot of drugs in his body right now from us trying to save him," said the nurse. Cody woke up.
"Is Zack OK?" asked Cody.
"For now. You can go see him in a few minutes," said the nurse. She left to go attend to other things.
"So how's Zack?" asked Cody.
"From what I hear not good. He's barely holding on," said Carey.
"Did they fix what was wrong with him?" asked Cody.
"Yeah but he's weak," said Carey.
Four minutes later Carey and Cody went to see Zack. He looked horrible. His stomach was leaking from the wound and lips were once again crudely wrapped a plastic support. More so then usual since he had two tubes in his mouth. Carey and Cody sat silently next to Zack's bed for a few minutes. A doctor walked into the room.
"Mrs. Martin?" asked the doctor.
"Yes," said Carey.
"I'm Dr. Peter Thomas. I'm a neurosurgeon," said the doctor. Cody shuddered. They were going to cut Zack's head open.
"Zack's latest MRI's show that the virus is damaging the upper cranial regions of his brain. This effects Zack's thinking. I can operate and remove the infected part. But it would need to happen now. The virus will grow and grow until it devours Zack's brain. I can't imagine how difficult this is for you to hear. But the best thing for Zack is surgery right now. He'll develop learning problems no doubt from this. And he'll need to be taken care of for the rest of his life. But if he doesn't have the surgery, he's dead in a week. I'm sorry. There's no other option." Carey broke down. She went over to Zack and buried her face in his hair.
"Oh, Zack. Oh, my poor baby," said Carey. Peter sighed.
"Do it. I'm not going to watch him die," said Carey. Peter nodded. He went to go get ready. Carey and Cody kissed Zack goodbye and then moved aside so nurses could get him ready. Suddenly Jim came bursting into the room with a stethoscope. He looked worried.
"Cody, take your shirt off. Now," said Jim. Cody did as he was told. Jim listened to his heart.
"Jesus. Oh, God, I can't believe I missed this," said Jim.
"What?" asked Cody.
"The virus can sometimes take a long time to be noticeable. Damnit, I should have kept my eye on you. You have a hole in your heart. I can hear the irregular heart beat. Shit, I was so stupid," said Jim. Zack was wheeled out of the room.
"Can you fix it?" asked Cody.
"Yeah, it can be fixed," said Jim. Carey stayed with Cody as Jim went to get the best cardiac surgeon in the hospital. Diane Morris, wife of Jack Morris. She met with Carey and Cody in the prep room. Jim and Allison were with her.
"Hi. You must be Carey," said Diane.
"Yeah," said Carey, shaking Diane's hand.
"Diane Morris. And you must be Cody," said Diane. Cody nodded. He was starting to get very nervous.
"Don't be nervous. Diane could fix a heart in her sleep," said Jim.
"Flattery is much appreciated. Don't be scared. I've done this millions of times," said Diane. Cody nodded.
"I trust you," said Cody. Diane smiled and turned towards Jim and Allison.
"One of you going to observe?" asked Allison.
"Yeah. You want the heart operation or the brain operation?" asked Jim.
"I'll take this one. Zack's your main patient," said Allison. Jim nodded and went to go observe Zack's operation. Cody shared a tearful goodbye with Carey. He was scared now. Scared for himself and scared for Zack. Cody was wheeled into the operating room after a nurse gave him some drugs to calm him down. Cody was half asleep when he was placed on the operating table.
"Don't worry, Cody. We'll take good care of you," said Diane, as a mask was held over Cody's face. Cody was asleep in seconds. He was soon fully under and stable. Diane didn't waste time. She started to open Cody's chest up to expose the heart.
"If you see anything suspicious don't make a move until I tell you to," said Allison.
"Yes, ma'am," said Diane, as she and her partner exposed Cody's heart. Sure enough there was a hole. Allison peeked into Cody's chest cavity. His heart looked fine, save for the hole. There was no other sign of the virus.
"When you fix the hole, take a look at his lungs. I might bring Jack in to open up his abdomen and look around in there," said Allison.
"Let's fix the hole first," said Diane. Allison nodded and let Diane get back to work.
Zack's brain operation was going slowly but smoothly. Peter was taking his time in cutting Zack's head open and exposing the infected part of his brain.
"Looks like we operated in time. The rest of his brain looks fine," said Peter. Jim, who leaning against a wall, nodded.
"How long to remove the infection?" asked Jim.
"I'm going to play it safe and take my time. I'd say about four hours," said Peter.
"Four hours?" asked Jim.
"Yeah. The infection isn't large but it is deep. I need to be careful," said Peter. Jim sighed.
"Fine," said Jim. He walked over as Peter started cutting the infected part of Zack's brain out. Jim sighed as he looked down at Zack through the plastic that had been placed over him. Zack looked helpless. Jim sighed. The poor kids life was going to change.
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