Chapter 256
Tegan had a large group of people around her desperately trying to get her core temperature up and stabilise her. She now had heat lamps shining on her and had a bear hugger over her. The bear hugger was a blanket that got filled with hot air. Nurses were treating her frost bitten toes, fingers and face with a special ointment and wrapping her hands and feet in bandages.
"Core temp isn't going up fast enough doc" said somebody.
"Dammit, we need to get her temp up or she's going to arrest again. Her cardiac activity is all over the show" said Craig.
"She's a good candidate for bypass or ecmo. Her sats are still low, could be an option?" said a resident.
"Do we have her medical history yet" asked Craig.
"Just got it… and it's…. well, it's quite something" said a resident coming into the room. He handed Craig a tablet.
"Ho-ly shit" Craig whistled as he paged through it.
"That's what I said" said the resident.
"She's got a chronic lung condition. According to this it's under control at the moment but this just complicated things a hundred times. And she's been on ecmo before. It's risky. I think we should go for normal external heating and internal lavage"
"Okay Tegan let's go, warm up" said Craig softly.
"Her lungs are really wet. I'm worried about pulmonary edema. Liver is swelling" said a resident.
"We need a CT scan. Torso and head number one priority but full body preferable"
-0-
A nurse walked into the family room and everybody jumped up.
"Just wanted to tell you that there's no news yet. Sara and Kate are both still in surgery and Tegan is being treated in the ER. They'll be taking her for a CT scan in a few minutes. I'll try and keep you updated" said the sweet, young, blonde nurse.
"You okay there Cam?" said the nurse watching Cameron sway.
"Huh… yeah" said Cameron sounding embarrassed as she snapped out of her haze.
"Come with me, I'll get somebody to check you out" said the nurse.
"I'm fine, really" said Cam.
"You're really cold and pale. Just let us take care of you. Humor me please" said the nurse.
"Go, get yourself checked out" smiled Sonia, her eyes were gleaming with tears though.
Lindsey left the room without anybody noticing. She stood outside the room where she knew Tegan was being treated. A few minutes later the doors opened.
"Tegan!" she exclaimed and pushed herself to Tegan's side.
"Ma'am please, we need to move" said Craig.
"Is she okay?" Lindsey begged.
"I promise I will come and speak to you soon. Right now we're just trying to stabilise her" said Craig.
The team started pushing the bed and all the machines with it.
"Baby I'm here… Tegan, I love you! You fight this baby. Fight for the kids sweetie" said Lindsey in tears as she walked next to Tegan's bed.
"I'm sorry but we HAVE to get her into the scanner now. I promise I'll speak to you soon" said Craig.
Lindsey softly squeezed Tegan's shoulder before the bed rolled through the swing doors. She slowly sunk to the floor against the wall.
"Oh god please… please let her be okay"
-0-
"Pressure is holding. Liver lac seems under control. Any luck we won't need to open her up" said the general surgeon in Sara's OR.
"Good… good" mumbled the orthopaedic surgeon.
"How's that leg going?"
"Both tib and fib are badly fractured. I'm placing the screws now. Lots of soft tissue damage. Spine's clear. X-ray showed a couple of stable fractured ribs. Lungs are okay. Looks like a hairline fracture in the femur that won't require surgical intervention" the surgeon said.
-0-
Kate was still in grave danger in the operating room. Her blood pressure was bouncing up and down like a ping pong ball.
"I've repaired all the vascular damage. Spleen's not heamoraging any more but I think we should remove it. I don't want to open her up again soon, she's too unstable" said Sax.
Just as the words left Sax's mouth the monitor started screaming for the umpteenth time during the surgery.
"Pressure's bottoming out again. Pushing dopamine… not responding" said a tech loudly.
"Dammit Kate where are you still bleeding from" Sax swore under her breath.
"Lost her pressure…. and…. lost her pulse" said the tech.
"Start internal compressions" Sax roared.
"Whoa I think we found the bleed" said the trauma fellow Dr Carver.
"Let me in" said Sax.
"I see it… Clamp… Three O silk" said Sax with her hand out.
Sax worked fast to fix the bleed to one of Kate's major cardiac veins.
"Fine VF…. We're losing her" somebody said.
"Like hell we are" Sax said and grabbed the internal paddles.
"Let's shock" she said and put the paddles on Kate's heart again.
"Clear!"
-0-
Craig walked into the waiting room a few minutes later.
"Hello, I'm Dr Smith. I've been treating your daughter" he said to Sonia.
"Which one?" asked Sonia.
"Tegan" he said. He felt a sudden pang of empathy for the woman. Having both your children in critical condition in hospital had to be terrifying.
Lindsey ran into the room after visiting the ladies room to throw up.
"I'm sorry I didn't get your names" said Craig.
"Lindsey, this is Sonia and this is Alex. Just tell us what's going on"
Craig sit down with his hand on Sonia's shoulder.
"Tegan is in a very critical condition right now. When we found her she was injured but more than that, she was in a state of severe hypothermia. Right now we're warming her up slowly. It's a lengthy process. We cannot do it too fast or we risk cardiac arrhythmias and arrest" said Craig.
"Oh god" said Sonia and started crying with her hand in front of her mouth.
"Her temperature is finally starting to go up… slowly. Her lungs are in a bad shape. I've gone through her… substantial medical history and it's of great concern. Right now we're draining fluid off her lungs and we're treating her with a very strong broad spectrum antibiotic to avoid pneumonia. Her sats are improving slowly. Her blood pressure is very low though due to the cold and her heart is extremely unstable, irritable and slow right now. We're concerned about her cardiac output and what that could mean to her brain"
Lindsey looked as if she was about to feint. She closed her eyes and shook her head to keep her tears inside.
"We did a full body CT scan. Tegan's lungs and liver are contused, meaning that there's swelling and bleeding. That added to the fluid already on her lungs are complicating things. We have an excellent cardio thoracic specialist as well as a pulmonologist working on her right now. She also has…"
"Oh my god there's more?" said Sonia and gave a sob.
"I'm afraid so, Tegan has a dislocated shoulder, a stable hairline humerus fracture and bad fractures to the radius and ulna of the right arm. The humerus will be fine with just a cast but the radius and ulna both need surgery where we will implant some screws and plates to stabilise the fractures. The problem is that we cannot operate until Tegan's core temperature is up to a more normal number and her heart is stable. The shoulder will need to be reduced at that time simply because we cannot move her that much right now, shoulder reduction is quite harsh. Harsh or sudden movements can cause her heart to go into a life threatening arrhythmia. There are possible complications with waiting but we don't have a choice at the moment"
"What kind of complications?" asked Sonia.
"Possible nerve damage" said Craig looking solemn.
"She's a musician… she needs her hands" Lindsey cried.
"I understand that but right now, we're just trying to get her through this alive"
"Okay… just save her please" Lindsey cried.
"When can we see her?" asked Sonia.
"I'm afraid the team will be actively working on her for at least a few more hours. I can try and sneak you in for two or three minutes but I'm not promising anything"
"Please try" said Lindsey.
"She's in good hands… stay positive" said Craig and stood to leave the room.
Hardly five minutes later another two doctors entered the room and introduced themselves.
"We've been taking care of Sara. We just got out of surgery. It went well. Sara had a subdural haematoma, in short she had some delayed bleeding on the brain. We have relieved the pressure on her brain, drained some of the blood. Her neurological observations are normal right now and we'll be watching her very closely for a couple of days. Barring any further complications she should be okay. We're keeping her sedated and on a ventilator for now"
"Thank god" whispered Sonia and threw her head back.
"Sara has serious fractures to the tibia and fibia of the left leg, some ligament damage to the knee and a hairline fracture to the femur. There was some vascular damage and some soft tissue damage. We've managed to operate and stabilise the fractures with some screws and plates. We've also got the soft tissue and vascular damage under control. There's a liver laceration that may or may not require surgery going forward. Right now we feel it's best to take a wait and see approach"
"So… for now she's okay? She's going to be alright?" asked Sonia.
"Mrs Clement, your daughter is stable but she's still in a very serious condition. The next 24 hours will be crucial. But, we're positive" said the doctor.
"Thank you" whispered Sonia.
"You're welcome, we're keeping her in Post Op for another half an hour or so, if everything stays stable we'll take her into the TICU where you'll be allowed to see her"
"What's the TICU?" asked Lindsey.
"It's the trauma intensive care unit. We're going to be monitoring her very closely" said another doctor.
"Okay… thank you so much" said Sonia, her hands shaking.
"Any news on my sister Kate yet?" asked Alex.
"I'm not familiar with the case but I can get somebody to update you"
"I'd appreciate that" said Alex.
"They'll update us soon Alex, hang in there" said Sonia.
Alex just nodded staring at the ground.
A/N: Thank goodness at least Sara seems okay for now.