Hey there everyone! I have another chapter for you! I know I will have some critics about this one, but "blame" two people (sort of) who reviewed and PMed me at the beginning of this story: I can't explain it to you yet, but I will explain at the end of this chapter (as an A/N).
You can let me a review, to criticize me, to congratulate me or whatever you want to write (or do :D), but each review will help me to write the next chapter (not fully written yet).
Enjoy!
CHAPTER 17 : That day
It made him so happy so see his colleagues, those he considered as a second family. Of course, there were some heads he didn't know, but he didn't care, because they were also here for him.
"So the cripple one! How are you today?" Hermann launched ironicly.
Matt smiled, shaking his head from side to side. His mentor hadn't changed. He opened his mouth to talk.
"G-ggg..."
He sighed, seeing he wasn't going to say what he wanted. But he put himself together pretty quick to spell the proper word.
"G... R... E... A... T".
Great. It was the word he wanted to say. He smiled, nodding, proud of himself.
"If you're okay, when we're okay too", Hermann said, approaching the bed. "We wanted to see you sooner, but the doctor would have never allowed it".
And today he does?
Surprised, Hermann stepped forward. What Matt had just said? In shock, he turned toward Severide, who turned toward Christie.
"He's asking if the doctor really accepted".
The guys turned their head, not answering the question. Matt began to laugh slightly.
That's what I thought...
He threw a questionning look to Severide, who raised his hands.
"I did nothing. Really. Dr. Riley said 'no', but they came nonetheless".
Then why you knew they were behind the door?
"Matt is asking why you knew they were behind the door if you did nothing".
Kelly sighed then, closing his eyes.
"Guilty", he finally admitted.
But Matt didn't care, he was totally happy to have visitors.
I don't care Kelly. I'm happy.
"He's happy to see all of you", Christie affirmed.
The guys let the nurse exit the room.
"Severide kept us updated about you until today", Hermann explained. "We were so scared that day".
Matt looked Hermann completely lost, puzzled.
That day?
"Matt didn't understand what you meant with 'that day'".
Kelly sat on the bed near Matt and took a deep breath.
"The day of your accident. You and Gabby came to Starbucks on Wabash before your shift. And you had this accident".
Kelly stopped, trying to know if Matt understood what he meant. But seeing that Mat was waiting, he continued.
"We had the call".
Matt's face darkened. He had tears in his eyes.
"We found Gabby a block away the car that hit you. She was also injured and told us that... That you were below a car".
Matt had closed his eyes. He didn't remember anything, but he could understand the pain and the emotions felt in this moment.
"You were bleeding out and... And we took at least ten minutes to free you. Gabby seemed to have just a few minor injuries, and you were badly injured. We didn't know that she was hit too".
Tears streamed down Matt's cheeks. After all these days Kelly had passed with him, in this room, conforting him, reassuring him. He didn't ever know that Kelly had to support all this, and his colleagues and well.
And you didn't tell me? You tell me nothing?! You didn't tell me you had the call! You didn't tell me anything!
Matt didn't know why, but he was angry, very angry. He would have wanted Kelly or anything else to tell him this. Fifteen days after the accident, six days after his awakening, and no one had told him. He was full of anger without knowing why.
"Matt...", Christie said, taking his left hand.
But Matt rejected her pretty badly, looking elsewhere, avoiding the gaze of all his colleagues. Christie felt hurt, rejected.
"G-go".
It was the only word that could escape Matt's mouth. He wanted to see nobody, he wanted to be alone. Showing his anger to everyone, he threw everything on the tray to the ground with his left arm.
"G-GO!"
This time, he threw a hatred look to Severide. He understood that Matt was really angry to know this just now. And he knew that if Matt had talked, he was really in a bad mood. He rose, turning to his colleagues.
"Guys, lets go back to the firehouse. Matt needs rest".
He was lying, and his colleagues knew it perfectly. But Kelly couldn't blame Matt. One by one, the firefighters left the room.
You too Christie. I need a moment alone.
She stood up too, following Kelly out of the room. She had tears in her eyes, ready to fall on her cheeks, looking at her brother. She didn't do nothing, and he's rejecting her. But if Matt wanted to be alone, then he needed to be.
"I'll come back tomorrow", she assured.
She closed the door, she breathed in deeply before collapsing to the ground, crying.
"Christie, give him some time. He needs time to proceed".
Kelly was trying to reassure her when he needed some comfort too.
"He will get better tomorrow, I promise".
Matt was moping. Since a few hours, he was really angry. How Kelly dared to hide the truth, hide all this? He didn't understand. Had Kelly wanted to protect him? Did he wanted to tell him later, when he would be in a better shape? Or even worse: did he wanted him to discover it by himself? So many questions with no answers, but something else was bothering him since these few hours. Matt's chest was really hurting him, without knowing why. And the pain was increasing. At first he thought that it was just the anger, but now, he wasn't sure anymore. The pain was so hard to bear, cutting his breath now. He was concerned. He searched the nurse button to call Emily. Once again, she was these in a minute.
"Everything's okay?"
But she approached fast, seeign that Matt was struggling to breathe and seemed in pain.
"Matt?"
He pointed his chest, squeezing his own left hand to the left side of his chest, wanting to indicate where was the pain.
"Your chest is hurting you?"
No time to nod, she rushed to his left side to poke the area, retiring his gown.
"N-nnnot... G-good".
He passed his left hand urgently over his mouth while closing his eyes. Emily understand quickly and searched a bowl. She graabed one and put it at the level of his lips. Movind his hand aside, he threw up almost immediately in the bowl. The pain had so high. At the same time, the monitor began to sound and Matt was beginning to have some arrythmia.
"I call the cardiologist".
She stepped back to push the big blue button behind the bed, the one that indicated a code blue. She programmed then the breathing machine and hooked it to Matt. He wanted to stop her, but he had no strength anymore.
"Matt, I know you don't want it, but believe me, it will be usefull".
He didn't answer, even in ASL. He just tried to breathe as he could the supplemental oxygen given by the respirator. Another nurse and an ER doctor came into the room.
"Call the cardiologist!" Emily screamed.
"Oah, slow down! Why the cardiologist?"
"Because the repairs done when he had his aortic dissection are going! That's why!"
The doctor turned to the second nurse, who rushed out of the room to go find the cardiologist while Emily was trying to keep Matt awake.
"Look at me Matt, don't close your eyes, you got it? Don't close your eyes!"
But it was stronger than him, he couldn't fight. His eyes were closing without an effort, although he was fighting to stay awake.
"Matt!"
The doctor grabbed a crash cart, the one with an ultrasound in it and came near Matt. He wiped his gown to put some cold gel on his chest and placed the probe. He ajusted the image for a few seconds.
"You're right, the repairs are going", the doctor confirmed. "He needs to go back to the OR".
"Mat? Matt, tell me, something happened sooner? Somethign that could have triggered this?"
Matt didn't have strength anymore. But he tried, in a last effort to explain. With his left hand, he clenched his fingers, placing his hand over his face and moved it away from him with an unhappy face. Emily recognized this sign. It meant 'mad'. But knowing that Matt couldn't use his right arm, he maybe wanted to tell something else.
"Angry? You were angry? You had an argument? What?"
But Matt couldn't answer anymore, the black world had called him. The black and noiseless world.
"Damn it!"
The monitor sounded even more: he was crashing. It wasn't good. At the same time, the cardiologist appeared in the room with the secodn nurse.
"I've been paged?"
"Aortic dissection fifteen days ago. The repairs is going!" Emily explained.
"I did an ultrasound, he's not far to a second dissection".
"Call the OR, tell them we're coming. Tell them to prepare everything for a heart open surgery. And call his next of kin. GO!"
The nurse got out again, running throughout the hallways to call the OR.
"We must to this quickly before it becomes irreversible", the cardiologist added.
At the firehouse, the shift was tense. The firefighters had been called a dozen of times, for a cat on a tree or a structure fire. They all tried to regain some strength before the next call. Kelly was doinghis paperworks when his phone buzzed. He looked the screen: the hospital. Worried, he picked up immediately.
"Severide".
"This is Serena, one of the ICU nurses. Dr. Kinsley asked me to call you".
"Kinsley? The cardiologist?"
Kelly didn't understand what was happening.
"Yes. There was a problem with Matt. You have to come to Chicago Med ASAP".
"I'm here in ten minutes".
He hung up, not giving to the nurse the time to explain. He got up and ran toward his chief's office. He knocked and entered without permission.
"Chief, I have to go. Now!"
"In the middle of your shift?" Boden asked puzzled.
"It's Matt. There is a problem and I have to go there".
Boden's face faded, going from puzzle to fear and pain.
"Go. Capp will cover you'.
Kelly nodded as to thank his chief, closing the door and running to his car to go to Chicago Med, in front of his puzzled colleagues. In less then ten minutes, he arrived, making his way to the waiting room near the OR. A nurse was waiting for him, seated on a chair. She stoop up.
"You're Kelly Severide?"
"Yeah, it's me. What the hell is happening?!"
"I don't have full details, but it seems that the repairs done at the level of Matt's heart ruptured. The doctor will come here soon to talk to you, he had to do something before".
"More urgent than to save my brother's life?" Kelly stated, angry.
"That's what he's doing actually. He had to realise a part of the surgery before coming to talk to you. It was more urgent".
In shock, Kelly sat on a chair, passing his right hand over his mouth, shivering. The mightmare he lived a few days ago came back to haunt him.
"I-I don't understand, he... H-he was good when I left him sooner".
"As I understood, you had a... An argument with him?"
"Uh, y-yeah. We told him about the rescue, about what happened during the accident and... And he was very angry after that, he got us out of his room".
The nurse didn't say anything, looking Kelly in panic.
"As I said, the doctor will come soon to talk to you".
She left the room, leaving Kelly in a fear and awfull waiting. A very long waiting. A longer waiting than when he had his brain surgery. Well, from what he felt: time wasn't passing, nothing was as expected. He was in total panic, out of himself, angry. Doctor had promised that Matt was out of the woods, and now this? After twenty long minutes, a doctor got out of the OR and entered the waiting room.
"You're Mr. Severide?"
Although he knew that the doctor was here for Matt, he jumped.
"Yeah, yeah it's me. How is Matt? What happened?"
The doctor remained calm despite intimidations from Kelly.
"There was an argument sooner? Between you and Matt?"
Kelly didn't know what to say. How the doctor could know.
"Matt just had time to... More or less explain that he was angry this noon".
"It's... Complicated. Simply but yes. We had an argument. It's related?"
The doctor didn't talk, but nodded. Kelly passed again his hand over his mouth, murmuring inaudibly.
"The anger he felt let his heart bear too much stress. This stress had led to another aortic dissection".
"A new one? What do you mean?"
"To explain you simply, the repairs ruptured".
Kelly was blaming himself. He had led to this new injury. As well as his colleagues. He blamed himself to let them enter the room.
"So... There is a new rupture, isn't it?"
"Matt has a very particular form of aortic dissection: it's in the root of the ascending aorta. The injured part is directly impacting the aortic valve. The aortic root is in the pericardium, and when ther's a bleeding, the blood compresses the heart and make it stop".
"Y-ou... Y-ou can do something. Right?"
"The previous repairs ruptured as you have understood. We have to try with antother way. It's risked and tricky. To tell you the turth, we never tried it".
Once again, Matt was to become a guinea big.
"We'll use the same approach as in a classic aneurysm or occlusion, adapt the approach to the aortic dissection".
"What? What do you mean? Explain".
"When we have to deal with an aneurysm or an occlusion, we insert a stent at the level of the injured part to replace this part. It's as if we reproduce the wall of the veins and the arteries".
"Ok, so you want to use a... Stent? To replace his... His aorta?"
"To be simple, yes. But the stent will be more sophisticated than usual. As I told you, the dissection is located near the aortic valve. We need to insert a stant who can be in the aortic root AND in his heart. We have to include an aortic valve then and what to connect the coronary arteries to it".
Kelly understood nothing. Nothing to all this doctor's jargon.
"To be simple, we'll do a remodelling of his aortic root: we replace the aortic root, we add an extension that goes in his heart to avoid any further dissections".
"And... And what are his chances?"
"Honnestly? If we do anything, he dies. If we fail, he dies. If we succeed, we'll monitor him very, very closely. We never tried such an operation. I would say that if he has 20% of survival, it would be great".
The surgeon wanted to play with honnesty. He knew that the neurologist had this problem with Kelly when Matt was brain dead. He didn't want to live the same thing.
"And... If he survives?"
Kelly wanted to have every parameters in hand. He iddn't want to make the wrong decision.
"If he survices, he will remain in an induced coma the time to see how his body and heart will react the the stent. If everything looks good, we'll reduce very slowly and gradually the sedation. He will remain hooked to a breathing machine the time for his heart to get used to his spontaneous breathing. We'll monitor Matt very closely if it works. As I said, we never really tried this".
"Why? Why you never tried this... This approach?"
"Because a dissection of the aortic root doesn't run at all street corners. When a cardiologist surgeon is dealing with this, we can say he saw everything in his career. We don't use the stent technology for a long time. Dissection is the second phase of an aneurysm, it won't modify the approach too much".
Kelly sighed, passing his hands through his hair. He didn't know what to do. On one side, he didn't want to say goodbye to his brother, he didn't want to watch him suffer like hell and be a guinea pig. But on the other hand, he wanted to see him alive, beside him, enjoying his life. What Matt would have done? He knew him very well, but he had never found himself in such a situation. What he would have done?
"I don't know what Matt would have done. I want to have my brother beside me, but on the other hand, I don't want to see him as a guinea pig again".
"He isn't for me. I just want him to have the best chance to make it. I've never seen a dissection as close to the heart. It's our unkown thing".
Kelly inhaled deeply, closing his eyes.
"How bad he is right now?"
"We hooked him on bypass, to avoid a too much blood loss because of the dissection. We're waiting your green light or not to proceed to the rest of the surgery".
"If... If he's on bypass, then... Then his heart isn't beating, right?"
"If I can reassure you, the dissection didn't stop his heart, we did. He was still beating when we entered the OR. He has a stable BP, a good sature, a strong brain activity, everything looks good except for the unbeating heart".
Kelly nodded, closing his eyes once again.
"I can... I can stay in the observation room? I just ask you this".
"You know the protocol sir. You can't".
"Then it's a no. If I can see him during the operation, then do the operation. Otherwise it's a no".
Kelly was firm. He knew that the doctor wanted to save Matt, but also try this new approach. He knew he would accept. The doctor sighed.
"Alright, but a nurse will stay with you in the observation room".
"That's all I'm asking. See my brother", he assured. "Do your... Your tweaking, but save my little brother".
"That's what I want. I'll do my best".
A/N: Now I will explain why I did this: I had a review and a PM months ago: one wanted Matt "not out of the woods yet", and another one explained to me that an aortic rupture doesn't really heal like that. SO I made some research and found some articles talking about it. And I accepted their "wishes"!
And I didn't use any help for translation (except the medical jargon, but I tried to do it alone), so sorry for any mistakes written!
