Chapter 6: The Evaluation, Part 2
"We must use time as a tool, not as a crutch." – John F. Kennedy
At some point, Sydney fell asleep from sheer exhaustion. When she finally woke up, she was covered in her father's jacket and the crowd in the waiting room has dissipated. She figured some of the agents had probably gone home. Jack, Weiss and Dixon were talking in the hall and as she approached, they smiled.
"Any word yet?" she asked.
"Sorry, not yet." Jack answered.
She nodded and headed down to the cafeteria to get some coffee. She returned minutes later and almost spilled her coffee. Dr. Kerns was headed down the hall towards the waiting room with another doctor she hadn't seen yet. She threw her coffee in a nearby trashcan and ran down the hall.
"Is he ok?" She blurted as she stopped in front of them.
Dr. Kerns smiled slightly and said, "This is Dr. Wesley Groves. He performed the surgery on Mr. Vaughn. He's here to update you on Mr. Vaughn's condition. Dr. Groves?"
The conversation then turned to the other doctor. "Hello, maybe we should sit?"
Weiss looked at Sydney and said, "Do you want us to stay, Syd or should we go back to the waiting room?"
"No, it's ok, you can stay."
The group moved to another consultation room.
Dr. Groves once again began the briefing. "I operated on Mr. Vaughn to investigate and repair the damage that he sustained. Since Dr. Kerns has all ready briefed you on the minor injuries, I'll stick to the internal ones. Rest assured, however, that the minor lacerations and burns, etc. have been attended to. Now, he had major internal bleeding and damage to several major organs. The human body has 24 ribs, 12 to a side that protect the heart, lungs and upper contents. The ribs are attached to the vertebrae in the rear and 10 of them are attached to the sternum by cartilage at costochondral junctions. Of the 24 ribs, he has 13 fractures – 8 on the left and 5 on the right – and 4 costochondral separations, which means that 4 of his ribs were separated from the breastbone – 3 on the left and 1 on the right. He also has many bruised ribs. Fractures and separations are not really the biggest concern, but the damage that the ribs can cause. This was another area of damage. Both his spleen and lungs were damaged as a result of the rib injuries. The spleen sits under the lower left ribs and it was ruptured as a result of some kind of blunt trauma. The good news; is we were able to repair the damage to his spleen and stop the bleeding, so we did not have to remove it. One of his lungs had already been punctured or collapsed when we started surgery. The other lung was very close to collapsing as well. The technical term for this is pneumothorax. Pneumothoraxes occur when air enters the space between the two layers of the membrane that surrounds the lungs. The air separates the layers and causes part or all of the lung to collapse and lose the air that is normally inside the lung. This makes breathing extremely difficult. Treatment for this entails removing the air that has collected there so the lung can reexpand to its original capacity. We inserted a chest tube into the pleural cavity to reinflate the lungs and keep the area airtight. The chest tube will remain in his chest until the lungs have reexpanded. Until then, he's on 100 oxygen to alleviate his breathing problems. He also had a severe concussion, which we are monitoring, and his left shoulder was dislocated. It has been put back into the socket and that arm is in sling. He has 3 broken fingers on his left hand and one on the right hand. Those have also been splinted. All the other lacerations and burns have been treated and dressed. He hasn't regained consciousness yet and is currently in the Intensive Care Unit. Until his breathing stabilizes, he'll be listed in critical condition. However, based on my analysis, I would venture to say that he will make a full recovery given sufficient recovery time."
The room was silent as the news set in. Jack looked to Sydney again, to see if her reaction would be similar to the last, but she seemed almost in a state of shock this time around.
Finally she asked, "What kind of recovery time are we looking at?"
The doctor looked her way and said, "Collapsed lungs generally take about 1-2 weeks to heal. However, coupled with all of his other injuries, I'd guess a recovery time of about 3-4 weeks for those. Rib fractures usually heal in 4-6 weeks, but costochondral separations can double that time. Again, coupled with all the other injuries, I'd say 10-14 weeks would be more accurate. In sum, he's looking at best at a 3-4 month recovery phase to be fully recuperated. And of course, that's only the physical recuperation. Since he hasn't regained consciousness, there is no way to gauge the psychological or emotional damage that he has suffered."
Silence filled the room after the doctor finished. It seemed no one really knew what to say. Dr. Kerns finally spoke up and said, "Thank you Dr. Groves." He walked him out and then came back in and squatted in front of Sydney. She looked back at him. He smiled slightly and said, "Do you want to see him?"
Sydney looked astonished and said in almost a whisper, "Yes."
He got up and she followed him out of the room. The other occupants moved back to the waiting room.
