Disclaimer: I don't own any of the original characters or places.
Collision Course, Chapter 16
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"Boscorelli?"
Rose jumped to her feet almost as if she had been burned. "That's us," she whispered. She was visibly trembling. Faith stood at her right side. And in an instant Sully appeared at her left side and cupped her elbow with his hand to steady her.
The doctor approached giving her a half-smile. "Mrs. Boscorelli?" he questioned.
"Yes, I'm Maurice's mother." Her voice wavered, as did her body.
"I'm Doctor Poole. Why don't you sit?" the surgeon ushered her back to her chair then pulled up another chair directly in front of her. Sitting so that he was eye level with Rose, he cleared his throat unsure of where to begin.
"Is… Is Maurice alive?" Rose stammered.
"Oh, of course. I'm sorry. Yes, he's alive. He's just been taken to the surgical ICU." He replied. He was almost relieved that his patient's mother had started the conversation.
The tension on Rose's face visibly lessened as she let out a sigh of relief.
The doctor began again. "I'm sure that you know, Mrs. Boscorelli, your son was very seriously injured in a motor vehicle collision this afternoon." Rose nodded slightly and the doctor continued. "Well, he has multiple injuries including fairly severe lacerations on his scalp and face, several fractured ribs, a broken left forearm, and broken bones in his left lower leg." Rose grimaced, but the doctor continued wanting to get this over with. He had always found talking to families to be the hardest part of his job. "Those injuries should all heal with time. However, he also lost a significant amount of blood from the leg injury, as well as, from injuries to his spleen and left kidney. So much so that when he arrived in the ER, he wasn't breathing and had no pulse. In an effort to stabilize him, we had to place a tube down his throat to breath for him. We also had to make an incision between his ribs to open his chest cavity to see if we could locate any major vessels that were bleeding. While he did have a severely bruised lung and some minor bleeding, I didn't notice any major bleeding in his chest. We assumed then that the bleeding was due to internal injuries in the abdomen and to his leg injury. So to help get his blood pressure up, we clamped the major blood vessel that goes through the chest to the rest of the body. That's what allowed us to get him stabilized enough to go to surgery." Dr. Poole paused to see if Mrs. Boscorelli was still following him.
"Wouldn't that be dangerous?" Rose asked. "To stop the blood flow to the rest of his body, I mean."
"Yes, it can be." The doctor replied. "Especially if it's stopped for too long. But we were able to unclamp the artery in the operating room fairly quickly once we clamped off some smaller blood vessels that were the sources of most of the bleeding." Dr. Poole assured her.
"Ok." she mumbled.
The young doctor continued. "When we got him in the OR, we confirmed that he did have injuries to his spleen and left kidney. Now, sometimes if a patient is more stable, we try to stop the bleeding and salvage these organs. However, Maurice was too unstable to risk any more bleeding and we didn't want to delay unclamping the main artery. So we had to remove them. We also had the orthopedic surgeon work on his leg to stop the bleeding there and stabilize the broken bones."
"Can he live without his kidney and spleen?" Rose asked.
"Yes, he can live without his spleen, although he will be at greater risk for certain infections that can be severe. And he can live with only one kidney provided that it functions properly." He hesitated, but then continued. "That is one of my concerns."
"How so?" Rose questioned again.
"Well, Mrs. Boscorelli, Maurice was without a pulse for around 10 minutes in the ER and then had a very low blood pressure for some time thereafter. Not to mention the interruption of blood flow when we clamped his aorta off. Anyway, the kidneys along with other organs are very sensitive to a low blood pressure or lack of oxygen. So I am concerned about his remaining kidney. In fact, his urine output is much less than I would like it to be at this point." The doctor explained.
"What can we do if that kidney doesn't work right, doctor?" Rose was a bit alarmed.
"Well, in that case, he might need dialysis." Rose let out a slight gasp, as did Faith who was at her side. The doctor continued, trying to be more positive. "But that may only be temporary. Kidneys will often improve slowly over time after such an injury."
Rose swallowed and tried to hold back tears.
Dr. Poole hesitated, but then continued again knowing that Mrs. Boscorelli needed to be fully informed of her son's condition. "There is something else that I think you should be aware of, a few things actually. First, although Maurice is more stable now, he is still in very critical condition. So it's hard to say how things will go. He is still on a ventilator and has two chest tubes. The lung injury may get worse before it gets better, so we can expect him to remain on the ventilator for several days. Also, even though he was resuscitated fairly quickly, we never know how adequate those efforts are or if we're getting enough oxygen to the brain. So there could be some permanent damage."
Rose looked a bit confused. "Damage?" she finally asked.
"Brain damage, Mrs. Boscorelli." He offered a compassionate smile. "But hopefully not. There's no way to know really until he wakes up." He added to himself, 'if he wakes up.' But he didn't utter it aloud. He placed a hand on Rose's trembling one. "The ICU waiting room is right down the hall to the left. The plastic surgeon is sewing up the lacerations on Maurice's face and scalp now. But his nurse will come and get you as soon as she can so that you can see him. I wouldn't expect him to respond to you tonight. His body is exhausted, and we're giving him pain medication and a sedative to keep him comfortable and let him rest. I'll try to check on him again later, and I'll be in the hospital all night if something happens." With that he stood and with a final pat to Rose's shoulder turned to leave.
"Thank you, doctor." Rose answered quietly, and then looked at her feet to hide the tears flowing down her cheeks.
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Hehehe..I do believe that someone suggested that it was time to fix him…hehe. Be patient, friends. There is no quick fix for Bosco in this story.