Marissa looked at the three doctors in shock, "What…what can you do for AJ?"
"Normal course of action in a case like this is open heart surgery to repair the damage that was done." Griff explained.
"Ok so when do you do the surgery?" she was encouraged that they could do something even if it was something as serious as open heart surgery.
"Marissa," Angie put her hand on top of the young girls, "it's not that simple."
"What? Why not? Griff said that normal treatment is surgery. Why can't you do that if it will fix him?" she tried to keep her anger under control. Why would they encourage her only to rip the rug out from right under her?
"Marissa's the infection that AJ contracted after the accident attacked AJ's entire system. Now the worst damage was done to his heart and we hope to fix that. But, right now his body has been through so much stress in such a short amount of time there is a high risk of it giving out during surgery." Angie gently explained.
Marissa's face turned ghostly white, "He could die in surgery?"
"Yes, there is a high risk that if we put him under he may never wake up again." David hated to deliver the news to his daughter. He had given families worse news then this and had learned quickly to disassociate but this time it was his own family involved.
"Ok so what do we do then?" Marissa wanted answers her son dying wasn't an option.
"We can wait to do surgery. Give his body time to heal. We would give him blood transfusions to get his blood count back up to a normal level as well as other medication to help him regain his strength."
"So if we do that Angie what are the risks?"
"His heart could grow weaker and it could give out on it's on or his heart could be damaged beyond repair and he could need a transplant."
"A transplant can't those take a long time?" no option seemed to offer much hope. She watched as Angie nodded her head.
"So our options are to try the surgery and hope he makes it out of it. Or we wait and hope his heart doesn't give out completely or that if it does he doesn't die before getting a new heart." Marissa tried to wrap her head around what she was hearing.
"Marissa?" Bianca's voice called out. They all turned to see Bianca standing in the hallway. "AJ's asking for you." Bianca noticed Marissa's pale complexion. "Marissa what's wrong?"
"BInx it's AJ's heart. They said his heart was damaged." A tear found its way down her face.
Bianca tried to stay calm for her girlfriend seeing how upset she was. She could see the fear in Marissa's eyes knowing that if it was her own child she would look the same way. "His heart? How?"
"The infection that made him so sick attacked his heart."
"Ok so what do you do Angie? A different antibiotic?" Bianca silently prayed for a simple fix.
Before Angie could answer Marissa started shaking her head, "No, it's bad Bianca" she fought back the tears that threaten to make their way out of her eyes.
"How bad?"
"They could go do open heart surgery and try and repair the damage…" Marissa started
"Ok. I know heart surgery is scary but if it will fix the problem we should do it." Bianca interrupted her.
"It's not that simple Binx. He's still so weak from the accident and the infection that he could die during surgery." Marissa stopped as Bianca gasped and threw her hand over her mouth.
"The other option is to wait and hope he grows stronger but if we wait his heart could give out completely or he could need a transplant."
Bianca turned her attention back to the doctors, "David couldn't you use your miracle drug work?"
Marissa got an excited look on her face, "Of course. It saved Dixie and Stuart couldn't it save your Grandson?"
"Marissa I would love nothing more than to spare AJ any kind of pain and use Orpheus on him if I thought it would work. I know you have seen the success of Orpheus but you never saw the failures. For every person I've brought back there are others that I lost. The only heart patient I've ever used it on didn't survive and I've never tried it on a child." David hung his head in shame. The one time his daughter reached out to him he could do nothing for her or his grandson.
"What do I do then? How do I make a decision that could kill my son? How do I know what the right decision is? Damn It! Aren't doctors supposed to have all the answers!" Marissa screamed at the doctors in a mixture of anger and frustration.
Bianca placed her hands lovingly on Marissa's shoulders, " 'Rissa you're AJ's mother and you want what's best for him. I know this decision is hard all you can do is listen to the doctor's advice and then decide what is best for your son."
Marissa pulled Bianca close to her and held on tightly "What if he dies how do I live with myself?" she whispered in her ear.
Bianca couldn't answer that question knowing there was no answer she just held the woman closely.
Marissa looked back to the doctors "What do you guys recommend doing?"
"Marissa I know this decision is a difficult one to make there are risks no matter what we do but I truly believe that AJ's best chance is to risk the surgery. We've got the two best cardiologists in the country here. We're calling in one of the best pediatric cardiologists in as well. I should also tell you if that was Lucy lying in that room that is the decision I would make for my child." Angie tried to comfort Marissa.
"Does that mean that you'll be assisting with the surgery then to David?" Marissa knew that if David was there he would fight for AJ like no one else would.
"As you know my medical licesne has been revoked so I won't be able to operate but I will be in the room to help walk Griff through the surgery if there are any complications."
Marissa shook her head, "Ok if we do the surgery how soon do we do it?"
"We've already booked an OR for tomorrow morning."