Chapter three- Hope
It's hard to have it
Easy to loose it
It could bend ya, break ya, burn ya
At the end of the day
It can give you hell or pull you through it
Hope may disappoint us, but we hold on anyway
-Hope, Texada
(Disclaimer: part of the chapter is adapted from Everwood)
One week later- March 7th
Steph, Leah, Jo, Shane and Heather all sits down at the lunch table experiencing the rare moment of actually enjoying lunch.
"Have you seen Grey work trauma? She is a beast!" Leah exclaims after taking a bite of her lunch.
"They call her medusa for a reason," Heather retorts.
"You should see Dr Kepner work. She is amazing... the way she connects..." Shane begins.
"Kepner failed her boards. No thanks," Leah replies.
"Yeah Shane, as nice as Kepner is, Grey is a beast," Steph agrees.
"Meanwhile Wilson here is slugging it with Karev. How is it?" Heather asks.
"It's fine," Jo responds.
"Fine? Really? That's all you're gonna say? He is hot and heals sick babies," Leah adds disgracefully.
"And I'm married,"Jo responds.
"So you say. We've never met this husband of yours," Leah replies just as Jo's pager goes off.
Jo looks down at her pager and notices a page from Dr Nelson in Neuro, "It's me, I gotta go," she tells the group. Jo gets up from the lunch table and places her tray near the bin.
Scene break
"Assisted death? You want to talk to me about assisted death? About injecting my husband with a drug that will cause his heart to stop because you don't believe that he will ever wake up? All because you want the bed?!" Jo questions angrily.
"I know that this must be hard for you…." Nelson begins.
"You know do you? Have you been asked to inject your wife or your children with a lethal substance that will stop their hearts and kill them?! Because unless you have, you don't get to tell me that this is tough. Just because you don't think there is a reason that he will wake up, doesn't mean that he won't. He is breathing on his own. I have faith that he will wake up and I will find a surgeon that shares that," she responds aggressively.
"Dr Wilson, I'm..." he begins.
"No! Don't you dare. Get out, get out of here right now!" Jo sobs. Jo watches as the doctor leaves the room and she gives herself a few moments to calm down before heading out to see the nurse.
"I need a new doctor for my husband," Jo says to the nurse.
"I'm sorry, but we don't have another neurosurgeon," she responds gently.
"What? Are you serious? You're telling me that the best hospital in the United States only has one neurosurgeon? I know that's not true. I would like to see Dr Shepherd, either is fine. I know they work here... they're the reason I had him transferred here. I was content with waiting to begin with, but not now... no. And I know that they should be back from DC by now," Jo responds.
"Both Dr Shepherds are in DC consulting with the president," the nurse replies.
"No they're not. One of them is right here," Amelia says as she walks over to the conversation..
"Dr Shepherd, when did you get back?" The nurse asks surprised.
"This morning. Where is..." Amelia begins.
"Christopher Wilson," Jo interjects.
"Where is Christopher Wilson's chart?" Amelia questions.
"Right here," the nurse responds, passing the chart to Amelia.
"I'm going to take a look at your husband and examine his chart. You're a doctor here, yeah?" Amelia questions as she point to Jo's scrubs.
Jo nods her head, "intern," she replies.
"I'll page you when I'm finished. It'll be a few hours and I'm sure your attending has things you could do," Amelia responds.
That afternoon
"Hey, are you okay?" Karev asks Jo as they walk out of the exam room they'd just been in and over to the nurses station to had back the tablet for charging.
Jo shakes her head and snaps out of her daze, "Yeah."
"It's just, you seemed a little distracted in there. If you've got things to take care off you can. It's a slow day and I can get another intern for surgery later," Alex responds.
Jo shakes her head, "no. I'm fine."
"Are you sure? Because I can't have you distracted in my OR. It's reckless," Alex says.
"I'm..." Jo begins and is interrupted by her pager. She looks down to see that it was Amelia. "Actually, I do have something to do. Please, find someone to cover for me," she requests. Alex firmly nods his head and with that Jo dashed off to see her husband. As she entered his room she sees Amelia standing by the monitors.
"That was quicker then expected. I thought you'd need at least a few days," Jo states.
"Lucky I'm better then most," Amelia responds. "Now, as Dr. Nelson and his team have told you, the causes of short-term coma are generally discrete and identifiable while the causes of prolonged coma can often be idiopathic... of unknown origin. In Christopher's case the neuro team has monitored his intracranial pressure and provided well above the standard of care. You can be confident that up to this point everything possible has been done," Amelia begins.
"Up to this point?" Jo questions curiously.
"Having studied Christopher's history and films l've come up with a theory," Amelia responds.
"You think you know something they don't?" Jo questions hopeful. It was after all the entire reason Jo wanted either Amelia or Derek to consult on the case.
"There is what we believe to be a small fragment of bone lodged in Christopher's brain. More specifically in the brain stem where it would be hard to remove. Dr. Nelson doesn't believe that the relationship between this fragment and your husband's prolonged comatose state is meaningful," Amelia explains.
"But you do?" Jo asks.
Amelia nods her head, "I do. And I believe I can surgically resect it without damaging the stem.
"Have you done this before?" Jo asks. It was one thing to have a possible cure for her husband, but it was another to be a guinea pig.
Amelia shakes her head, "Actually no. The brain stem handles the most elemental tasks that the brain performs. Were we to undertake this successfully it would be medically reportable. Meaning, it would be an experiment of sorts. But as I'm sure you're aware, experimentation occurs all the time in medicine. It's how innovation takes place. It's how lives are saved. I want you to know I don't undertake this lightly. I preform over 200 procedures each year and if I'm not mistaken, I have one of the highest success rates," Amelia responds.
"But what if you do damage the brain stem?" Jo asks.
"Well it would threaten Chris' ability to walk, eat and breathe," Amelia responds honestly.
"And what if we don't do it?" Jo questions. It wasn't a choice to be made lightly, especially given that this procedure hadn't been done before.
It's impossible to say. Your husband may emerge from this coma on his own," Amelia replies.
"But you don't think he will. You think I need a miracle and I do too. But an experiment, I really wasn't expecting that. There's a million known things that could go wrong with surgery, but now you're adding all of the unknown complications that could arise... it's just a lot to take in at the moment," Jo explains. "I don't know what I'd do if I made the wrong call and he died... we've got kids and they need their dad. While he's in a coma there's a slim chance he'll wake up on his own, but it's not likely. But if we do the surgery and he dies that means he's never coming home. What do you think I should do?" Jo pleads desperately.
"I can't tell you what to do. That's a choice you'll have to make. And you don't have to make it today, you've got time," Amelia responds. She places a reassuring hand on Jo's boulder and gives it a quick rub before leaving.