by L. P. Dover
“What do you want to know?” Jenna asked as we got into the car.
“Just start from the beginning.”
Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to hear all the details, but I had to know what to expect. She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, before starting to explain. “According to the witnesses, a car pulled out in front of Galen while he was riding down the road.”
“Did the dumb ass not see him? What happened to the other driver?”
My throat tightened up, and with all of the emotions swirling around in my body I didn’t know what I was supposed to feel. All I know was that the anger was pretty dominant at that moment. Jenna shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, but I think the driver may have been drinking. Hopefully, we’ll find out something soon. The police came in and took the driver away. Once we got into town I heard all I needed to hear and then came straight to you. Brady and Elizabeth are there waiting for you at the hospital.”
Tensing up in the seat, I knew the worst part of the news was about to be said. Jenna took a quick glance at me, but then turned back to the road. Her hands were shaking on the wheel, and when I saw her reaction my world came to a complete halt. She was afraid, afraid to tell me. “Oh my God,” I whispered. “Is he going to die, Jenna? Please tell me it’s not that bad.” She lost it in that moment and broke down into tears.
“I don’t know, Kori,” she said, the sound of fear evident in her voice. “He’s had some severe injuries and we won’t know the outcome of them yet. Before I left they were taking him back to do emergency surgery on him.”
Shaking my head, I doubled over in despair. “This is all my fault. He wouldn’t have left if it wasn’t for me.” Jenna was shaking her head in disagreement, but I knew it was the truth. “What kind of injuries are we talking about?” I questioned.
“I don’t know all of the fancy terms the doctor used, but it looks like he suffered from a moderate head injury. The procedure they were about to perform on him was to help relieve the pressure from around his skull and to remove the blood clots that were forming. That’s all I heard before I left.”
Brain injuries were not taken lightly, and there were so many things that could go wrong with any number of repercussions. He might wake up and not even know who the hell I was. I could only pray that that didn’t happen. “You know the complications of head injuries, right?” I asked Jenna.
“I know, Ducky, and that’s where we need to have faith. I’m going to be right beside you the whole time,” she claimed whole-heartedly. She squeezed my hand and held it the rest of the trip. The hospital had finally come into view, which happened to be the same hospital where my Carson died, and the same hospital where my Galen was fighting for his life.
Chapter Nineteen
Again I was stuck in an elevator that took a million years to get anywhere. Once Jenna parked the car, I raced into the hospital only to end up slowed down by that damn thing. Pacing around in the confines of the metal box, Jenna sighed. “We’re here, Kori, but you need to calm down. You’re not going to help Galen by being reckless and frantic.” I stopped the pacing to stare fixedly at the shiny metal doors. I knew that hospital like the back of my hand. When Carson worked there, I visited him often and had gotten to know plenty of the staff there well.
When the elevator doors opened I saw Brady pacing down the hall. It seemed I wasn’t the only one pacing around there. Jenna and I both ran toward him, only to see his ashen face and tear-stained cheeks. Brady hugged me and began to silently cry. I held onto him, sobbing with him. “We didn’t know where you were. We tried calling you until Jenna decided she’d had enough and left to go searching.”
“I was at home, asleep. I’d been sick and had no clue what was going on,” I cried. “My phone was dead when I got up.” Brady let me go and then Elizabeth, Galen’s mother, tackled me in her arms.
“Oh my God, Korinne, we were so worried about you. We didn’t know where you were or how else to get in touch with you other than your cell phone. We even called the house and no one picked up. I was getting ready to call the police!” Galen’s mother shrieked.
“I’m so sorry I worried you. How long had you been trying to reach me?” I asked. Elizabeth released me so I could look at all of them.
Jenna was the one that answered, “We tried for about three hours. That’s why I left to find you.”
“Why don’t we sit down,” Elizabeth suggested and motioned us toward the seats. The room we were in was the intensive care waiting room. No one else was around, only the four of us sitting anxiously in wait of the verdict. The smell of antiseptics and bleach tickled my nose and it made me more nauseous, but it was a smell I had gotten used to when I came to visit Carson. “The doctor should be coming back soon to give us an update. Did Jenna inform you of the surgery?” Elizabeth asked me.
“Yes, she told me,” I mumbled.
The room filled with silence, but we were all in our own stages of despair to even care. What turned out to be only a few minutes of waiting turned into a couple of hours. The nausea and fatigue were back, so I rested my head in my hands and took in some deep, calming breaths. Not that it was going to help, but I had to try something. I was about to fall asleep when I heard someone walk into the waiting room. After lifting my head and rubbing my eyes, I saw that it was Jason Andrews, doctor and good friend of Carson’s. Carson and I used to go out all the time with Jason and his girlfriend. Before I left to move in with my parents he had become a really close friend to me and was there to support me when Carson died. He still looked the same, with his shortly cropped blond hair and lanky build, and the biggest heart of any doctor I knew. He looked at us all with a grim expression, but when he focused on me his eyes went wide.
As I walked toward him, he opened his arms and pulled me into a hug. “Korinne, I am so sorry about all of this. It’s not fair that you have to go through this again.” I buried my head in his chest and began to cry. He knew how upset I was over Carson’s accident and now he was seeing it again.
“How is he, Jason? Don’t sugarcoat it either. I need to know what’s going on,” I demanded firmly.
“Tell us everything, Dr. Andrews,” Elizabeth pleaded.
When Jason let me go, the grim look on his face was back. He glanced at each one of us before he gave us the news. “The surgery went well. We relieved the pressure on his skull and removed the blood clots. He’s been put on some coma-inducing drugs and they’re going to keep him unconscious until the swelling subsides. He’s also endured some broken bones, mainly on the right side of his body from the force of impact when he landed. Both his right leg and arm are in casts right now and he’ll be in them for about eight weeks, and he’ll also need to go through physical therapy after the healing process takes place. When he landed on the right side of his body he also endured a moderate amount of road rash on that right leg. We scrubbed and cleaned the sores before putting him in the cast. He’ll have some scarring when it’s all healed.”
After hearing all of Galen’s injuries we all turned green, but what really concerned me was the head injury. “I know what can happen with these head injuries, Jason,” I stated. “You’ve seen the damage, so what complications do you think we’re looking at?” Carson used to talk to me about that kind of stuff all the time. I always found it interesting and also scary to know what could happen to the human body.
“The most common complications would be temporary memory loss, slight brain damage, seizures, he may have to learn to walk again or even speak for that matter. We won’t know until he wakes up.” He paused, and just when I thought there couldn’t be any more bad news, I was sorely mistaken. “Mr. Matthews’ head injury is only but one of the major problems,” Jason indicated hesitantly. I closed my eyes as a new wave of anger, sadness, and worry came crashing down on top of me. The tears came falling down, but before I could say anything Galen’s mother lost her control and raised her voice in fear.
“What else is wrong?” Elizabeth demanded. “How co
me you didn’t tell us sooner?”
Jason showed his understanding and handled the matter amiably. “Mrs. Matthews, we didn’t know at the time,” he commended softly. “We ran the CT scans and found there was some internal damage, especially to his kidneys. Everything else just seems bruised, but the kidneys have been damaged pretty badly.”
The world around me began to spin out of control and I couldn’t take anymore. Feeling like I was going to be sick, I collapsed into the chair behind me. “What happens now?” I asked. Jenna took the seat beside me and rubbed my back soothingly.
Jason glanced at us before answering my question. “He’s going to need a kidney transplant. With as much damage as they’ve sustained, I don’t think they’ll be repairable.”
Brady cut in, “Don’t you have waiting lists for that kind of stuff?” We all looked at Brady and then expectantly at the doctor, hoping that this time wasn’t one of those cases. I’d heard of people being put on lists, but surely that wouldn’t happen here. I could only pray it didn’t.
“There are waiting lists for different types of organs, but I’ll have to check and see,” Jason admitted. An idea crossed my mind, and in that instant I knew what I had to do, and I wasn’t going to think twice about it.
“Take mine,” I said.
Everyone turned to look at me with shocked expressions all over their faces. I stood up and said it again. “I want you to take mine. Screw the waiting lists and all that bullshit. I want you to take one of mine and give it to Galen. Waiting list or not, I want to do this,” I ordered with every fiber of my being.
“We can do that,” Jason offered. “But we need to make sure you’re a match. Blood will need to be drawn, and if you’re a match we’ll need to get you prepared.” I nodded, even though all of that wasn’t necessary because I knew we were a match. The reason why I knew was because I saw his blood donor card in his wallet and it was the same as mine. However, hospital had to do it anyway, and I understood that. “I’ll have one of my nurse’s take you back in a few minutes. Mr. Matthews will be assigned a room here shortly and then you can go in and visit him, but only two people at a time are allowed.”
I sighed. “Thank you, Jason.”
“Yes, thank you, Dr. Andrews,” Elizabeth cried. Jason gave a slight smile before he took his leave. Turning to me, Elizabeth took me in her arms again. “Korinne, I don’t know how to thank you for doing this. If I was a match, I would’ve forfeited my life and offered both of my kidneys,” Elizabeth sobbed.
Stepping away from the hug, the tears began to flow harder as I looked at Galen’s mother breaking down in front of me. Crying, I said, “I know you would have, but if there is a way for me to save him I’m going to do it. I made a vow to him, and I’m going to keep it no matter what. I can’t lose him like I did Carson, not when I know I can help him.”
“He’s lucky to have you. You know, he used to talk about you all the time when you both were in college.”
“Really?” I asked. “He never mentioned to me that he talked to you about me.”
“Oh yes,” she told me. “That boy would glow every time he talked about you. He had never spoken of a female like he did you.” This made me cry even more, so I used my sleeves to wipe away the tears. “I see the love and devotion he has for you every time you two are together. He’s always made me a proud mother.”
“He told me about how he left on his motorcycle after his father died. He holds that regret in his heart even to this day. ”
“He should have known I would understand. I missed him and I knew he had to deal with his grief in his own way. We all deal with it in our own ways. He felt he had to leave, and I respected that. I never once was upset with him for leaving me.”
“That’s exactly what I told him you would say,” I said to her. Glancing at the door to the waiting room, I saw a nurse headed in our direction. She was probably the nurse who was going to take my blood for testing.
“Korinne?” the nurse called out.
“I’ll be back,” I said, looking at everyone. I followed the nurse down the hall to the lab stationed on that same floor. This was my first step to saving Galen. Soon he would be healed with a fresh new kidney … my kidney.
After my blood was drawn, I made my way back to the waiting room. Jenna was sitting there, watching television all alone. When she saw me approach she patted the chair beside her. “Brady and his mother are in there with Galen. They knew you were desperate to see him, but they didn’t know how long you would be, so they went in there first,” she informed me.
“I understand. I want to see him so badly, but I’m sort of afraid of what I’m going to see,” I confessed to her. Memories of my time in the hospital with Carson came flooding back and never did I think that I would be in the same situation again. I was both angry and sad. The emotions conflicted in my heart, and at that moment I wanted to scream in outrage from the unfairness of it all. I kept telling myself there was no time to feel the sadness. I was sure there would come a time for that, but it was not then. I needed to have faith, and that faith was what was going to get me through.
“Korinne?” Jenna murmured gently. Tilting my head to the side, I looked at her and raised my eyebrow in question. “What you’re doing for Galen is amazing. There’s no greater sacrifice than to put your own life at risk for the one you love.”
“He would do the same for me in this situation. I owe him everything I have. He wouldn’t be here in the hospital if it wasn’t for me, and I’ll gladly work my ass off to make it up to him for the rest of our lives,” I admitted whole-heartedly.
“I’m sure he’ll like you being indebted to him, too.” She laughed weakly. “How did it go getting your blood drawn?”
I put my head in my hands and groaned. “Not too good as a matter of fact. I passed out after they were done. Once I came to they made me drink a soda and eat a spoonful of peanut butter.”
Jenna reached over and touched my forehead. “That doesn’t sound like you. You never pass out over anything. You don’t feel like you have a fever.”
Sitting up, I put my hand at my throat and rubbed it. “No, I just can’t shake this nausea. We ate sushi last night and I think I got food poisoning from it.”
“You need to get some rest. After you visit with Galen, I’ll take you home to get some sleep. I’ll stay with you to make sure you’re all right.”
“I don’t want to leave him,” I complained.
“You don’t have a choice, Korinne. First off, you know they don’t allow that on this floor, and secondly, you’re sick. Not to mention you need to rest up before your surgery. You’re not going to do Galen any good if you die of exhaustion,” she instructed in her motherly voice.
“Yes, I would do Galen some good if I died,” I told her with a smirk on my face. “He would get two kidneys instead of one.”
Jenna sighed and smacked my arm. “Ducky, you’re too much. Leave it to you to say something morbid like that.”
I forced a smile to my face, but I was actually being serious about that statement. “How long have Brady and Elizabeth been with Galen? I really want to see him,” I said while I bounced my leg up and down impatiently. “If I don’t see him soon I’m going to go insane.”
Jenna looked at the clock and frowned. “It’s been almost an hour. They should be done soon.”
I knew not to say anything, and I knew they were his family, but I wished they would hurry the hell up. I hated feeling selfish, but I just needed to see him. Patience was not a virtue of mine. Even though Galen wouldn’t know I was there, I still wanted to talk to him and to tell him how sorry I was.
“They’re coming, Ducky,” Jenna said softly. I glanced up to see Brady practically carrying his mother down the hall. Jenna and I both ran to them, scared that something was wrong.
“Is everything okay?” I asked. Elizabeth’s condition had me terrified. She was crying and couldn’t seem to form the words to speak.
“Everything’s fine,” Brady cl
aimed. “It’s just … it was hard to see him like that. Do you need me or Jenna with you when you go in there?”
I shook my head, trying desperately to be strong. The meltdown was about to come, but I didn’t want it to be out there. “No, I’ll be fine. I want to be alone with him,” I reassured them.
Brady kissed Jenna on the cheek and said to her, “I’m going to take my mother home and stay with her tonight. I can’t leave her alone.”
“Okay,” Jenna replied sadly. “I’ll be staying with Korinne tonight as well.”
Brady kissed her once more before addressing me again. “He’s in room 1065. I’m going to warn you, it’s not pretty.”
“I know, Brady,” I cried. “I’ll be fine. Take care of your mother and we’ll see you tomorrow.”
The tears began to fall again, and there was nothing I could do about it. I wondered if there was ever a time when a person couldn’t cry anymore. I thought I was getting awfully close to that point. Brady and Elizabeth headed towards the elevators while I made my way down the hall. Stopping mid-stride, I looked back at Jenna one last time before turning the corner. She smiled to reassure me and motioned me on. The numbers on the doors got steadily closer to 1065 the farther I went. My heart beat was so loud I could hear and feel it thumping in my ears. Once I reached Room 1065, I stood there frozen outside the door.
“I can do this,” I said to myself.
Before reaching for the handle, I wiped the tears away and took a deep breath. The room was quiet except for the beeping sounds of the monitors. The curtain was pulled halfway around the bed, and the only thing I could see were Galen’s feet. One was in a cast so that must’ve been the one he’d broken.
I walked slowly around the curtain until I got the full view of the man I loved. Gasping loudly, I threw my hands over my mouth to keep in the scream I was dying to let loose. A broken sob escaped my lips and I was consumed with the terror of what Galen must’ve gone through. My soul was in agony. I couldn’t begin to imagine the pain he must have endured, not to mention the pain he would go through when he woke up. His right leg was in a cast, along with his right arm. He looked like a mummy all wrapped in the gauzy white dressing. The only things that showed on his face were his closed eyes, nose, and mouth. There was bruising around the lines of his face and also some swelling along with it. Tubes were everywhere going in and out of different places on his body. I would understand completely if he hated me after this. I knew I would hate me.