CHAPTER 47
TWO WEEKS LATER
Dr. Freenold scanned Thomas’s chart. He was very pleased with the progress that Thomas had made in the past twelve days. When they brought him out of the induced coma, he responded immediately to the visual, auditory, touch and smell stimuli. Thomas knew his name and all the other questions usually asked a person returning to consciousness. The responses were both quick and certain, giving Freenold reason to be optimistic.
More tests were needed, of course, but it was clear to the Doctor that two significant events could be scheduled for the next few days. First would be the removal of the protective helmet, replacing it with headgear similar to the ones used by boxing sparring partners. The second, the more important one, was permitting visitors into the ICU for a brief visit. Visitors would be important stimuli at this early stage.
As the Family Spokesperson, the call about visits to Thomas’s ICU came to Emily. When she received the call, Emily’s knees went weak. Finally, limited contact with Thomas was approved. Dr. Jensen was allowing the four to visit with Thomas in his room for up to fifteen minutes depending on the strength of the patient. She spread the news as quickly as possible to Louise, Miriam and Walter.
When they arrived, Dr. Jensen greeted them with the rules regarding Early Stage ICU visits. The rules being that they would have to wear surgical masks and adhere to a prohibition regarding cell phones and cameras and they would have to stand behind a blue line painted on the floor about two feet from the bed. At all times they would be guided by and under the supervision of the nurses and attendants on duty. In cases of a negative reaction from the patient, they would be required to exit the room immediately. Dr. Jensen asked them to sign a form agreeing to these visiting stipulations.
That done, he led them into Room 333. Emily and Walter went to the left of the bed and Louise and Miriam to the right.
Thomas looked a lot better than he looked the first time they saw him. As Dr, Jensen had promised each succeeding visit showed more improvement to the point that they could at least recognize that it was a human being in the bed and not a mummy. Many of the wires and monitors were gone taking away much of the “emergency” appearance.
The occupant in the bed still didn’t look like Thomas. The gruesome helmet that had obscured his face was gone and was replaced by red headgear. White dressings still covered the top of his head and gauze pads were taped over his eyes so that the only part of his face finally uncovered, was from his cheeks to his chin. In spite of some swelling and lacerations, which were healing, what they saw was the most they had seen of Thomas up until now. His arms lay on both sides with tubes and wires taped in place. He was propped up in a sitting position and appeared to be resting peacefully when they entered the room. In the background, the bank of monitors and pumps offered a cacophony of beeps and hums; sounds they would become accustomed to and suppress over the weeks and months ahead. A technician and a RN stood nearby, ever vigilant to the needs of their patient.
Dr. Jensen spoke, “Thomas, this is Dr. Jensen speaking. Do you remember that we spoke yesterday about you having visitors? Well, you have some here now. Do you want to speak with them?”
Thomas stirred. He answered softly, “Of course…who is here?”
Jensen nodded to Emily that it was okay to speak.
“It’s mom, Thomas. I’m here with Walter, Louise and Miriam Walton, who was at the park when you were hurt.” She looked at Miriam and she nodded back; having agreed earlier that it would be sometime down the rehabilitation process before it would be safe for Miriam to introduce herself to Thomas. Now was certainly not the right time for such a revelation.
Thomas took a few moments to reply.
“Mom?” He took a deep breath before continuing.
“I can’t see you, but I’m happy to hear your voice.”
“Louise?” They strained to hear him as his voice lowered almost to a whisper.
Louise answered, “I’m here sweetheart.
We’re all going to be here to help you past this.”
“Louise, I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to show you my moves.”
It was an inside joke, so only Emily and Louise smiled.
“That’s alright, sweetheart, but you can show me next time.”
Those words seemed to affect Thomas. The expression on what little they could see of his face changed and he seemed restless. It was several minutes before he answered. His voice trembled as he said, “I’m so sorry”
Walt interrupted, “Now, don’t you talk like that, Son. You have nothing to be sorry about. You had no way of knowing that ‘Beast’ was going to collapse. You just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Dr. Jensen tells us that you’re making excellent progress. Keep it up and before you know you’ll be walking out of here as good as new.”
They hardly heard him as he said, “That’s hard to imagine, given the way I feel right now.”
Then he added, “I sure hope you’re right,
Dad.”
Louise burst in, “You and I have some plans to make. As soon as your system can tolerate us, we’ll be here a lot to help you get better. I love you,
my Tommy.”
Those last words seem to enliven him, resulting in an involuntary rising of his bed sheet that brought smiles to the grown-ups faces and redness to Louise’s. With his strongest voice of the last few minutes, he answered, “I love you too, sweetheart. I can’t wait ‘till I can see you again.”
Dr. Jensen observed the changes in
Thomas’s voice, glanced at the monitors, saw that Thomas’s blood pressure was rising slowly and decided that it was time to cut the visit short. “I’m afraid that I’m going to have to end today’s visit, but don’t be concerned. We’ll have lots of time to visit in the weeks and months ahead. Right now,
Thomas needs to rest.”
They said goodbye to Thomas and followed the doctor out the door. As soon as they were out of range he turned to them and commented, “I think that went well for a first visit. It broke the ice and will make future visits easier. Thomas has made such extraordinary progress, but he admitted to Dr. Freenold that he felt guilty about being in the accident and although he’s been assured that the accident was unavoidable, it appears that he continues to feel guilt about letting it happen to him. I can only surmise that it has to with feeling out of out of control temporarily and totally dependent on others for every aspect of his life. I’m hoping that as his rehabilitation goes on he’ll be too busy to waste any time on remorse.”
Walter agreed, “Thomas has always been very self-confident and self-reliant. I’m sure he feels that this incident pulled all the supports out from under him.”
Dr. Jensen nodded his head. “Then we’re all going to have to be on guard to avoid any conversations with Thomas that suggest that he has lost anything. Our focus will be on his recollecting rather than regaining lost senses and memories. The differentiation between the two approaches is striking and using the technique of recollecting means that we are assuring him that he knows the subject and that we are only trying to resurrect the memory, thus avoiding the negative of forgetting or losing them.
“I was very impressed with the results of cognitive testing that Dr. Freenold conducted. At this stage, the responses to stimuli should be only around two or a three out of ten, but Thomas is responding at level eight. I hope I’m not speaking out of place, but from what I’ve seen so far, I believe that Dr. Freenold will begin concentrating more on the physical, that is dealing with the surgeries, limb mending and movement, than on the recovery of cognitive, emotional or emotional issues. Those don’t seem to have suffered from the accident.”
Emily responded, “Thank you for being candid with us Doctor. We’ll try to keep that in mind. Thank you for setting up this visit. We’ll be waiting for the next one.
“I can’t make any promises. It all depends on Thomas’s progress. At least we’ve made it
into his room. In cases of severe Traumatic Brain Injuries that’s always a major step. I’ll be in touch.”
Dr. Jensen returned to Thomas’s room. “I’m sorry that I had to cut their visit short, Thomas, but I noticed that your vitals were showing an increased level.”
“That’s okay, Doctor, it was getting hard for me anyway.” His voice had regained the strength and clarity that he exhibited in their recent talks. “Not being able to see or feel their touch was frustrating. Laying in this bed twenty-four/seven has given me a lot of time to run over in my mind exactly what it will be like when that day finally comes. This will sound strange, but as much as I wanted them here, I was glad when you ended the visit.”
“I understand, exactly. It won’t be long, Thomas, I promise. You’ve made such extraordinary progress that Dr. Freenold needed to establish a totally new set of protocols for your rehabilitation agenda. If the tests planned for this afternoon pan out, we will start the next phase of your rehabilitation. In the meantime, get as much rest as possible. Your body is still doing a lot of healing.”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Certainly.”
“How did they all look?”
“They all seemed well. Of course they looked worried, but that’s to be expected. The woman, Miriam Walton was very pale, but she was released from the hospital recently. She was at the park that night and received a concussion, then while she was in the hospital she was infected by E-
Coli and went through an agonizing time.”
“The poor woman, but why did she come to see me?”
“That’s a long story. It appears that she met your mother and father somehow and when she heard what happened to you, she volunteered to help them with your rehabilitation. She has a B. S.
in Kinesiology which is an adjunct of sports medicine. I guess your folks thought that she might be able to help, especially since she was there at the park when the accident happened. Let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth; it’s one more person pulling for you.”
“She must be a really nice person to want to help an absolute stranger.”
“Yes, I’m sure she is. Now let’s get you some rest.”
“I’ll probably say this a thousand more times before I walk out of this hospital. Thank you for everything, Doctor.”
“You’re welcome, Thomas.”
Well, so far so good. Stay tuned as this drama unfolds.
CHAPTER 48
Mike Tolliver returned to Spartanville to work on another case, but he couldn’t stop thinking of Miriam. Several times in the week since he came back, he spotted Miriam’s husband; once on the street and another time in a supper club. He recognized Nathan from pictures he had in his file.
Now that the Parkinson case is finished there is nothing keeping me here in town. I think it’s time to get on back to Owensburg and look in on Miriam. She must be lonely out there by herself.
* * *
“Hello Emily, this is Mike. Is Miriam there?”
“No. I’m sorry, Mike, she and Louise went to the mall. How have you been?
“I’m good, thanks. Say, I’m in Owensburg and I’d like to come over to see you all.”
“That would be wonderful. Walter is due home in about two hours and I’m sure Miriam and Louise will return any time now. Why don’t you come on over and wait for them? I just made a pitcher of sweet ice tea and I’m sure I can scare up some cookies.”
“How could I say no to that? I should be there in about ten minutes.”
“Great, I’ll see you then.”
When Miriam and Louise returned from shopping, Mike was standing at the door. They hugged a little longer and closer than “just friends” normally do, which didn’t escape Emily or Louise, who gave each other a wink.
Miriam asked, “Will you be in town long?”
“I’m not sure. All I know is that I’m case free for a few weeks and deserving of a little R&R.
I’m staying at the Owensburg Inn.”
“I’m so glad you’re here. I have so much to tell you.” Miriam turned to Emily, “Would you mind terribly if Mike and I went out on the sun porch to do some catching up?”
“Of course not, Louise and I have some work to do out in the kitchen. You’ll be staying for dinner, won’t you, Mike?”
“I’d be happy to.”
Miriam led him to the porch where they settled, next to each other, onto a bamboo love seat.
Mike spoke first. “I saw your husband around town a couple of times. Once he passed right by me on the street the other time I saw him in the bar of a supper club with a very young, curvaceous blonde hanging on his arm.”
Miriam showed no emotion, “He always had an eye for blondes. As the saying goes, ‘there’s no fool, like an old fool’. He didn’t waste any time, I see. I only got the divorce papers two days ago. He made me a very generous cash settlement offer, contingent on no alimony payments. That’s not a problem for me. Since I have money of my own; I really don’t need his. This way I can wash my hands of him and move on with my life.”
Mike suppressed the feeling of joy he felt. Now he wouldn’t feel guilty about pursuing another man’s wife. “You sound relieved. Were you expecting him to follow through on his threat to end your marriage?”
“I’m not really sure. A part of me felt bad because it was my issue that caused the problems between us, but when Nathan showed his real colors by totally rejecting Thomas, I wanted nothing more to do with him. Either way, I am pretty sure that our differences could not have been reconciled short of me abandoning Thomas and there is no way in hell that that is ever going to happen; especially, now.”
“What do you mean?”
“We were allowed to go into his room the other day. We had to stand behind a line again, but none of us minded. He was awake, and we could talk to him.” Tears were flowing down her cheeks as she continued, “He didn’t have that hideous helmet on and a lot of the wires and tubes you saw had been removed. He couldn’t see us because of patches over his eyes, but when Emily, Walter and Louise spoke to him, he recognized them right away. He actually looked human even with the eye patches and the headgear he still has to wear. He knew I was with them, but he thinks that I’m just there to help with his rehabilitation. His voice was weak, but that is to be expected. Dr. Jensen says that he is progressing way ahead of what they expected, given the seriousness of his injury.”
“That’s such great news. When do you see him next?”
“That depends on the progress he makes with Dr. Freenold. He’s the one that calling all the shots. I sure hope it’s soon.”
She leaned forward, and Mike guided her head onto his shoulder. “It looks as if things are moving along for you, what with your divorce and the good news about Thomas. You may not need my shoulder to cry on, after all.”
Alarmed, she looked up, “That doesn’t mean you’re leaving?”
“Me? No way. I just meant that now we can have happy thoughts to talk about and not the gloomy stuff. Don’t worry; you’re not going to get rid of me that easily.”
He leaned over and kissed her; she kissed back. After a lengthy kiss, he took her head in his hands and looked into her eyes. “I see the same feelings in your eyes that I have in my heart. I’ve loved you for some time now, Miriam, but I didn’t feel it was proper to say anything while you were still married to Nathan. Now, I want you to know how I feel.”
“I feel the same way, but I can’t rush into anything. To be completely honest with you, my mind and heart are concentrating mostly on Thomas. I don’t know if I can put much emotion into a relationship right now.”
“I understand that entirely. I wouldn’t want to get in the way of what you have to do. Look, we’re on this quest together. I’ll be here to shore you up when you need it. As long as we’re on the same track we can wait”
“You are such a lovely man. I feel so fortunate to know you.”
“I’m the fo
rtunate one. Who could have known that the day you came into my office looking for help to find your son that we would land up together now? It’s got to be Kismet.”
Miriam moved her head back to the crook of Mike’s shoulder; a comforting smile on her face.
Well, so far things seem to be working out for Miriam and Mike. Time will tell.
CHAPTER 49
Dr. Arnold R. Freenold was shaking his head as he read Thomas Mortinson’s chart. “I’m still astounded by the progress Thomas is making. I’ve done dozens of Craniectomies and no patient has ever made this kind of progress six weeks after being brought out of an induced coma. I’ve never seen such a rapid healing; his was one of the worst cases I’ve ever had to treat. He must have a good relationship with the man upstairs; that’s all I can say. He has progressed to the point where we can implant the prosthetic bone and stitch up his scalp.”
“I would be honored to assist you when you do the procedure. This will be my first observance of a Craniectomy.”
“Of course, Frederick, I would be honored to have you at my side. Clear your schedule for 8am, Wednesday morning. We might as well ride the crest of this phenomenon.”
“I’ll reserve the operating room and arrange for the synthetic skull replacement to be moved over there. Do you want to inspect it before the procedure?”
“I’ll take a look at it, but I’ve ordered these prosthetics dozens of times. As long as my specifications were followed to the letter, everything should be just fine. I’ve always had a perfect fit from them. What’s nice about the prosthetics from Chesterton, is that they make them with an eight-inch flexible edge, so that if the patient’s skull has expanded or contracted even the slightest, it will still be a perfect fit.
“You will have to inform his family about the operation and that the visiting rules will revert back to red line for five days and then blue line for another five days. Explain to them that we must take the same precautions as we did for the first procedure. I’m sure they’ll understand.”
Tenderly Beats the Lonely Heart Page 15