Love's Second Chance (Second Chances #1)(48)
“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 come 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.