Chapter 78 - Give Me Just One More Try

 

The waiting room door opens and everyone turns their head to see who it is, the sound of a dropping pin could be heard as they all went dead quiet..  The doctor scans the room and finds Jon.  As he walks over to him, Jon looks him in the eye and can see that it isn't good news.  His heart sinks and his head starts to throb.

Monica's mother jumps up and says, "How is she doctor?  How is the baby?"  The doctor never takes his eyes off of Jon, and Jon notices it.  He stands and faces the doctor, wringing his hands and holding his breath.

"She's stable now, but we had some complications." he exhales hard. 

"What kind of complications?"  Jon asks, hating to hear what may come next.

"When we drilled the hole in her skull, we weren't ready for the amount of blood that came out, telling us that she still had a very active bleed."  Jon looks at him, waiting for his next words, having an idea of what was coming next.  "We had to drill a bigger hole and I had to operate, stopping the bleed."

"You stopped it?" he fires off, picturing the worst, "Did you get it to stop?"

The doctor nodded his head, "I was able to get it to stop."

Jon's dad stepped into the conversation and said, "So she'll be okay."

The doctor looked at Jon's dad, scanned the room again and went on to tell Jon, "With the amount of blood that she lost, we had to transfuse her and when we were doing that, she went into cardiac arrest."  Jon fell to his knees, he can't believe what he's hearing.  The doctor leaned over and helped him back to his feet, knowing that Jon has just heard some of the worst news that he ever could, but the worst is yet to come.

Richie can't take that this is going on so long and he's just as worried about his little sister as anyone else, "Tell us what's going on doc, enough of the pieces please." 

Dr. Carrier, with his hand on Jon's shoulder says, "She started to hemorrhage and we were unable to save the baby."  Jon sits on the chair, his head between his knees.  His mother stands next to him and rubs his back as the doctor continues, "We knew that she was spotting when she went into surgery, and that in itself isn't necessarily an alarm, but with a transfusion we needed to add a blood thinner - furthering our concern about the brain injury."

"How did she lose the baby?" Monica's dad questions, "You operated on her brain and she loses the baby?"

"I'm sorry for your loss, however, we needed to save Monica.  Our focus was on her surviving the surgery."

"IS MY WIFE GOING TO BE OKAY?"  Jon stands, getting upset that all of this is happening.  "Can I see her?"

Everyone looks at Jon, no one dares to say a word.  What would they say?  What should they say.  His mother is a mess and unable to keep herself together.  She knows that she'll only make it worse if she says anything.  Monica's mom is the same way, she's sitting in a chair saying silent prayers, in tears that her daughter is so badly injured and that she just lost a grandbaby.  The fathers are just there, waiting for Jon to need either one of them, and the same goes for the band.  Jon and Richie have gotten close over the last several weeks and even Richie didn't dare talk.  All he could do is stand by and wait for Jon to need him, to lean on him.

"Yes, I'll take you to her right now."  Dr. Carrier takes him by the elbow, gently leading him to the doorway. 

As they about walk out the door, Tico asks, "Dr. is Monica going to be okay?"

Dr. Carrier looks back at the group and says, "She has a long road ahead of her."  He gives a slight smile and he and Jon leave the room.

Jon pulls back the curtain that surrounds Monica's ICU bed and immediately covers his mouth to muffle his cry.  He cannot believe what he's looking at.  She has more bandages, more wires and even more beeps than when she went into surgery.  Her eyes are black, blue and swollen and the tube that's down her throat has a lot more tape holding it in place.  He notices that she has an IV in each arm and that her feet are elevated.  To his right, he looks to the doctor, "Is she in pain?"

He shakes his head no.

"How do you know?"

Pointing to the monitors, "That's how we can tell.  Her vitals are stable, and her EEG and EKG are clear and normal.  If she were in pain, we would know."

"Can I touch her?"

The doctor smiles, "Yes, you can touch her.  Sit with her, talk to her.  She can hear you."  He pats Jon on the back, "If you need anything, use the call button - the nurses are just around the corner."

Jon whispers, "Thank you, Dr. Carrier."

"I'll stop back and check on things in a little while.  She's going to be okay Jon."

Jon stands at the foot of her bed for a few moments and looks at her.  In his mind he hears, we were unable to save the baby.  With those words echoing in his head, he thinks to himself, 'She is going to be heartbroken when she finds out.'

He steps up to her side and takes her hand.  The hand that just a few days ago her put a ring on.  The hand that he held just before they were plowed down by the car.  The hand that he held when they were JUST a family, with a baby on the way.