AllFreeNovel
Share Us
If Ethan got through surgery well and didn’t have any complications, he would probably survive. It would be a long slow recovery, and he might lose even more function, or recover less than he previously had, but he would likely survive.
I hoped.
Kate was struggling to keep from breaking down. I could see it on her face, which was haggard already from disrupted sleep due to nursing. Now, she was even more ashen and her eyes had a haunted look that suggested she thought Ethan was going to die.
There was nothing I could say to her to alleviate that fear for even I had no idea whether he would survive. His chances were about 50-50, but I wasn’t going to tell her that. If he survived surgery, they were still about even, so it was truly touch and go as far as Ethan surviving was concerned.
We sat in the waiting room for surgical patients, hoping for news of Ethan’s condition. The longer we waited, the less concerned I was. If he died, he would have probably died quickly, and if he survived, the surgery would take a while. So every passing quarter of an hour gave me hope.
Finally, Dr. Franks came to the door and waved at us. The three of us stood and went to the hallway, standing in the empty corridor with Dr. Franks He had pulled down his mask and was smiling. That was a good sign.
“Mrs. McDermott, Dr. Morgan, Mrs. Morgan,” he began. “We’re finished with Ethan’s surgery and he’s done remarkably well, considering the extent of the bleed. We were able to repair the rupture in his vein and will be treating him with medications to keep him asleep for a while to let him heal. He’ll slowly regain consciousness over the next few hours, so he’s not conscious at the moment. You can go in and see him in ICU. He’ll be there once he’s stable. They’ll take him to recovery for a while to make sure everything is stable and then bring him to ICU.”
I extended my hand and we shook. “Thank you. I appreciate it.”
“Yes, thank you,” Elaine said and she shook Dr. Frank’s hand as well. On her part, Kate smiled at him but see
med unable to speak. Of course, her eyes filled with tears and she covered them with a hand.
“Thank you,” she managed to whisper. I caught Franks’ eyes and he nodded knowingly, understanding that Kate was overcome.
“I’ll be stopping by to check on Ethan later, so we can talk further if you have any questions.”
We said another thank you and then went back into the waiting room. I hugged Kate, and she stood in my arms and let me embrace her.
“He survived the surgery,” I said in a soft voice. “Now, we have to get through the first twenty-four hours.”
Kate nodded, her face pressed against my shoulder. “I want to stay here,” she said and then she pulled away. “Can you go home and give Sophie another bottle?”
“I could bring her here for a feed, if you want.”
Kate shook her head. “I don’t want her in a hospital with all the infections.”
“I’m sure Karen will stay until midnight. She’ll give Sophie a bottle when she’s hungry.”
Kate looked up at me with huge haunted eyes. “I don’t like both of us to be away from her for so long.”
“I’ll pop over for a while and check on her, if you want.”
She nodded and closed her eyes, leaning her head against my chest. I could tell she was exhausted and so scared. She was right to be. Ethan was in a precarious position and could go either way in the next twenty-four hours. I didn’t want to leave the hospital, just in case. While he had an excellent surgical team looking after him, and would have an equally great team in the ICU, it was still dangerous. He could die.
I didn’t want to even consider it. Usually, as a neurosurgeon, I had to take an objective look at my patients and realize that for some, there was only so much I could do. I’d looked over Ethan’s CT results and his stats, and knew that his condition was critical.
No matter how good his surgeon, there was still a huge risk that he’d hemorrhage and not recover or would have irreversible brain damage that would kill him or leave him a vegetable. I knew his surgeon’s work well, and he was top rate, but even top-rated neurosurgeons lost patients. All the time. It was the nature of the beast.
I held onto Kate firmly, closed my eyes, and said a silent prayer for Ethan, who had been my second father even before I married his daughter. I felt a weight of sadness in my gut over the situation. Nothing could comfort someone who was possibly losing their father. Nothing.
I knew that only too well when my own father died. No matter how distant we had been at times over politics and how I felt he could never show or tell me how much he cared for me, I knew from Ethan that he did very much. He never had a father and didn’t know how to be one. I hoped to escape that fate.
No, that was wrong. I would escape that fate. I’d be the father to Sophie – and Liam, if I had the chance – that my father had never been to me. I’d give them more than financial security, which my own father seemed to think was all he needed to provide. I’d be their rock the way Ethan was for Kate and Heath. I’d be there, strong, sure, for their entire lives, if I had my way. And I intended to have my way.
“I’ll wait until I can see Ethan in the ICU and then I’ll run by the apartment and give Sophie a bottle,” I said and kissed Kate’s cheek. Her eyes were red, her nose a bit swollen. She forced a smile I knew she didn’t feel and then glanced away quickly, as if she’d start to weep again if we looked at each other too deeply.
I led Kate back to the small seating area we had claimed in the patient waiting room and once we were back over at our little alcove, we sat for a moment, while Elaine collected her things. It was time to move to the ICU waiting room instead.
For the next half hour, I kept a vigil with Kate and Elaine in the ICU waiting room, stopping every few moments to ask the nurses when we could see Ethan.
“He’ll be up in a few minutes,” the nurse said to me with a sympathetic smile. “They wanted to make sure he was stable before they brought him here. He should arrive soon, but we can’t predict. Every patient is unique.”
