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“No, Lenny,” Peter says as he rushes towards me. And the rest of the family rushes forward.
“Joseph is alive,” I say, and I can physically feel the relief in the room.
“But?” Aryan says. Figures the field medic would know there’s more.
“But he may be paralyzed. He had a lot of damage but the most severe one is his back injury. He had several crushed vertebrae but due to the amount of injuries and the swelling, I will not know if he is paralyzed, and if he is, the severity of the paralysis. He has a very long road ahead. He is in recovery right now and can’t have visitors yet. As soon as he can, I will come tell you, but you will still have to go back a maximum two at a time.” I find myself in a barrage of hugs. Once I get the chance, I grab Peter’s hand and go back to my office. I need a moment and I need Peter. As soon as I close my office door, I break down in his arms. I am so tired; I am mentally and physically exhausted.
“I was so scared, Benny. I didn’t know what I would do if I actually lost him. And we lost him SEVEN times Peter! Seven! When he wakes up, I do not know what condition he is going to be in. The last time he flatlined, it took us four minutes and twenty seconds to get him back! I couldn’t tell them that; they were hanging on by a thread. I know the look on their faces. I have seen that look on countless families' faces; it’s a look of defeat. I will never let them know how close to losing him they got, and I hope there is no long lasting mental or physical damage when he wakes up.”
Peter walks me to my sofa, sits and pulls me down in his lap and just holds me. The wait to see if he’d live through the surgery is over, but a new wait begins. I didn’t realize I had fallen asleep until Peter gently wakes me up. I check my watch and realize it is just about time for Joseph to be able to get visitors and I know they must be anxious to see him.
“I better get down to recovery so they can see him for themselves,” I say to Peter as I quickly move to get back to work.
“I’ll let them know,” Peter says as we both walk out of the room and head in opposite directions.
Once I get to the recovery room, I look in on Joseph and he is stable, so I check with the nurse to see if he is ready to receive visitors.
“Hey Tiffany, can Mr. Gideon start to receive visitors yet?”
“Actually, if you give me about thirty minutes, they can come see him in his room. We’re just waiting on transportation to come get him. He has stabilized and has been doing well so we are moving him to a private suite. He’s putting in a hell of a fight. Y’all can just head up to room 6110.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. It runs in the family. Thanks Tiffany.”
“No problem, Chief,” Tiffany says.
I step into the waiting room and all eyes fall on me. Taking a deep breath, I tell them the good news. The relief on their faces was palpable. We clean the waiting room up and prepare to go up. By the time that was done, more than enough time had passed and we began heading up to be with Joseph. We got there before they moved him, and after I double check they are moving him here, we begin to try to get enough chairs in the room for everyone to sit. Even though the room is a deluxe suite with its own seating area, the Gideons are a huge group of men, so the room got really small very quickly. After getting the logistics correct, we settle in, and wait for them to bring Joseph to the room.
“Lenny, it’s been over an hour, and he is still not here. Can you check to make sure nothing went wrong?”
“Yeah, let me call down to Tiffany,” I say as I hustle out of the room to go to the nurse’s station and call down to recovery.
“Tiff, has there been some complications with Mr. Gideon?”
“No, everything was fine. Why?”
“He’s not up here yet, so I thought maybe something happened after I talked to you.”
“Chief Anderson, transportation picked up Mr. Gideon as soon as you left recovery. He should have been in his room.”
“We have to begin a search for him now! Call transportation and find the person who came for him. Take the walkies and let’s begin a search. I will inform the family.”
“Yes ma’am.”
I stand at the nurse’s station and take a deep breath. They are going to flip this hospital over once I tell them that their brother is missing.
“Lenny,” Peter says with concern.
“We are conducting a search of the hospital because Joseph is missing.”
