Part 4 - Learning Medical Basics

After seeing Al the first time that morning, I found my way back to the others to let them know how she was. While we were talking, two police officers, Constable Anne Martin and Senior Constable Geoff Raines, had joined us. They started asking all sorts of questions about Al; about our love life, if she were having an affair, if I was having an affair, if anyone would want to hurt her and act on it, etc. It was very upsetting. It wasn't until I was nearly screaming that they decided to let me know why they were asking all these questions.

Senior Constable Raines told us that Al had been deliberately hit by a car in the parking lot.

"What makes you think that?" I gasped.

The police told us that the doctors had called them when they had found an imprint of a 'Toyota' symbol on Al's right thigh. Apparently the bruise was very vivid and there were paint flecks and glass in Al's wounds.

"We've been to the crime scene and the evidence supports our theory. There were no skid marks in the area indicating that the driver had tried to brake at any point before, during or after the incident." revealed Senior Constable Raines.

Constable Martin told us that the driver would usually stop or make an anonymous phone call to police if it was an accident but neither had happened in Al's case.

After these revelations I managed to stutter through the small amount of detail I had of Al's night to create my statement.

Graham and ET didn't really have much to add to that except what they had done to help Al and where they had found her. They left their number with me and I promised to call them when things changed. They left a short time later, but not before ET got me another hot chocolate - he was sweet.

After they'd left and I'd sat with dad for a while, I managed to convince him to leave as well. He needed to spend some time with mum and maybe call everyone to give them updates. He agreed to return when visiting hours started up.

Once alone, a nurse helpfully informed me where Dr. Phil usually had breakfast after working the night shift. It was only a short walk so I set off hoping he was still there.

'The Couch' was a small coffee shop. It served a nice breakfast and the smells made my stomach grumble, reminding me I'd missed dinner.

I found Dr. Phil in a corner, looking tired. He was leaning his head on the wooden rail of the window with his eyes closed. The plush leather corner seat made him look relatively comfortable.

I paid his bill before heading over to the table.

"I'm offering a bribe," I spoke slowly and watched his reactions carefully. "I've already paid for your breakfast." His eyebrows rose as he looked at me sceptically. I handed him the receipt for confirmation and he just nodded. "Can I join you?" All of a sudden I was shy, unsure if I should be there. The man had just worked God knows how long and I was trying to intrude on his personal time. "Ask a few questions?" I mumbled.

He smiled a little and sighed before resigning himself to a future breakfast with me. "Pull up a chair Miss Michaels." As he said this, the waitress arrived with his 'big breakfast' of toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, hash browns, and baked beans.

"Thank you," I whimpered as my mouth watered. He'd seemed aloof at the hospital but, looking at his tired movement and darting glances, I could see it was just armour he used.

I apologised for interrupting his breakfast then launched into the questions I'd already prepared in my head.

He seemed surprised at first that I wanted to know about all of the equipment and how it worked. I guess he'd expected me to ask about her chances and launch into tales about our life together to try and get him to produce a miracle. I wasn't looking for that, I wanted solid facts. I'd already had my miracle - she was still breathing.

I found out about the equipment in Al's room. The tube in her chest was attached to a machine that was helping to reinflate her lung. The tubes in her mouth were attached to a machine to control her rate and depth of breathing so as not to do more damage to the lung that was being reinflated. There were some wires attached to her left hand to monitor her heart rate and oxygen levels. These were also attached to her right hand to investigate whether there had been blood vessel damage when the arm had been broken or when they had reset it. There were wires attached to her head (under a bandage) to monitor the blood flow in her brain, and an intraventricular catheter to monitor the intracranial pressure and allow the doctors to release cerebrospinal fluid if necessary. Al's right shin wasn't in a cast, as they wanted to be able to remove the sutures when they healed before doing that. They also believed that a cast wasn't imperative while she was unconscious and had a steel rod holding the bone in place. The sutures on Al's face were from the placement of a plate in her cheekbone and the bandage on her shoulder was for her broken collarbone.

There was a lot of information for me to take in and Dr. Phil ate in silence as I processed all of that. Eventually I managed to ask about the side effects and risks of her coma.

"Coma is a difficult thing to talk about because the brain is something we don't fully understand," he replied. "People can wake up with no side effects or they can be damaged in some way that we don't understand and can't fix." He paused to take another bite of his toast. "The main risk is the length of the coma. The longer she stays unconscious, the less her chances of a full recovery become."

"How long until permanent damage starts to happen?" I asked anxiously.

He looked me in the eye before turning away and mumbling "Usually three weeks."

Another few minutes went by while I processed this. My Al had three weeks to wake up before she would start being injured by the 'healing sleep' her body had put her in.

I had more questions but before I could ask them Dr. Phil handed me his card. He wrote his mobile number on the back and told me to wait awhile, sleep on what I had already heard and understood, then ask more questions.

"The mobile number goes straight to my pager if I'm at work," he told me helpfully. I smiled at him and offered to get his breakfast next time he was here. He laughed and said he'd like that. I decided there and then that I liked him.

Continued...