~Part Three~


“Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...”

“Nurse!!!” Hamilton started propelling himself towards the door with his left arm, moving barely inches with his forced effort. Suddenly a nurse burst through the stiff door. Taking in the scene she turned around and shouted for the doctors.

“...iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...”

Hamilton looked back at Jacqueline. Her body had stopped shaking and the fear that he had felt before entering her room crept through him like an unforgiving plague.

“What is he doing in here?” a doctor asked the nurse, indicating towards Hamilton, as he stepped through the door.

“I don’t...”

“Well, get him back to his room!” the doctor ordered, immediately heading towards Jacqueline’s bed. The nurse had already made her way behind Hamilton and was pushing him out the door as the other surgeons entered.

“...iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...”

Hamilton’s world began spinning uncontrollably and all he could do was watch over his shoulder as the doors to the Emergency Unit swung closed behind them. Every inch of his being wanted to scream out and make this hideous nightmare come to an end. It wanted to be back in his bed just waking from a peaceful sleep, getting ready to meet Jake for their first Saturday ride through town after her being back to school for only a week. He brought his hands up, running them over his forehead and through his hair, the panic evident in his freshly tear-glazed eyes. Letting out a slow breath he brought his head up, meeting the gaze of a horror-stricken woman.

Mrs. Pratt had just arrived from the airport after her long flight from London. She had met the dean at the airport, who had been so kind as to offer her a ride to the hospital, knowing it would be too difficult to try and call a cab in the small town. They had just entered the hospital and she was inquiring about her daughter when she saw Hamilton being wheeled down the hall. She knew from the devastated look in his eyes that he had just come from Jacqueline’s room...and that something was terribly wrong. Even after he had been wheeled into his room she stood there stunned, unable to force herself forward.

“Mrs. Pratt..?  Mrs. Pratt, is there something else I can do for you?”

She snapped out of her daze as the receptionist inquired. “What..?  Oh...uh, no.  No thank you.” She slightly smiled before heading in the direction of Hamilton’s room.

The nurse had already helped him back into his bed and switched his nearly depleted oxygen tank before Jacqueline’s mom appeared in the door way. After the nurse left she made her way to the chair next to his bed and sat down. Looking into his speechless face she took his left hand in hers, waiting for the vague news. Minutes passed by before they heard a knock on the doorframe. They both looked up to see Hamilton’s father walking into the room with a uniformly solemn expression on his face.

“Hamilton.”

“Dad?”

“Your mother asked me to stop by and see how you were doing. She told me you two...” he stopped at the sound of a man clearing his throat behind him.

“I’m terribly sorry to interrupt,” the doctor said, walking into the room. “I’m Dr. Blake. The receptionist just informed me that you had arrived Mrs. Pratt, and you must be Dean Fleming,” he said, extending a hand towards Hamilton’s father.

“Yes, I am,” the dean said, taking his hand.

“Good, I wanted the chance to speak to the both of you...If you’ll follow me.” The doctor turned around and walked towards the door, with the dean following reluctantly at his heels. Jacqueline’s mom turned towards Hamilton and smiled tenderly before getting up and following them.

The dean and Mrs. Pratt followed Dr. Blake down the hall and into a small room. He indicated towards two chairs leaning against the wall and pulled a round swivel chair from beneath a desk, sitting down in front of them.

“How is she?” Monica asked, trying to conceal the worry in her voice.

“Well,” the doctor began, ”she has about a twenty five percent surface area burn on her legs. Now with burns as serious as hers, there is a lot of fluid loss from the body caused by damaged blood vessels. Your daughter’s body lost an exceptional amount of fluid this morning and at about the time you arrived at the hospital, Mrs. Pratt, she was sent into shock, and her heart stopped.”

“Is she...” Mrs. Pratt paused, unable to finish the sentence.

“No, we were able to resuscitate her and her situation is currently stable.”

Jacqueline’s mother let out the breath she had been holding in for the last ten minutes. “Is she in a lot of pain?” she asked looking down at her hands.

“Actually, with third degree burns, such as the ones your daughter has, the skin as well as the nerve endings have died leaving her experiencing very little, if no pain at all.”

“So what happens now?” Monica questioned, looking back up at the doctor.

“Well,” Dr. Blake began again, ”with surface area burns that large and deep we have to perform a procedure called skin grafting. Because her burns extend circumferentially around her legs, and burned tissue shrinks, we already had to do an escharotomy to surgically release the pulled tissue.”

“So how long will the procedure take?”

“Uh, that depends on a few things Mrs. Pratt. First we will have to clean her wounds to make sure that no germs or bacteria enter her body. The skin is the first defense we have against infection and a lot of burn victims can die because of catching pneumonia, or because their body’s own immune system ravages their organs.”

“After we have cleaned her wounds we will have to apply collagen to the wound area, which will act as a bottom layer of skin as well as a glue. We will then apply an artificial layer of skin made of silicon to the wound, which will perform as a temporary barrier against bacterial invasion until we are able to culture enough skin, from a skin sample we took, to cover her legs. That should take about four weeks.”

“Four weeks to grow skin?” the dean asked, a little surprised.

“Yes, and after those four weeks we will take off the artificial layer of silicon and apply the cultured skin, along with fibrin that will also act as a glue for the new skin. After the skin has been transplanted we will have to monitor her for a few weeks to make sure that there isn’t any infection and that the skin has adhered properly.”

“Then, if everything goes well she can start attending classes again, but she’ll have to come to the hospital in the evenings for checkups and physical therapy. She will also have to deal with a wheel chair for a few months until her legs are healed. So if she can pull herself through all of that, I’d say she has a good chance of coming out on top of this.”

“That’s so good to hear you say Dr. Blake.” Mrs. Pratt confessed, a large weight seeming to lift from her shoulders.

“She is one lucky girl.” the doctor replied, getting up from his chair and walking towards the door. “If it hadn’t been for your son pulling her out of that corner Mr. Fleming, we wouldn’t have reached her in time.” The doctor then turned into the hall and left.

* * *

Hamilton laid back after Mrs. Pratt and his father left. He wanted so desperately to know what the doctor was saying, to know if Jake was all right. After a few minutes of staring at the ceiling, the elderly nurse that had been in his room when he had woken up that morning appeared in his doorway.

When he finally realized she was there and turned towards her, she simply smiled and said, “She’s awake now, and she’s asking for you.”