Jamie Brodie 01 - Cited to Death

“Ben’s okay?”
    “Yeah. He’s got a concussion and lost a good bit of blood, but he’ll be fine.”
    I wrote, “Wray confessed?”
    “No. She’s lawyered up, and Andy still isn’t talking. But since we’re all alive and well, she has no chance of getting away with anything.”
    I blinked once and laid down the paper. The burst of adrenaline that had shot through me when I saw Pete was already failing me. Pete started to say something else, but Melissa came back in. “Sorry, guys, but I’ve got to limit you to ten minutes per hour.”
    “Okay.” Pete kissed my forehead. “I’ll see you later. Don’t go anywhere.”
    I’d have stuck my tongue out at him if I could.
    I must have dozed back off, because the next thing I knew, my dad was in the room. "Hey, you." He reached over and squeezed my hand. "How are you feeling?"
    I made a see-saw motion with my hand and pantomimed pulling the breathing tube out.
    My dad nodded. "Yeah - your doctor stuck his head in a little while ago and said he'd be back. I think he's planning to do that."
    I picked up the paper and pen from where they’d fallen on my lap. “What time is it?”
    “It’s 1:30. You went back to sleep for a while.”
    Jeez. I did more than doze off, then. I wrote, “Any confessions?”
    “Nope, not yet. Although Kevin figures they can get the young guy to agree to a deal. His parents are leaning on him pretty hard to do that.”
    The curtain parted, and Dr. Weikal strode in. "There he is, wide awake! How are you feeling?"
    I made the same see-saw motion and pointed at the tube.
    "Yes. First I need to take a look at your oxygenation..." He pressed a button on one of the machines to my right, and a strip of paper printed out. He looked it over. "Very good. You've been at more than 90% saturation for several hours now." He moved to my side. "Okay, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to unhook the ventilator, and listen to your lungs while you've still got the tube in. If it sounds good, we'll take it out." He unfastened the tube and moved it to the side. I took in a breath on my own. My rib muscles were pretty sore. It felt a bit strange to not have the machine kick in. I'd gotten that used to it in such a short time.
    "Okay, sit forward a little for me." I did. Dr. Weikal put his stethoscope in his ears and placed the flat piece on my back. "Take a deep breath, in and out."
    I breathed several times. He moved the stethoscope around, listening closely, then stepped back and pulled the earpieces out. "Sounds good. Does it feel all right?"
    I nodded.
    "Okay, then, let's get that thing out." He slowly and gently pulled all the tape loose from my face, deflated the little balloon that was hanging from the tube, and got a firm grip on the tube itself. "Now, take in another breath - now breathe out." As I breathed out, he pulled. Ugh. It felt as bad as I had imagined, but it was over quickly. I had a coughing fit, and Dr. Weikal poured me a glass of water. "Okay?"
    I drank, handed the glass back, and managed to croak out, "Okay." It hurt to talk.
    "Your throat and voice are going to be a little scratchy for a while, but that should clear up pretty quickly. We’ll keep you on liquids for today - milkshakes, soup, ice cream. If everything goes well for the rest of the day, you can go to a regular room in the morning."
    “Not home?”
    “Not tomorrow. You were in severe status asthmaticus. If everything still looks good tomorrow, you can go home Monday. Stay hydrated. Respiratory therapy will be around with a nebulizer treatment soon.”
    I leaned back against the pillows. "Awesome."
    He grinned. "Great. The nurse will come in a few minutes to take this away-" he patted the ventilator - "and hook up a tube to give you some oxygen flow through your nose. I'll come back and check on you this evening." He waved at us and left.
    Nurse Melissa came to collect the ventilator and my dad. I spent the next several hours getting nebulizers, drinking water, and eating ice cream. I hadn’t thought about peeing until I’d been awake a few hours, at which point Pete helpfully pointed out that I had a catheter in. Great – another tube that would have to be pulled out.
    That happened the next morning – yeowch! – and then I was transferred to a regular room. I was still getting nebulizers but didn’t have to use the oxygen any more. My oxygenation had dropped back into the 80s after the ventilator tube came out, but never got lower than that. And I