Truths Unveiled - By Kimberly Alan Page 0,78

“Where is she?”

“Room 3.”

Tom ran past, then slowed to a somewhat normal pace to stop himself from charging into the trauma room. It overflowed with medical staff members. He noted Susan’s reflection in the mirrored lamp overhead. She lay still on the gurney. Splotches of dark crimson blood contrasted with her pale body.

Tom could only stand there. Instinct told him to demand answers. Experience told him to stay out of the way and let the team do their job.

“We couldn’t get the tube in,” he heard a paramedic report.

Unable to move, Tom watched Pam and another ED doctor try the same procedure. It didn’t work. Frustrated, Pam threw the intubation tube to the ground. “You’re right. There’s too much damage.”

Trying to remain calm, Tom studied the monitors. Susan was breathing. Just barely. At the same time, he prayed for her and A.J. Please help her and keep him safe, Lord. Please bring him home now.

“Get the respiratory tech up here. Stat!” Pam commanded.

“The place is hopping this afternoon,” a nurse reported. “They’re running slow.”

As if reading his mind, Tom caught Pam glancing at him. For an instant, their eyes met and held. He could read her like a book. I’m worried, she told him silently. This isn’t good. Aloud, she warned, “We can’t wait!”

They both thought the same thing: Susan was fighting for her life. She couldn’t breathe. Only an emergency tracheotomy could help her now.

A nurse approached him with a clipboard. “You’re Susan’s medical decision proxy. If you consent to treatment, including surgery, please sign here.” She pointed to the last line on the page.

Tears blurring his vision, Tom grabbed the pen and scribbled his name. “Do it!”

Pam acknowledged him with a single nod.

“Betty, get me a scalpel. I’m going to trach her,” the other doctor directed. Pam quickly prepped Susan’s neck with Betadine. Tom knew the procedure. He also understood why Pam deferred it to the other doctor. Though he had no doubt she could put aside her personal opinions about Susan and give her the past care possible, this was the smarter approach.

Tom watched the doctor make a small incision in Susan’s throat and insert a tube. It would bypass the traumatized portion of her windpipe, letting her breathe.

Without warning, Tom felt a wave of nausea threaten to overwhelm him. Years of training and experience prepared him for almost any kind of emergency. But nothing prepared him for this. The team members gathered in a tight circle around the patient. He could hardly see what was happening.

“Here we go!” he heard the doctor say. “Give me the tube.”

Within seconds, everyone sighed with relief. They backed away from the table. Tom took the opportunity to move forward and watch Susan’s pale, ashen face return close to its normal color.

Pam looked at Tom.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

She nodded once then said, “She needs the OR.”

After a few minutes, with tubes and wires secured, he watched Susan being rushed to the elevator.

“Dad?”

Tom turned to find both his sons, their faces stricken with fear, running into his arms.

Truths Unveiled

Truths Unveiled

Chapter Forty-Seven

Satisfied that Susan was in the best of hands, Pam brushed away a tear and fled to her office. Thankfully, it was empty.

Seeing Tom just now really rocked her. They’d spoken two nights before, but to no avail. To meet now, under these awful circumstances, made their situation seem even worse. She ached to run to him. To comfort him. At the same time, she needed to touch him. To feel his arms around her.

Last night, and today, without him, she’d kept it together. But just barely. She missed him terribly. Numbing her mind and her heart, she went about her business, forcing her thoughts away from everything except her job. And she succeeded. But only to a certain extent. Sure, she was efficient, but only in a detached sort of way. Not like before, when her work was her salvation; her means to escape the pain of her past and to ward off the loneliness.

Now, seeing Tom’s reaction to Susan’s condition crushed any hopes she may have had about getting back together with him. His stricken expression, those hooded eyes rimmed red with tears, and his tight, drawn mouth and clenched fists clearly portrayed his devotion for the woman. It also convinced Pam that she had been right to end their relationship.

And he should feel that way about Susan, she reasoned. They had been married at one time. They had children together. And they were still so tied together emotionally, even