Chapter
20
The silence in the room was nerve wrecking. Every once in a while you
could hear a sob escape one of the young men in the room. They have been
sitting in this room waiting for over an hour on news of Brian. With every
minute that passed, their hope faded little by little.
A soft knock on the door brought the boys back from their thoughts. A
older gentleman in a white coat opened the door and stuck his head in.
"Excuse me, but I am Dr. Adele and I’m taking care of Brian Littrell
during his stay here. I need to discuss with you what happened to him before
you may see him." After a few moments of silence, Howie finally spoke with
his slightly hoarse voice, "Yes sir, please come in and have a seat. We
have been waiting anxiously to hear news of Brian."
The doctor walked in quickly and shut the door quietly behind him, then
he took a seat in a chair that faced the boys then the boys quietly introduce
themselves. "Can you gentleman please tell me of any strange behavior you
noticed from Mr. Littrell before this happened?" asked Dr. Adele.
Kevin slowly cleared his throat and spoke in a strained voice. "Um
yes sir I did notice something. One morning Brian woke up and he looked pale to
me. I asked him about it and he just laughed it off saying he was alright. Even
thought I had a feeling that something was wrong, I quickly dismissed that
feeling and we made our way to dance practice. About halfway through, we broke
into groups to work on our dancing and Brian was in my group along with A.J. As
time passed I noticed that he kept looking at the clock. I once caught his eye
and asked him if he was ok and he told me yes and just kept dancing. Finally it
was time for lunch and I was about to follow Brian to ask him what was wrong
but a member of our management team stopped me and told me that he needed to
speak with me about make up dates for some concerts we have missed. When the
meeting was finished, Nick came running up to me and was saying that he found
Bri in the cafeteria and that something was wrong with Brian. I quickly made my
way to the cafeteria and found Brian with his head on the table. After a few
moments of coaxing him, he finally lifted his head and I was shocked at how
sickly he looked and it disturbed me. I asked Nick to go get the others and
tell them to come to the bus because I was taking Bri to the hotel to rest.
After Nick left I asked Bri if he needed any help and he got mad at me and
started yelling at me. I was shocked because he is normally peaceful and hardly
never yells at anyone. He tried standing up and walking away, but his legs gave
out and he almost fell to the floor, but I caught him in time. I lifted him in
my arms and carried him outside. On our way to the bus, he rested his head on
my shoulder and it was then that I realized how warm he was. By the time we got
on the bus, Bri had fallen asleep so I put him in my bunk which was closest to
the front of the bus and walked outside to wait for the rest of the guys. After
they got on, we left and we all fell asleep in the bunks. I think it was about
30 minutes after we had left that I thought I heard someone let out a cry of
pain. I thought that maybe I had imagined it, but I decided to investigate
anyways. I went to where Bri was and it looked like he was asleep."
Kevin sighed deeply and took a drink of water from the bottle that Nick
had offered him. "I then checked for fever and he still had a pretty high
one, so I was searching for some Aspirin in my bookbag when he woke up. I asked
him how he was and he said he felt better and suddenly chuckled. I asked him
what that was for and he said that he was glad he felt so much better and he
thanked me for carrying him to the bus. I finally found the aspirin and gave
them to him and told him to go back to sleep. We finally got to the hotel and
checked in then we all fell asleep. I woke Brian up some time later and brought
him something to eat and told him to get ready because we had to be at the
venue 2 hours from then. We got to the venue and had a quick sound check then
went on stage. That is the last time I...I talked to him" quietly said Kevin
as he let out a loud sob.
Dr. Adele reached out his arm and patted Kevin on the shoulder,
"Thank you very much for telling me this Mr. Richardson. This information
may help us assess to Brian’s needs. Now Mr. Carter can you tell me what
happened when you found Mr. Littrell in the cafeteria?"
Nick took a deep breath before he started to relive what had happened.
"Um, well after Howie and I got finished practicing, I decided I would
make my way down to the cafeteria to get some lunch and see if Bri was down
there. I got down there and got my lunch and spotted Brian’s jacket. I made my
way over there and I noticed that his lunch was pushed away and that he was
resting his head in his arms that were on the table. I found it kind of strange
that Brian would get his favorite food and not eat it so I asked him if he was
alright and he said nothing was wrong. I got frustrated because I knew
something was wrong with him and I asked him again. This time he slowly lifted
his head and the first thing I noticed was how gray his eyes looked. Usually
they were a bright blue and it kind of shocked me to see how stormy gray they
were. I then lifted my hand to his forehead and he sighed and then when I
pulled away, his head returned to its original position and I told him to stay
put and I left to find Kevin. Then Kevin came and I went to go find the guys
then we left for the hotel. After we got to the hotel and was resting, Bri woke
me up to tell me that I had to get up and he had some food for me. He also told
me that he was gonna take a shower while I ate. He was in the shower almost an
hour and it worried me because he usually only took 20 minutes in the shower so
I asked him if he was ok and he said yes after a few moments. Then he turned
off the shower and came out. After he got ready we left for the venue and then
we started the concert. The next thing I knew I heard a gasp come from the
crowd and heard a loud thump. I turned around and found Bri lying on the floor
grasping his chest and then he started thrashing around. I screamed for someone
to call 911 and then he stopped thrashing around and looked up at Kevin and Kev
grabbed his hand and then a moment later Bri stopped breathing. I remembering
screaming. Kevin then snapped into action a few moments later and tried to give
him CPR. Brian still wasn’t breathing so Kevin started screaming and about that
time, the paramedics came and also started CPR on him. Oh god they said that he
might have Brain damage. Oh God." said Nick as tears quickly rose to his
eyes and fell down his flushed cheeks.
"Thank you for telling me what happened Nick." said Dr. Adele
softly as he attempted to comfort the young man.
"Are you gonna tell us what is wrong with Brian, Dr. Adele? Please
don’t keep us waiting any longer. It is driving me crazy." whispered A.J.
"Yes of course, sorry about
that gentlemen, I hope you will understand that I had to get information from
you gentlemen also to better understand what happened leading up to this.
Brian’s heart is very weak. It always has been since he was born. Another small
hole has developed on the left side of his heart within we would say the past
year or so. Because he was so weak, the case of pneumonia he developed has
caused his heart more strain and the hole has grown much larger recently. It is
currently too large to do surgery on, so his only hope is a heart
transplant." the doctor said as his voice trailed off and he allowed this
information to be processed by the young men in front of him.
After the boys recovered from their shock Howie asked with a shaky
voice, "Is there anything else you need to tell us doctor?"
The doctor took a slow deep breath as he prepared himself to tell the
boys more devastating news about Brian.