Chapter
29
We had waited for over a half an hour, when Dr. Bradley
finally came into the room.
“What happened?” Heidi asked.
“I’m not sure right now.
We’ve stabilized Sonny, and we need to run some tests to determine the
problem,” Dr. Bradley said.
“Okay,” Heidi said slowly.
“I’m Sonny’s mother, Katherine Williams,” Katherine said
suddenly, standing up.
“I’m Dr. Bradley, Sonny’s doctor,” Dr. Bradley replied,
shaking her hand. He looked at
Derrin. “Are you Sonny’s father?” he
asked.
“Yes,” Derrin replied.
“My name’s Derrin Williams.”
“Nice to meet you two,” Dr. Bradley said, shaking Derrin’s
hand as well. “I need to get back to
your son so I can run the tests as soon as possible.”
“When can we get in to see him?” Derrin asked.
“When he’s back from the tests,” Dr. Bradley replied. “I’ll let you know.”
“Okay, thanks,” Katherine said.
“You’re welcome,” Dr. Bradley said, and left.
***
Meanwhile, Sammy had gone to visit Nick. When she entered his room, his blue eyes lit
up.
“Hey, honey,” Sammy greeted, kissing him gently on the
forehead.
“I’m glad you’re hear,” Nick said. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you
about.”
“Oh, really?” Sammy asked, studying him. She couldn’t tell by his face whether this
‘something’ was good or bad. “What is
it?”
Nick took Sammy’s hand in his and gave it a squeeze. “Sammy, before my surgery, I was so
scared. I was scared of dying, of
leaving you behind.”
“Nick, don’t-“ Sammy started, but he raised a finger to his
lips to silence her.
“When I woke up from the surgery, I realized how lucky I
was. I’ve been through so much in the
past through years, and I’ve survived.
But there was something else I realized. Life is too short, and it can’t be taken for
granted. I want to make the most out of
every minutes of my life. And the only
way I can do that is by spending it with the woman I love.”
Sammy stared at him, tears rising in her hazel eyes. Was he going to ask her what she thought he
was going to ask her?
“Sammy, I love you more than anything, more than life
itself. I realized that when I was
afraid I would die. I was more afraid
of losing you than losing my life. But
now that we’re together, Sammy, will you marry me?”
Sammy let out a little sob and clutched his hand
tightly. “Yes, Nick,” she
whispered. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
Nick grinned widely, and Sammy thought she could see a mist
of tears in his own eyes, but he quickly blinked them back. “Open the top drawer of my night table,” he
said, motioning to the table beside his bed.
Sammy did so, and sitting just inside the top drawer was a
little black velvet box. Smiling, she
took it out and slowly opened it. A
beautiful diamond ring twinkled up at her from inside.
“Oh, Nick,” she breathed.
“How did you get this?”
“I had my dad buy it for me this morning,” Nick said,
slipping it onto her finger. It fit
perfectly.
“It’s beautiful,” Sammy said, admiring the sparkling
ring. “Just beautiful.”
Suddenly, the door opened, and in came Brian. They could tell by his face that something
was horribly wrong.
“Brian?” Sammy asked worriedly. “What happened?”
“It’s Sonny,” Brian said and hurriedly explained to them
what happened. Sammy quickly kissed
Nick goodbye, and left the room with Brian, heading back to the waiting room to
comfort Heidi.
***
Back in the waiting room, we waited some more, anxious to
find out how Sonny’s tests came out. I
sat between Heidi and Sammy, who had returned awhile earlier from Nick’s room,
but none of us really kept a conversation going. The tension in the room was too great for
that.
But then, I happened to glance down at Sammy’s hands, and
it was then that I noticed a beautiful diamond ring on the ring finger of her
left hand. My eyes widened in shock.
“Hey, Sammy?” I asked.
She turned towards me. “Where did
you get that ring?” I asked, casually, pointing at it.
She grinned widely and whispered, “Nick just proposed to
me.”
My mouth dropped open.
“When?!” I cried.
“Right before we found out about Sonny,” she said.
“Wow, Sammy, congratulations!” I gushed, a little too
loudly.
Everyone looked up.
“At what?” Heidi asked.
Sammy and I exchanged glances. “Well, guys, this may not be the right time
to announce this… but Nick and I are engaged,” Sammy said, holding out her left
hand to show them her engagement ring.
Everyone looked surprised.
“When did that happen?” Brian asked, shocked.
“Before you came in,” Sammy said, giggling slightly. Brian raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“Well, congrats,” Brian said.
“Yeah, congratulations,” the rest of them echoed.
“Thanks, guys,” Sammy replied, smiling.
We all sat back, feeling a little better, just waiting for
some good news on Sonny.
***
Unfortunately, no good news came. When Dr. Bradley came in later, just the
expression on his face told us something was wrong.
“The tests show that Sonny has some more internal
bleeding,” he told us gravely.
“More?” Heidi asked.
“But didn’t you get it all during his surgery?”
“We thought we did, but some more appeared,” Dr. Bradley
replied.
“So you messed up, is that what you’re saying?” Derrin
challenged.
“This is something that we could have easily missed during
surgery,” Dr. Bradley said. “As doctors,
my surgical team and I try our best to fix up our patients the best we
can. Sometimes, things go un-noticed,
and it’s not always our faults. Some
problems are just harder to detect.”
“So, what are you going to do about this problem?”
Katherine asked.
“Well, the only way we can stop the bleeding is to take
Sonny into surgery again,” Dr. Bradley said.
“Unfortunately, Sonny also has an infection.”
“An infection?” Katherine asked.
“Yes,” Dr. Bradley replied.
“It’s not an uncommon thing for a person to get an infection of some
sort after a major surgery. Normally, while
these infections are serious, they can be treated. But infections can cause problems during
surgery.”
“What exactly are you trying to tell us, Dr.?” Derrin
asked, narrowing his eyes at Dr. Bradley.
“Listen, Mr. Williams, I’m going to be straight with you,”
Dr. Bradley said. “Your son needs
surgery as soon as possible, or he will die from the internal bleeding. The problem is, he has an infection, which
can cause some serious complications during surgery.”
Heidi’s eyes filled with tears as she understood what he
was saying. Without the surgery, Sonny
would die for sure. But even if he had
the surgery, the risk of death was still there.
“Sonny’s unconscious right now, so I can’t ask him what he
wants. You’ll have to tell me what you
think is best,” Dr. Bradley said, looking from Katherine, to Derrin, and
finally, to Heidi.
“Do the surgery,” Katherine whispered, her voice thick with
tears.
“Katherine!” Derrin said sharply. “Didn’t you hear what he said about what
could happen during the surgery?”
Katherine turned and flashed her ex husband an icy
glare. “Look, Derrin, with the surgery,
our boy at least has a chance! Without
it, he’ll die for sure! Of course I want
him to have the surgery!”
Derrin shut his mouth, rather shocked at his ex wife’s
outburst.
“I agree,” Heidi said shakily. “He’s my husband, and I’ll do anything to
save him. Please, do the surgery, if you
think it will help save his life.”
Dr. Bradley nodded.
“Okay then,” he said. “We need to
start getting him prepped for the OR soon.
I’ll let you all have some time with him first, but then we need to get
going.”
“Katherine, you, Heidi, and Derrin should go see him
first,” Brian said. “You’re his family.”
“Thank you,” Katherine said, gratefully. “Come on, Heidi, let’s go see him.” She took Heidi’s arm, purposely ignoring
Derrin, and the two women walked out of the room. Derrin scowled a moment, then stood and
followed them out the door to see his son.
***
Katherine and Derrin stopped arguing long enough to spend some
time with their son, and then they left the room, giving Heidi some time alone
with her husband.
Trying to hold back her tears, Heidi sat next to Sonny’s
bed, clutching his hand. Once his
parents were gone, she couldn’t hold back anymore, and a flood of tears flowed
from her eyes. “Oh, Sonny,” she
murmured. “I love you so much. What would I ever do without you?” She cried some more and tenderly ran her
fingers down his cheek. “Please, baby,
please get through this. You’re strong,
I know, and you can make it. Just fight,
baby. Fight, and never give up. I love you so much, and I know you can get
through this if you just keep fighting.
Please,” Heidi begged, and soon, she was crying so hard she could no
longer talk. The tears just kept coming.
Soon, a nurse came into the room. “I’m sorry to interrupt, ma’am, but we need
to get Mr. Williams ready for his surgery,” she said sympathetically. “Can I take you back to the waiting room?”
Heidi nodded, feeling numb.
She bent and brushed her lips over Sonny’s, afraid this would be the
last time she would ever get to kiss him.
“I love you, Sonny,” she whispered a final time, giving his hand a final
squeeze. Then, tears nearly blinding
her, she left the room.
***
Eventually, it was time for Sonny to be taken to the
OR. Dr. Bradley, along with a group of
nurses, wheeled Sonny out of his room and into the hall, so all of us could say
our final goodbyes before he was taken into surgery.
The Williams let the rest of us say goodbye first. Brian and AJ stepped up, followed by Sammy,
and then me. Finally, Heidi, Katherine,
and Derrin all said goodbye to Sonny.
Then, it was time. I listened to
the clatter of wheels, as Sonny was wheeled away on a gurney. Once he had disappeared down the hall, I wrapped
Heidi in a warm hug.
“There’s a surgical waiting room upstairs,” I said. “Let’s go wait up there.”
“Okay,” she said, sniffling, her eyes misty.
The whole group of us walked down the hall to the elevators
and took them to the surgical floor. Then
we walked to the waiting room, which was empty, and sat down, nervously waiting
for Sonny’s surgery to be over.
***
An hour passed, and suddenly, the closed door of the
waiting room opened. I drew in a breath,
immediately thinking that it was Dr. Bradley, there to tell us that something
had gone wrong. But it wasn’t Dr.
Bradley at all.
“Nick!” Sammy cried, her eyes lighting up, as a nurse
pushed Nick into the room in a wheelchair.
I smiled as the nurse parked his chair next to Sammy and
left. Nick looked awfully pale, and he
was hooked up to an oxygen tank, as well as an IV stand. But it was good to see him up and out of bed.
“I begged Dr. Coleman to let me come up here,” Nick
explained. “I was worried about Sonny.”
“It should be awhile before he’s out of surgery,” I
said. “You might be here awhile.”
“That’s ok,” Nick said.
“It’s nice to be out of that room and that bed.”
Sammy just smiled and held his hand, glad that he was there
to calm her nerves during this ordeal.
***
Three more hours passed, and I could tell everyone was
getting worried. I tried to settle my
nerves by telling myself that this surgery would take a long time. But it had been four hours since he had gone
in. I could only pray that nothing had
gone wrong.
Suddenly, the door opened again. We all looked up to see Dr. Bradley standing
in the doorway. My heart leapt in my
throat, not knowing what to expect.
I glanced quickly around the room. Everyone looked nervous, and Heidi and Katherine
both looked ready to faint.
“The internal bleeding was more severe than we had
expected,” Dr. Bradley started. “Also,
there were some complications. We tried
our very best, but we couldn’t save Sonny.
I’m very sorry.”
My heart skipped a beat, and for a moment, I couldn’t
breathe, I was so shocked. I had been
through tragedies, but no one close to me had ever died before. This was something new to me.
Almost immediately, the tragic sounds of soft crying filled
the small waiting room. No one spoke,
not even Derrin, who always seemed to have something to say.
Finally, Katherine spoke.
“C…can I see him?” she choked out, looking up at the doctor with
tear-filled eyes.
“Of course,” Dr. Bradley said. “Come with me.”
She stood, along with Derrin and Heidi, and they slowly
followed Dr. Bradley out of the room, their heads hung.
The rest of us remained behind, filled with sorrow. It had seemed that everything had been
getting better, but now, tragedy had struck once again, and this time, there
was no way Sonny could be saved. He was
gone.
***
