Chapter
9
Half an hour
later, a doctor came out to talk to Kevin and Howie.
"Are you
the two that were in the bus wreck?" he asked them.
"Yes,"
Kevin said, jumping up. "How is everybody doing?"
"Well,
I'll tell you in just a minute. But first, let me introduce myself. My name is
Dr. Luke Mitchell. I'm an ER physician."
"My
name's Kevin Richardson," Kevin said, shaking Dr. Mitchell's hand.
"I'm
Howie Dorough," Howie said, also shaking hands with Dr. Mitchell.
"How are our friends doing?"
"Well,
let's see. AJ McLean and Angel Carter were the first two brought in. Mr. McLean
is resting right now. We ran some x-rays on him that show some damage to the
spinal cord." Howie gasped. "But we don't know how serious the damage
is yet. Right now, AJ is completely paralyzed from the waist down, and has very
little use of his arms. But that could be only temporary. It will take a few
days to find out the extent of his injuries." Kevin felt a lump in his
throat. Poor AJ. He had always been so active, and now this. He could be
paralyzed permanently.
"And now
for Angel," Dr. Mitchell continued. "She's in surgery right now. A
piece of glass was driven deep into her abdomen. I'm not sure how much damage
it had done. The surgeons are removing the glass and repairing damage to any
internal organs that could have been harmed by the glass."
"When
will she be out of surgery?" Kevin asked.
"It
depends on how much damage was done," Dr. Mitchell replied.
"What
about Nick?" Howie asked.
Dr. Mitchell
shifted uncomfortably. "I'm afraid I don't have too good of news to give
you about Mr. Carter's condition," he said.
***