Chapter
24
By Julie
An hour later,
Howie, AJ, and Kevin were once again sitting in the lounge with each other.
They had just finished calling their parents. Howie had taken care of calling
Nick and Brian's parents. It was hard for all of them, but especially Howie,
having to call Brian and Nick's parents and tell them that their sons were in
critical condition in a hospital halfway across the country. Both Jane and
Jackie had sobbed over the phone. Bob and Harold had not openly cried, but
Howie could tell they were very upset.
Now that they
had finished calling everyone, they just had to sit and wait. All five of the
guys' parents were flying up and would arrive in a few hours. Until then,
however, Kevin, AJ, and Howie were left alone to wait and wonder how Brian and
Nick were doing.
***
They waited
another half an hour without any word on their two bandmates. Finally, Dr.
Collins, the doctor that had spoken to them before, came in once again.
"Well,
Brian has just been taken out of surgery," he said.
"How did
he do?" Kevin asked.
"There
were some minor complications during surgery, but he is fine now," Dr.
Collins replied.
"What
kind of complications?" AJ asked.
"He
started to lose too much blood, but don't worry, the surgeons came him
transfusions and fixed him up," Dr. Collins said.
"Was he
hurt bad?" Howie asked.
"His
internal injuries were quite severe," the doctor admitted. "His
stomach was severely injured, but it was able to be repaired. It will take some
time to heal, but eventually it will be fine. However, his spleen was too badly
hurt to be fixed, so it was taken out." Kevin's eyes widened. "Don't
worry," Dr. Collins assured him quickly, "people can live without
spleens." All three of the guys relaxed a little.
"When can
we see him?" asked Howie.
"He's
still unconscious right now and in recovery. When we move him into the ICU with
Nickolas, you can see him. But he'll need a few hours in recovery first,"
Dr. Collins said.
The guys
nodded. "What about Nick? How is he doing?" AJ asked.
"There
hasn't been any significant change in his condition," Dr. Collins said
sympathetically. "But don't worry, it has only been a few hours since he
was brought in. He's still on the respirator, and we're pumping him full of
antibiotics to hopefully stop the pneumonia."
"Will he
eventually get better though?" Kevin asked worriedly.
"I can't
promise you that," Dr. Collins admitted. "He is very sick. This is
one of the worst cases of pneumonia I have seen in quite awhile. If we had
started to treat it a few days ago, it wouldn't have gotten so bad. But going
all those days without medical attention made it get worse."
The three guys
looked at each other guiltily. Deep down, they knew it was not their fault. But
they couldn't help feeling responsible for what had happened to Nick.
"Thanks
for telling us the truth, Dr. Collins," Howie managed to say.
Dr. Collins
nodded and offered them a sympathetic smile. "I'll leave you guys alone
now. Make sure you have someone page me if you need anything."
They nodded
and watched as he left. Then they all broke into silent tears, crying for their
two beloved brothers.
***