Chapter
13
When the taxi
arrived at the hospital, Nick, AJ, and Howie leaped out. Kevin paid the driver
and hurried after them.
Once inside,
he found AJ already at the receptionist's desk, asking about Brian, Nick and
Howie standing behind him.
"Why
don't you go take a seat in the waiting room over there," the receptionist
was telling AJ, motioning to a large waiting room across the hall.
"Ok, but
you promise you'll have somebody come tell us how Brian's doing as soon as they
know?" AJ asked, demandingly.
"Yes, I
will," the receptionist replied. "Now, go take a seat." AJ led
the others to the waiting room, where they slumped down in some chairs to wait.
A nurse came
out a little while later and walked over to the four guys.
"Are you
four here for Brian Littrell?" she asked.
"Yes,"
Howie said. "Is he gonna be okay?"
"Well,
the doctors have him stabilized, but they are not sure what caused all of this
in the first place. Perhaps you could help us with this," the nurse said.
"Sure,"
AJ said. "What do you need us to do?"
"Well,
why don't you all come down the hall with me to Brian's room. One of the
doctors is in there, and he would like to ask you a few questions," the
nurse said.
"Ok,"
AJ said. "Come on, guys." The guys stood up and followed the nurse
down the hall to a small room down the hall. Brian lay on a bed inside,
unconscious. He was hooked up to an IV, a heart monitor, and an oxygen tank.
"Hello,
guys. My name is Dr. Polman," said the man standing in the room, extending
his hand. AJ, Howie, Kevin, and Nick all shook his hand and introduced
themselves.
"I'd like
to ask you a few questions about Brian so that we can figure out why this
happened to him," Dr. Polman said. "I've looked over his charts and
seen that he has a heart condition."
"Yes,"
said Kevin. "He was born with a hole in his heart, but he had surgery to
correct that a couple years ago."
"Well,
then that's probably not the cause. We'll run an EKG and a chest x-ray just to
make sure. But I think there might be another reason for this happening. Is
Brian on any medication?"
"Yes,"
Kevin said. "He was in a car accident a few months ago. That's how his leg
got broken," he said, motioning to Brian's leg, which was still in a cast.
"He's on some kind of pain medication."
"Do you
recall the name of the medication?" Dr. Polman asked.
"Uh…it
was opium, I think," Kevin said.
"Does
Brian have any allergies?" Dr. Polman asked.
"Not that
we know of," Kevin said. "But he's been taking the medication for
months now. Don't you think something would have happened sooner if it was an
allergic reaction?"
"Most
likely," Dr. Polman said. "But we can't rule that out yet. I'm going
to have some test run on Brian now. We can talk more when we get the results
and see if we can come up with an explanation."
"Ok,"
they all said.
"Thanks
for your time. I'll let you spend a few minutes with Brian before I take him
upstairs for some tests," Dr. Polman said. He left the room, leaving the
four guys alone with Brian.
***
