Two Brothers 8/?
Chapter 8
Dean outran me easily and when I arrived at Sam's room, Nancy already had everything under control. By then Sam lay very still in his bed while three nurses hovered over him.
"Seizure." Nancy informed me when I bypassed a shell-shocked Dean. He stood in the doorway, clutching the bundle of clothes he was still holding on to and the muscles in his jaw worked but he didn't say a word. His eyes were fixed on the still form in the bed.
"Lasted about ninety seconds. I've already called ahead." Nancy continued. She gave me more detail while the other nurses got Sam ready for transfer. We both knew what a seizure most likely meant and within minutes Sam was wheeled out of the room.
"Where's Dr. Morgan?" I asked. If I was right, and I was pretty sure I was, than Sam would need surgery and Dr. Morgan was the only other surgeon around. Damn small town hospital.
"It's her day off. Couldn't reach her." Nancy answered with a half-hearted smile. "Sorry."
Which left me as the only one who could perform the operation. I kinda doubted that our gynecologist wanted to take over. Great.
"Chris is trying to contact her." Nancy continued. "We can wait …"
But that wasn't really an option, not without risking farther damage to Sam's brain and we both knew it.
"What's happening with Sam?" Dean ask not for the first time but I had to focus on Sam first. Dean stood in the hallway now, eyes glued to the elevator Sam had disappeared in. "Where are they taking him?"
Now with Sam on his way for a CT scan I had time for Dean. The scan would take a little while anyway.
"Sam had a seizure." I informed him. "He doesn't have epilepsy or any other condition that causes seizures, right?"
There had been nothing in his file but that was scratchy at best with more holes in the anamnesis than Swiss cheese. I doubted Dean would have left out something severe like that, however, I had to make sure.
"No." Dean confirmed but something was off.
"Dean? I need to know." I pressed. It would be coincidence for Sam to have a head trauma and an epileptic episode at the same time but it was possible. The head trauma could cause epilepsy but if he had the condition before …
"Sam doesn't have epilepsy or something." Dean interrupted my thoughts and looked me straight in the eye. I believed him. He wouldn't lie to me about something like this. Not with Sam's life at risk, that much I'd figured out myself over the last days.
"What's wrong with him?" Dean asked and his tone made it clear that he wanted, needed a straight answer.
"I think he's bleeding inside his skull and that that puts pressure on his brain." I avoided medical terms but Dean had proven that he knew what I was talking about in our first conversation. A subdural hematoma had been on my mind, and Dean's for that matter, as a possible complication from the beginning. With a head trauma like Sam's it wasn't unlikely.
"We're performing a CT scan right now to confirm the diagnosis and to find the exact location." I continued.
"You're going to perform surgery?" Dean asked, his eyes now fixed on me. I wasn't sure if this was a general question or if he was asking if I was going to perform surgery myself. What to read out of his expression I didn't know either. A plea to save his brother or a threat if I screwed up or anything in between.
"Yes, we need to drain the blood and stop the bleeding. The sooner we act …" I didn't finish the sentence. Sam was in real danger of permanent brain damage and we both knew it.
"I need your permission for the surgery."
"Of course." He sounded hoarse, close to tears. Nancy brought the form and he signed it without really looking at it.
Nancy walked me to the elevator but there was not much more to say.
"Have an eye on Dean, would you?" I asked her in a low voice. "His stuff is in my car, I offered him one of our bathrooms for a shower."
"You take care of Sam and I take care of Dean." She reassured me. Before the doors of the elevator closed I had one last look at Dean. Like a lost boy he stood alone in the middle of the hallway, the clothes clutched to his chest and his eyes burning a hole in my skull. I breathed in relief when the doors closed and the car started moving.
By this time the CT scan was done and I had a look at the pictures. I had been right. Subdural hematoma.
I went through my own preparation for the surgery on autopilot. I was about to drill a hole in the skull of my friend. I should have waited for Dr. Morgan, I know that, but she wasn't there and with pressure on the brain matter every minute counted.
I had to do it. In my mind I tried to step back from the thought of Sam. This was a patient like every other one. I wouldn't even see much of him. Just the shaved area I had to work on. Everything else would be covered by surgical drape, anyway. Just a patient. Not Sam, this was not my friend, nobody I knew. Just a patient. Just a head I had to open up, cut through skin and bone and drain the blood. Find the leak and stop the bleeding. Easy as pie.
I stared at my own reflection in the mirror. The green of my operation gown made me look paler than I was or at least I hoped that was the reason for my ghost-like reflection. I took a deep breath.
"I can do this." I looked myself in the eye. "I can do this."
continue to chapter 9
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