“It’s over Joe,” I knelt down beside him and patted his shoulder, “It’s going to be okay, she’ll pull through she’s strong. It’s finished now, he can’t hurt you anymore.”
“I wish he had hurt me.” Joe said through his sobs. “I’d find that easier to deal with than this.”
A while later the receptionist came to us to take some details and show us to the family waiting area. Somewhere more private than the public waiting room, where we could sit, drink weak tea and coffee out of plastic cups and live for a few more hours with the hope that our lives weren’t about to be altered forever. How either of us would cope with the loss of Ella, I had no idea. In fact I couldn’t even comprehend it, she was too young and full of life and energy to just leave us. She’d be okay, she had to
be, I just knew it.
We were all alone in the family room. I sat staring at the TV having no idea what was on the screen; Joe sat in the corner, hunched forward with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. I’m not entirely sure whether he’d nodded off with all the nervous exhaustion or whether he was suffering from some sort of panic attack brought on by the trauma but he suddenly started panting, getting out of breath and crying out ‘no, no, no’ over and over.
“Calm down mate.” I said gently going over to him but he screwed his eyes closed and said to me, “She’s gone, I felt her. She’s gone.” He wailed like an injured animal in pain, “She’s left me Max, she’s gone.”
I didn’t know what to do with him, he was in a full panic attack mode now and I was worried for his safety and state of mind. I ran out to the hallway and flagged down two nurses. They took one look at him and one went off as the other tried to talk to Joe telling him to calm down, breathe, and copy her breaths.
When the second nurse returned she had a doctor in tow and a syringe. The doctor looked Joe over and after hearing his ranting gave the nod for the nurse to inject something.
“What are you giving him?” I asked.
“It’s diazepam, it’s just to calm him down.” She smiled over at me.
Once it kicked in he calmed down and I took a deep breath. This day had been the worst in my life and even though I wasn’t a religious man I prayed to God that it would have some kind of happy ending.
A few hours later and after multiple enquiries about Ella the doctor we saw in reception when we brought her in finally came into the family room to us. Joe looked up at him and in a flat tone said, “She’s dead isn’t she.”
We both held our breath for his response.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t come to talk to you sooner, I was in with Ella doing the necessary surgery on her leg wounds to repair the damage to her arteries and muscles. She’s a very, very lucky lady a few centimetres higher and the femoral artery would have been severed. She’d have bled to death in a minute or two if that had been the case. One of the knife wounds Ella had on her legs cut into a branch of the femoral artery, hence the blood loss, but we were able to repair that damage. There has been some muscle damage too but nothing major and no major nerve damage either thankfully.”
“What does that mean in English Doctor?” I asked in confusion.
“It means she’ll be up and walking in a few days. Little steps just to start to build up her strength in that area again, but there’s no lasting damage. She has stitches on all three knife wound areas of the legs and hip. She will have slight scarring on the inside of her thighs and on the cut over her tattoo on her hip.”
Joe lifted his head to stare at the doctor, “He cut her tattoo?”
“It isn’t cut off, there was an incision made across the name.” he stated and Joe shook his head, “Mother fucker.” He whispered to himself.
“The facial wounds will all heal and there’s nothing broken so she won’t have any scarring or lasting effects from those. It is just the knife wounds as I said to the hip area and on each thigh.”
“What about the baby?” Joe said quietly obviously scared to ask.
“Ah that’s all fine, here I have the pictures for you from the scans we carried out to check the foetus. It shows she’s ten weeks.”
Joe looked up at the Doctor startled. “The baby survived? How is that even possible?”
“We’ve had pregnant ladies come into our A & E department with stab wounds to the stomach and their baby survived. They’re a lot hardier than we think these little foetuses. If they want to live they will. Yours is a fighter.”
“Like it’s Mum and Dad” I smiled and I took the scan pictures from the doctor, the little peanut had a head, body and little arms and legs. It was amazing and I couldn’t help but smile and show Joe. He just covered his face when he saw it and cried.
“She’s asleep and dosed up with pain relief at the moment, but you can come and see her if you like.”
“You go Joe, she’ll want to see you.” I said handing him the scan pictures.
He stood and followed the doctor out of the waiting room and I sat back in my chair, my head against the wall behind me. I picked up my mobile and rang Sam.
“Sam she’s okay, she’s gonna be okay. Ella and the baby. It’s all over.” I heard Sam let out the biggest sigh of relief and after sharing a few more details I hung up. This was a day I would be glad to see the back of, and I’d never want to relive it ever again.
43
I saw a bright light overhead, I thought it could be heaven but wasn’t heaven supposed to be pain free? I felt like I’d been run over by a bus and I felt numb below the waist. No this wasn’t heaven, please God don’t let me open my eyes and see that monster. I started to panic, my breaths coming thick and fast as I opened my eyes to find out what my reality was. A nurse or some kind of medical professional was standing over me adjusting a drip at the side of the bed I was lying on now. It was a damn sight more comfortable than the one I’d been on when I was last conscious. She smiled down at me kindly and told me I was in hospital, I was going to be okay and she was administering more pain relief for me. I thanked her then I looked to the left and I saw him, my Joe fast asleep in the chair on the other side of my bed. I wanted to hold out my hand and touch him, but I daren’t wake him he looked exhausted even in sleep.