22. Kate #3
The smile widened. “The extubation went cleanly. She’s breathing without assistance. Her oxygen saturation is holding above ninety-five percent. She’s awake, knows who she is, knows what year it is, and is asking for you and…Tessa, is it?”
Kate beamed. “My sister. I’ll call her now.”
She held up her hand. “I’ll let you go in, but only for a moment.
If she seems disoriented, it’s the lorazepam, which can make her loopy.
She needs monitored sleep. Her throat is going to be raw for a few days.
But she is…” She cocked her head as if she couldn’t quite grasp what she was about to say. “She is fine.”
Kate let out a little whimper.
“Can you explain exactly what happened?” Eli asked. “When they called a code blue?”
“I can try. She had a bradycardic episode with a seizure and a very serious vitals crash. She was in what we would call peri-arrest—meaning her heart had not stopped, but we were about to start compressions because it would have in seconds. Then…” She shook her head.
“It resolved. That’s all I can tell you. ”
“And that’s unusual?” Eli pressed.
She gave a light laugh. “Unusual would be an understatement. And she came out remarkably clear, which, given how she presented at admission on Sunday morning, given the size of the bleed, given the medication-related complications from her anticoagulant? I’m going to use a word I don’t use liberally.
It’s miraculous. It’s well outside what I expected to be telling you tonight. ”
Eli pressed one fisted hand to his chest and Kate leaned into him, somehow feeling vindicated. She hadn’t imagined what she’d just seen. It was a miracle.
“In my twenty-one years of intensive care, I have seen a wake-up this clean after this kind of trauma, oh, maybe three or four times,” Dr. Halpern continued.
“I’ve seen the opposite—patients who looked like they were going to be fine and who weren’t—a great many more times than that.
I don’t have a tidy explanation for you.
In fact, I have a chart full of numbers that say she should be having a much harder time than she is.
We’ll watch her closely for the next twenty-four hours, run a follow-up CT in the morning, and put her through a full neurological assessment when she’s had adequate rest.”
She gave them a careful smile.
“Get some sleep, both of you. She’s in good hands. You can see her now, but just for a moment. You’ll have plenty of time when she’s in a step-down room tomorrow morning.”
After thanking her and shaking her hand, Kate watched the doctor walk down the hall. Then she turned to Eli, rooting for the right words, the way to explain what happened when she wasn’t sure herself.
“I have to tell you something,” she said. “And I’m probably not going to say it right, so be patient with me.”
“Of course.” He put his hand on her shoulder and guided her back to the bench. “Now?”
“Right now.” She closed her eyes and took his hand in hers. “When the monitor was going down, I was scared. Like ‘my mother is dying and I’m going to see it happen’ scared. And something in my chest told me to pray.”
She stopped and opened her eyes.
“So I did.”
He stared at her, the slightest slack in his jaw.
“I didn’t know how, obviously. Didn’t know what to say. I’ve never said a prayer in my life. But…” She wet her lips and swallowed. “Something told me to pray. Something I heard, not in my ears, but in my heart.”
A tear welled in his eyes, which brought one to hers.
“So, I just stood there with my back against the wall and I said please. Out loud. I said I would believe anything. I said—I offered—everything. My job, my brains, my life, my…doubts.” She tried to smile but it made the tear dribble.
“I had nothing else left, so I gave it all to…” Could she say it?
She wanted to. She had to. After what He’d done for her? “I gave it all to Him.”
Eli’s face collapsed, and he dropped his head, his shoulders moving silently.
“I don’t know how to do what comes next,” she admitted. “I don’t know what just happened or why or…I don’t know. But I do know that I witnessed a woman dying and coming back to life and I called for help and…I got it.”
He looked up, swiping at a tear with the heel of his hand, unable to talk.
“So,” she whispered. “I guess I took a step in your direction.”
“Not mine,” he said.
She nodded, knowing what he meant. “And I…I think I’ll take more,” she finished. “With you.”
He searched her face, a light in his eyes she couldn’t remember seeing for some time.
“I’d love that,” he said. “We’ll take the rest of it slowly. Whatever this is for you, Kate, we have all the time we need to find out together.”
She sighed, needing to be completely transparent. “I’m not going to need that long, Eli. Not after what I just saw.”
“Thank you,” he rasped the words. Then he tipped his head toward the room. “Let’s say goodnight to your mom, text everybody the good news, and go home.”
She stood and wrapped her arms around him, taking a minute to fully realize that at twelve fifty-seven a.m. in a Florida hospital, her life had completely changed.