“Excuse me? Dirty little secret?” the first woman says, and the woman named True nods yes to her.
“Bitch why are you here?” she says with such anger I take a step back.
“Peter told me Joseph was hurt and I knew I had to come,” I say. I am no stranger to fighting but this woman….no thank you.
“You can take your funny acting ass back to where the fuck you came from. No one wants you here. You’ve had our brother in knots for months because you are too stupid to see that he's a man any woman would want and most dream of having, and he wanted your ignorant ass. What I want to do is slap the taste out of your mouth, simple ass. I suggest you get your insecure, wishy-washy ass from around here before you find yourself a part of the foundations of one of their houses. Unlike you we fight for our men and for our love, and it didn’t take an accident for us to figure out that they were worth it. Get the fuck out my face and when Joseph gets better, he might call you and he might not. I’m going to encourage him to NOT call you back.”
“Savvy, you're not going to say anything?” one of the brothers asks.
“Nope, True’s got it.”
“You heard my aunt, bye!” Skai says.
I don’t try to force my way in. I leave the room they are in, but I go to the general waiting area as close to the room as possible without being seen and wait for news on Joseph. As I wait, I watch them and am amazed at his family, the support and love that is clear. True cussed me all the way out and she is only related to him through marriage, but she defended him like he was her blood brother. T is the only person who has ever defended me, and I’m a little jealous of what I am witnessing with that family.
It’s been hours since they rushed Joseph into surgery and there’s been no word about his condition. His family saw me sitting out here long ago but I have not tried to infringe in on their space. Once a few hours went by, they had food brought in, and I was surprised when Peter came out with food for me too. This waiting is the worst, and I do not know what to do with this energy. Peter explained exactly what happened when he brought me the food and since then I have been beating myself up for being a scared foolish woman. I called T and explained what was happening and that she would have to pitch in until I come back. Of course, she was fine with that and offered to fly in for support, but I told her not to. Peter called the hotel and extended my stay as well. So, we are just waiting, and I wish I knew what was going on in that operating room.
Lennox
Dear God, there are injuries everywhere. He’s bleeding from everywhere and I think he has a broken back. I push my feelings out of my mind entirely and get to work. We work like a well-oiled machine, even though it is my first-time performing surgery here. But as soon as we get one bleed stopped another one pops up. It’s like I am in here playing whack-a-mole, surgery edition. I have had a few other doctors try to step in and take over, since I have been in here for more than three hours straight fighting to save Joseph’s life. And he is not making it easy. His body has tried to quit several times when his heart stopped, but miraculously, we were able to get him back, but a body can only take so much. I clamp the artery, clean the area and see if there is more damage that needs to be fixed before I repair the tear and move onto the next one. As soon as I suction the blood to begin to look, all the machines sound off, alerting me to Joseph flatlining again.
“Get the AED! Push 40 units of vasopressin!” I begin looking for the injury that keeps causing him to flatline. I frantically search for the injury while the nurse is waiting for the AED to charge so she can shock him. Dammit Joseph, where is it?!
“CLEAR!” she yells as she places the defibrillator on his chest and shocks him.I think as I work frantically to save him again. We’re going on two and a half minutes of his heart not beating and generally five minutes is the difference between life and death. “CLEAR!” And she shocks him again. I go right back to work while we wait for the AED to charge back up. “CLEAR!” Still no heartbeat. She begins to put the AED away.
“What are you doing?” I ask her
“It’s been three minutes, doctor. We are not going to get him back this time. You should call time of death.”
“You will get back up there and continue to assist me in saving his life until I tell you to stop. We are NOT going to lose him! We do not give up on our patients, so GET TO WORK!” I yell at her. Another nurse takes over as they push another 40 ccs of vasopressin. Finally, I find the injury and begin working on stopping the flow of blood. The other nurse suctions the blood as I finally am able to get a clamp on the tear. Now we just have to get his heart beating. The nurse continues to shock him with no success as the clock continues to tick.