Hospital Remembrance

Just a short story that managed to form in my mind.

Joel looked over at his sleeping wife. They had been here a long time. Where was the doctor, or anybody for that matter? Somebody had to know what was going on. His daughter, his only little girl was badly hurt and nobody was telling him anything. He looked at his watch. It had been two hours since he’d even seen a doctor. He did know that his precious Samantha was lying somewhere in this hospital with a broken arm, two possibly broken ribs, and some sort of neck injury. The last thing the doctor had told him was that one of the ribs was pressed up against a lung, and this was going to be a delicate operation. And now, no word for two hours. Was Sam still in surgery, was she awake, could they go see her, or was she…no, he wouldn’t complete that thought.

He looked over at his wife again. Lying across to chairs she looked uncomfortable, but she slept on. She had been on the last hour of an eighteen hour shift at the nursing home when the call came. She had wanted to be at the arena with them, but two nurses hadn’t shown up for work. She had ended up picking up an extra shift, and they could use the money. But he had been there with their daughter, he had watched her go down.


**********


The arena was warm, the smell of straw and dust moved through the sticky air. The barrel racing finals were finally here, and they were there. Riding every day, training both rider and horse, his daughter was racing in finals.

He watches Sam ride around the arena with the other girls as they introduced the barrel racers. Jackson looked healthy and sure-footed trotting beneath her. They finished introducing the riders and the girls filed their horses out of the arena. Melinda Hill was up first. He knew this girl, that is to say, he had seen her ride in other competitions. He had expected to see her here at finals. She was a good rider. Confident on her horse, and consistently getting good times.

Three more girls had taken their first rounds through the barrels before Sam’s turn came. The first four times had been good ones, but then this was finals. Melinda Hill was on top. Not a surprising outcome, she had beaten them before.

Sam and Jackson rode up to the line. Sam glanced his way and he smiled back. She spurred her horse and they were off. The first barrel was a tight, smooth turn, then easily off to the second. The second turn was as good as the first, the third even better. Joel glanced quickly at the clock, this would be their best time ever. Sam spurred Jackson into a gallop back to the line. Joel’s grip was tight on the gate, they were going to do this. Sam was going to the second round for sure, she might even take a best time. The dirt flew from under Jackson’s hooves... then suddenly the horse was going down. A misstep and a front leg slid right under the horse. Jackson dropped and rolled, right over Samantha. Joel was over the fence before the roll was complete. Jackson was trying to get up but the injured front leg was giving him difficulty. A couple of vet-techs were trying to get the stumbling horse away from the injured girl. She wasn’t moving except for the slow rise and fall of her chest.


**********

Finally a doctor had come through the doors to the ICU. Maybe he would be able to learn something about his daughter now.

"Mr. Louis?" The doctor held his hand out to Joel.

Joel stood up and shook the hand that was offered him. "How's my daughter doc?"

"We have set the broken arm, relatively simple. Her neck seems to be fine, there was a lot of bruising however, so it will be tender." The doctor paused and took a deep breath.

"What is it? The rib, is she still in danger?" Joel wanted to grab the man and shake him.

"First, there is only one broken rib, fortunately. It was pressing on the lung, but did not puncture it. We were able to go in and push the rib back into place off of the lung. She will be fine for now. But she will be very restricted in the activities she does for quite a long while, and definitely no horses."

Joel was glad for the news and sad for Samantha all at the same time. "How long? Will she ever be able to ride?"

"We just don't know yet. We put a pin in to hold the rib away from the lung, but it will depend on if the cartilage heals or not. I'll go back in and check on her now. As soon as she stabilizes we'll let you know, and you should be able to see her."

"Thank you doctor." Joel sat back down next to his wife.

He didn't know why he was so worried. He knew Sam was a strong kid. It wasn't like this was the first time they had waited in a hospital for her.


**********

Joel held his wife's hand as she lay in her bed. No sooner had she delivered their daughter than two nurses had taken her away, followed closely by the doctor. Now one of the nurses was returning to them.

"Mr. and Mrs. Louis, it took a little while, but we got your baby to breathe. It was quick enough there shouldn't be any damage."

Joel looked down at his wife. Her face had the look of horror and grief on it. She only half heard him when he whispered. "It'll be ok."

He looked back at the nurse. "When will we get to see her?"

"She wasn't breathing, and very cold. We had to put her in an incubator."

His wife finally spoke up. "How long, will we have to wait long? I want to see my baby!"

The nurse could sense the panic in the new mothers voice. "It will be ok Mrs. Louis. Well get you cleaned up and you should be able to see her then."


**********


Everything had turned out fine then, it would all be fine now. He reached over and brushed his wife's hair from her face. And then he noticed the doctor returning again.

Joel stood as the doctor approached. "Can we see her now?"

The doctor smiled at the worried father. "We've moved her into a room, she should be waking soon. I'll take you to her."

A nurse hurried up to where the two men talked. "Mr. Louis? You have a call at the nurses station."

The doctor thanked the nurse. "Go ahead and get the call. I'll wake your wife."

Joel was just hanging up the phone when his wife and the doctor walked up. "Well, at least we have some good news for Samantha. Jackson is going to be fine. The vet said a good compress on the leg for awhile and he'll be good as new. I just wish I knew what made him go down in the first place."

The doctor smiled at both of them. "Well, let's go give your girl the news then?"

They all went into the ICU. Joel put his arm around his wife, kissed her on the head, and smiled. He said a small prayer of thanks for the things he had, and hoped they would stay that way. "Yeah, I think we'll be fine"