My eyes fill themselves with tears, thinking about what I just did. It feels good, but it also feels horrible. I hate being mean to people, I really hope Derek doesn't think I'm mean right now.
"Hey..." I hear, coming from the bed. I immediately look up, and see that Mr. Evans opened his eyes again. They're not fully opened, but I can see that he's looking at me. He has a little smile on his face, it looks adorable!
"Mr. Evans, how are you feeling?" I ask with a smile, walking up to him. "Like you saved my life" he silently replies, almost whispering while he gives me a smile again.
"I'll go get your nurse" I giggle, making sure that his chart is all done. "Hey," Mr. Evans adds before I walk out the door. I look back, and softly smile at him.
"No means no, remember that" he silently tells, making me smile again. "Thank you" I reply, and he smiles back at me again. I walk out the door, get the nurse that took care of him and help another patient.
After my whole shift and taking over another doctor's shift, my night finally ends. It's 11pm, I'm exhausted! Before in going home, I get to Mr. Evans's room for a minute, just to see if he's alright and to check if he can feel everything.
I walk into the room, and see that he's checking his phone. "Hey!" he cheers once he sees me walking into his room. "Mr. Evans, how are you feeling?" I ask with a smile, seeing that everything looks okay on the screen.
"I'm alright, I'm good" he replies, also smiling at me. "No pain? How's your headache?" I ask, listening to his heartbeat with my stethoscope for a second.
"Better, but still slightly there" he chuckles, making me smile. "Your heart sounds good again, that's great! Did you get painkillers yet?" I ask again, and he shakes his head.
"I'll tell your nurse to bring you some then. Do you remember what happened?" I ask, looking at the wounds on his arms. "Um, I do" he replies, looking a little nervous. "Can you tell me about it? From the day you got into the plane, including where you were going and why?" I ask again, so he nods his head and tells me what he knows.
"Well, I was in my way to New York for work and... And the plane crashed into the... The water, I think. I don't know, there were people screaming and running around and... I believe I passed out when we landed. I woke up later, surrounded by... Um, b-by dead people and... I think they thought I was dead too" Mr. Evans tells.
I frown a little, and nod my head to let him know that I'm listening. "Someone still got me out after that, and brought me in here so I waited a few hours and then you came in. You were about to give me stitches, but I passed out again, right? And now it's, I think a few hours later or something and I woke up" he adds.
"Mr. Evans, I'm really sorry but... You had a cardiac arrest, you just woke up after 2 days of being in a coma" I say, and he slightly frowns. "A cardiac arrest...? W-when?" he asks, clearly not remembering what happened then.
"When I came to you for your stitches, you passed out because of too much blood loss. This caused a hypovolemic shock, which then caused a cardiac arrest" I reply, and he frowns.
"I'm here now to check if you can still feel everything. Is that alright?" I ask, and he looks into my eyes. "Yeah, yeah ofcourse" he replies after just looking at me in silence for a few seconds.
I softly smile at him, and step aside. "Can you lift up your left arm for me please?" I ask, so he does as I say. "Your right arm?" I ask, and he does it again. "Alright, that's great. Does it hurt when you do that?" I ask while I write some things down.
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"No, but it's a little tingly" he replies. "Okay, that's good, normal. Alright, now I'm going to tap on your arms and legs a few times on different spots. I need you to tell me how many times I tapped, okay?" I explain. He nods his head, so I tap on his hand.
"3 times" Mr. Evans says, and he's right. "Yup, now do it again" I say, tapping on his lower arm. "2 times" he replies, so I nod my head and tap on his upper arm now.
"4 times" he says, and I nod my head again. I walk over to yhr other side, and do the same thing there. He can feel his arms, that's amazing.
I tap on his stomach, to see if he's not paralyzed. "5 times" he chuckles, like I was ticking him. "Sorry" I giggle, moving on to his legs.
I tap on his thigh, and look into his eyes after I tapped 3 times. "Zero times" he chuckles, as if I didn't tap. I nervously, softly smile and tap again.
"Nothing?" I ask after he looked into my eyes with a cute little smile. "You have to tap first, I can't tell you now" he chuckles, and I stop smiling.
"I'm... I-I tapped..." I silently stutter, and he frowns a little. "You didn't" he replies, and tap again, and again, and again. "No?" I ask while I can feel myself getting a little emotional. I didn't want this for him, I really didn't fucking want this to happen to him.
"You're not tapping... You're- you have to tap" he stutters while tears fill his eyes. I keep tapping his leg, but he can't feel it. "I'm so sorry..." I whisper, paging his nurse.
"No, no you have to t-tap" he adds, almost whispering as well. "Can you feel this...?" I ask again, tapping on his tibia now. He shakes his head and looks at his hands, so I silently sigh and try again with his feet. Still nothing.
"I'm afraid you... I-I think you-" I add, until his nurse walks in. "Hey, what's going on?" she asks, walking up to me. "I-I think he's um... H-he can't feel his legs, so..." I nervously reply, looking at my feet for a second.
"Paraplegia" the nurse adds, and I slowly nod my head. Paralyzed, both of his legs. After telling Mr. Evans what it means, we get him an ultrasound of his legs, just to be sure.
I get him back to his room in a wheelchair, and help him get back in bed. "Are you alright?" I ask, looking at him while I fix his blankets.
"Yeah... This really sucks though" he replies, looking pretty sad. "It does, and it's okay to be sad about it. I will do everything, everything for you to make them work again. I can't say 'I promise', but I can tell you that I will try my absolute best" I tell, looking right into his teary eyes.
He silently sighs, and slowly nods his head with a little smile. "Thank you, for everything. Seriously, thank you" he replies, so I smile back at him, and nervously look at my feet.
"It's my job to do so, Mr. Evans" I add, and he smiles again. "But still, thank you. Oh and by the way, you can call me Chris" he says, sticking out his hand for me to shake.
I silently laugh about it, and shake his hand very softly. "Well, that is not happening. Goodnight Mr. Evans" I giggle, and I walk out the door.
