Better Off Alone (Adopted by Brendon and Sarah Urie)

72. Sarah

Four days. Callie had been gone for four days. A person can live three days without water and about a week without food, in decent conditions. Callie was in the hills with their fluctuating temperatures and then the heat. It had been extremely hot lately.

Brendon and I were facing the very real possibility that Callie was gone for good. She wasn't a hiker. She'd left school emotional and upset. She didn't have anything with her.

Suddenly there was a lot of radio chatter and the police were rushing about. The detective who'd been assigned to our case came over to us and sat in front of us, on the coffee table.

"I need your full attention," he said. I couldn't read the expression on his face.

Brendon put his arm around me as we prepared to hear the worst news.

"We've found Callie. She's alive."

We sat and stared at him. I couldn't believe what he was saying.

"What?" I asked. I wasn't sure I heard him. Brendon's eyes were full of tears. But he was smiling. Why?

"Mrs. Urie, we've found Callie. And she is alive. She's very sick but she is alive. The paramedics already have her and they'll be taking her to LA Children's. But we found her."

I burst into tears and hugged my husband. He wrapped his arms around me and we sobbed into each other's shoulders.

"I can take you to meet her at the hospital," the detective said.

We nodded. Brendon's parents came and hugged us and then ushered us out the door to go be with our daughter.

Neither of us spoke. Not because we had nothing to say but because we had too much to say.

We pulled up to the hospital's emergency department and the detective escorted us inside. An officer was standing in the vestibule and shook hands with the detective. She greeted us and smiling, led us towards the back where Callie was being assessed by doctors and nurses. She was in a room marked 'Trauma', but the officer told us we could wait outside the room and she'd let the doctors know we were here. She went into the room and I saw her talking to the doctor. He nodded, looked at us and then looked at the officer and shook his head. He said something and she nodded and came outside.

"He says Callie's very unstable right now. She's severely dehydrated, has an incredibly high fever, her left foot has been, well, they think an animal might have bitten her. She's got an infection in her foot that's gotten into her blood. She's septic. She also has pneumonia and is struggling to breathe. They want to intubate her to help her breathe. They need your permission."

"Of course!" I said without hesitation. "Do everything you can. Well, they can. We can't lose her."

The officer went back into the room where I saw the doctor was very gently taking Callie's bloody left sock off. Her left leg was swollen about halfway up her calf and red streaks were reaching towards her knee. She wasn't moving.

The officer came back out and escorted us to a waiting room nearby. Not back out in the main area. We had the room to ourselves. Brendon took out his phone and started texting everyone he could think of.

Hours passed. The officer stayed nearby and would give us updates as she was able to.

Eventually, the doctor came into the room looking exhausted. He sat down in front of us and smiled.

"I think Callie is going to be okay," he said. "She's a very sick little girl right now. She's severely dehydrated, she's septic from an infection in her left foot and she has pneumonia. She has a fever of 104.6, which I'm sure you know is quite high.

We've intubated her to help her breathe and give her body a chance to rest and heal.

She might need some surgery on her left foot, but I need the infection to clear up and the swelling to come down before we can do anything about that.

She's unconscious and hasn't regained consciousness. But I'm not too concerned about that right now. Clearing up these infections is our priority right now.

We're giving her fluids as well as some broad spectrum antibiotics.

But I'm optimistic. I think she'll be just fine. Right now she needs rest and her parents by her side. They're transferring her to the ICU just now. Why don't you head up there and check in with the nurse. Once Callie is settled in a room, they'll take you to her."

"Can we see her before we go up?"

"Of course," he said, smiling and indicated we should follow him. The officer, smiling, came with.

The doctor led us to the room where they'd been working on Callie. She was pale and looked so tiny among the tubes and wires coming from everywhere. A machine breathed for her. Callie lay still. I picked up her hand. It felt so small. She didn't move. She didn't squeeze my hand. And she felt so warm. I could feel the heat of her fever radiating from her. Brendon took her other hand and put his left hand on her forehead. He frowned.

"She's really warm," he said. I nodded.

A few minutes later we were told to go upstairs while they transferred Callie up.

As soon as she was settled in her room, we went and sat by her side.

The doctor came in to talk with us.

"Alright, so you know the deal. Callie's got a blood infection from the injuries to her foot as well as pneumonia. Her lungs are pretty congested but hopefully the antibiotics will kick in fast and she'll be feeling better soon. Right now we have her condition listed as critical. Between the blood infection, dehydration, shock that she must be in, at least her body is, and the pneumonia, the next 24 hours are critical. I'll check in on her in the morning. You're in good hands here," he said.

We sat by Callie's side just waiting.

On the first full day that she was in the hospital, she opened her eyes but didn't really seem that aware of her surroundings. She closed them fairly quickly as if the light over her bed bothered her.

The next time she opened her eyes, she seemed agitated, and Brendon told her to calm down.  She did and closed her eyes again.

This went on for four days. She'd open her eyes, we'd sign to her, and she'd close her eyes and go back to sleep. Her fever hasn't broken, and she didn't seem to be responding to the antibiotics as quickly as we'd hoped she would. But she was waking up, and that was encouraging.

On the third day, they were able to take her off the ventilator. Her lungs were clearing.

On the fourth day, she broke out in a sweat and soaked through her hospital gown and sheets. With the nurses' help, we kicked Brendon out and took Callie's drenched hospital gown off. She fought us as we tried to take the gown off, lifted her to change her sheets and put her back on her bed, covering her with her blankets. She was crying, and I could only imagine what she was crying about. She was still pretty delirious from her fever and quite likely didn't know what was going on around her. Once we'd settled her back in bed, I took the cool cloth of been using and wiped her forehead. She opened her eyes, and I smiled at her. I started signing at her, and she closed her eyes and shook her head. Like I was going too fast for her.

I smiled and started again, slowly. She seemed to understand this time and nodded. When I was done, she signed, 'why I lost?'

I sighed and asked her if she remembered what had happened. She shook her head. And then fingerspelled 'Melanie.' And signed, 'I remember the name Melanie.' I started to explain again from the beginning.

Callie watched my hands and face while I explained what had happened.

She seemed to accept and understand what I was telling her, but her stamina was still pretty low, and she fell asleep again after I finished. I smiled and tucked a stray hair behind her ear.

She was looking better. Hopefully, we'd be able to bring her home soon. We'd have to see what the doctors wanted to do about her foot, still.