Second Chances | Rini story

One Last Chance | Chapter XI

Nini's POV

When they arrived I went to hold Ricky's hand and he wasn't awake as I had hoped. I asked what the ct scans had been. They said that unfortunately they had to start making a decision on what doing with him, whether unplugging (disconnect him from the life support machines that help him breathe and avoid his organs to shut down) him or taking him to a specialized facility. Mike was really sad and stressed and I didn't know what to do. It was too much, I was hoping for good news. They were really saying that he was brain dead, I knew that was the worst case scenario but I tried to avoid thinking of it. I really wanted to hope that there was a possibility that they had to say but didn't really happen. I was wishing really badly for a miracle, I went to the hospital's church to pray. I asked Mike to not unplug him yet. I knew Ricky wouldn't want to be a vegetable, but I also knew he wouldn't want to die without extraordinary measures being taken. After about an hour praying I went to the public library and started reading neurological medical articles for a solution, when I didn't find anything I went to the last probably worst yet possible solution. I started looking for chapters of Grey's Anatomy in which Derek or maybe Amelia had a patient that woke up, and I found one, however, the patient woke after over 10 years of being a vegetable and I didn't want that for Ricky, despite that I could find something that could be useful so I went running back to the hospital. 

When I got there Ricky's mom who wasn't aware of the situation was by his bed, we hadn't felt the need to call her, until the results of the ct a few hours ago. We hadn't told her before, because she isn't the best mom and if he was going to be okay she needn't come all the way from Chicago. She was by his bed holding his hand and Mike was on the other side. I asked a nurse where the doctor was. They had to page Dr. Taylor because I asked them, I wanted to tell them what I had thought of. When I told him, he didn't have much trust but we looked at the scans and the blood test and other tests and we realized that it was the only chance.

Dr. Taylor's POV

Nini came with a possible way to help Ricky, I wasn't really sure but the parents wanted for us to do everything possible. We had to make more thorough exams before proceeding, and luckily we caught what we needed to catch, however the normal ct didn't catch it we had to do an eeg, we had just improved it so it was much more thorough and we realized that there still was brain activity and more than normal patients with brain dead so unplugging wasn't an option anymore, however, there wasn't any guarantee that he would wake up. After seeing the results we gave Ricky a course of amphetamine which would stimulate the nervous system and hopefully give the energy Ricky needed to wake up since he was still minimally conscious and had came to us still awake. If we were right in a few hours he would wake up, but if we were wrong we had to pray that it doesn't cause secondary effects and cause more damage to the body. 

Nini's POV

Dr Taylor gave Ricky a round of brain stimulants that would wake Ricky up hopefully. I went home because my moms wanted me to get some sleep and then come back to the hospital since he wouldn't wake up for a few hours. When I got home I jumped into my bed and slept for five hours and woke up with a nightmare and couldn't go to sleep so I left my moms a note, texted Josh that I wasn't going to school asked him to tell Kourtney and went to the hospital, it wasn't even 2 am. When I got to the hospital I held Ricky's hand while Mike slept. When Mike went to have breakfast at 4:45 before pre rounds I talked to Ricky and while I did that I held his hand. When I finished talking I was going to go to the cafeteria to buy a coffee and I felt Ricky grabbing my hand, I was so hopeless that I didn't care and thought that it was the muscles reflexes. However, it happened again, this time he grabbed it. I looked at him and smiled, but he still had his eyes closed, I said "Hi" and he opened his eyes abruptly, I pushed the nurses button and asked them to page Dr Taylor, the nurses talked to Ricky but he didn't say anything or move his eyes. When Dr Taylor came she made a neurological exam and he didn't react to it, we were giving up, maybe that was as far as he would get, I decided to apologize to the doctor for all the trouble but as I moved talking to her she realized that his eyes were following my voice, he was reacting to it. She told the nurses to give him another course of amphetamine and check every two hours. I went to look for Mike and tell him the good news when I ran into an unfortunate surprise...