Josie's Journey

Elaine the Aunt-Mother

Josie was laid in a bed in the ICU, covered in wires and tubing. She was intubated as her lungs were too weak to pump air into her heart and throughout her body.

Her mother was asleep on a chair by the door. She couldn't watch her daughter suffer, so she slept instead.

The continuing beeping noises from the monitors and the sounds of the pumps infusing liquid into her veins to keep her going. They had given her antibiotics and a lot of electrolytes as she had none left. She was depleted of all of the electrolytes in her body.

They were also giving her liquid vitamins in intravenous infusions. Her mother had woken up from the sound of beeping. "Shut up." Eileen mumbled as she pressed the nurse button. She watched as the bag was empty and dripping from the IV bag and pump. She looked at the wires from the heart monitor and sighed. She then looked at the heart monitor and watched the waves and beeping from her daughter's heartbeat.

She slowly sat down. She looked at the door and saw the nurse coming in. The nurse spoke up, "Yes?" She said, then heard the pump beating. "Oh, I see. Just a moment." She said as she opened another bag of fluids, setting it up on the pump. "It's not too difficult." She hummed a tune as she worked on it and eventually got the beeping to stop. "See..? It's simple." She spoke to the mother. "Let me know if you need anything!" She chirped before she left the room.

Elaine laid back on the chair and tried to get some more sleep. A lot of time has passed before the doctor came in. "Miss?" He said. "I'm Dr. Green." He said. Elaine looked up. "Yes?" She said.

"I'm your daughter's doctor for today. Your daughter has damage from malnutrition and her kidneys and lungs are weak. Is there anything going on that I need to know about? We're not sure what started this but she also has pneumonia."

Her mother sighed. "I'm not sure but she hasn't been eating much because she says she feels nauseous. I'm not sure if you're interested in knowing everything."

He smiled and nodded. "Alright. That makes sense then... but does she have an eating disorder?" He asked.

Elaine looked at him. "Uh. I think a doctor before mentioned something, but I don't remember much. It's been a while since then."

"Are there any stressors going on with her?" Dr. Green asked.

"I mean her parents died, I'm technically her aunt but I adopted her after they passed. It's near the anniversary of their death...  So maybe that's what's causing her stress. Plus school has been rough and she says she's being bullied and teased ever since she passed out at school." Elaine said.

"Ah, alrighty then... I will have to see what happens until I try other options. But right now she's getting nutrition from the vitamins. We're hoping she'll wake up soon. If not, we will have to do something different." The doctor said before examining Josie. He checked her vitals and movements and reflexes. "Everything outside looks good." He mumbled.

Her mother nodded. "That's good. But um, what are the other options? Why wouldn't she wake up? Like is this really severe or is she just unconscious for healing purposes?" She asked.

The doctor sighed. "She's in a medically induced coma until her lungs and kidney functions are at a normal range. Currently, they are very low. We're hoping we can remove the vent soon, but for now, she will have to be in a coma and on the respiratory machine." He replied.

Her mother hurt her daughter. She felt so bad and wished she had seen the signs sooner. Maybe she didn't pay enough attention. Maybe she should've done something different. She felt like she had done something wrong.

What did I do wrong? Why did this happen?