Page 6 of Lost and Found

We’re at the entrance doors and I stop, making Arden come to a halt as well and face me. “Head injuries are tricky. No two injuries are the same. It depends on the person and the way their body heals. We won’t know if there is any permanent damage until she’s awake.” Arden nods and we continue walking. I lead us through the emergency room and through the back hallway to the ICU unit. Arden asks about Codi and Corey. I have no answers where Corey is concerned, since he was never brought into the emergency room, but I answer everything I can about Codi.

When we reach the doors of the ICU unit, Arden stops and takes a deep breath. She shakes her head as she bites down on her bottom lip. “I don’t know how to do this. I mean, Paige has been my best friend for as long as I can remember. We grew up on the same street as kids. We are both only children and we just bonded. She’s my sister.”

“May I ask something?” Arden nods. “What about her family? Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds stopped by earlier, but they didn’t seem at all concerned about Paige.They mentioned her having no family.”

Arden rolls her eyes, immediately defensive. “Ugh, those people. They never approved of Paige, she was never good enough for their son.No matter what she did, or how hard she tried. Codi came from a wealthy family and they like to let it be known. It’s not shocking they weren’t concerned about her. Hell, they’ve hardly ever seen Corey in person. As far as family, well Paige was raised by her great aunt. Her parents were killed in a convenience store robbery when she was a toddler. The only living relative she had was her great aunt, she took her in and raised her, but she passed away shortly after we started college.”

I nod my head, shocked that some people like Paige’s in-laws could be so heartless and cruel. I mean, Paige mattered to Codi and out of respect for him, they should at least want to check on her. I open the door to the ICU with my badge, and lead Arden to Paige’s room.

Once inside, Arden rushes over to Paige’s side. I take a seat in the other chair in the room. My eyelids start to feel heavy and before I know it, I’m fast asleep.

Chapter Six

Reid

It has been four days since Paige was brought into the emergency room. Since then, her status has remained stable, but she has slipped into a coma and only time will tell if she will wake up. I hated to make the decision to call her condition a coma, but there is no other term for it. She’s fighting though, so that’s always a good thing.

Since the night of the wreck, the Reynolds and the story about that tragic night has been in the paper every day, most of the time it’s a headline. I know that the arrangements for Paige’s husband and son have already been taken care of, and that she won’t be able to be there and say goodbye to them. That’s the saddest part of all of this. When she wakes up, and I’m confident she will at some point, her entire life will be different. The world that she knew will no longer exist.

I’m leaving my office and heading toward the hospital, when my pager goes off. I quickly dial the number. It’s one of the nurses with the ICU unit. Paige is awake.

My office is just across the street from the hospital, so I jog the rest of the way. As I enter the unit, Stacey meets me. “She woke up about ten minutes ago, but she’s confused.”

“That’s very common for head trauma patients.” I’m not sure why this would be new to her. The ICU and Stacey, herself, have dealt with many head trauma patients, and confusion is a very common side effect.

“I think it might be more serious than your normal confusion.”

The worry forms in the pit of my stomach. That is not a good sign. I’m fixing to head into the room, when I think about calling Arden. I send her a quick text to let her know that Paige is awake. I step inside and see Paige sitting up in bed. A wide-eyed look on her face and I can tell she’s confused and scared. “Hi Paige,” I tell her, in a low tone to try and calm her. “I’m Dr. Jonah Reid. I’m a neurologist and I’ve been overseeing some of your recovery.”

“A neurologist?” she asks, and immediately starts to feel around on her head. When one of her hands lands on the stitches, she stops and looks back at me. “What happened?”

I walk farther into the room. “What do you remember? Do you remember anything before waking up?”

She sits there and I watch as she brings a hand to her mouth, and gnaws on the nail while she thinks. Finally, she looks up at me. “No.”

“Okay, that’s okay. You were involved in a pretty bad car wreck. When you were brought into the emergency room, you had internal bleeding and a Hematoma, which is basically a collection of blood outside the vessels in your head, so it caused swelling. I went in and relieved the swelling. Afterward, you slipped into a coma, but your body has been healing very well.” I stop to let her absorb all of this. I give it time to let what I’ve explained sink in. She nods her head slowly. “Let’s see if you remember anything from before the wreck. Do you remember your birthday or address?”

I watch as she sits there, her finger going back to her mouth. so she can gnaw on the fingernail again. I’m wondering if this is a new development, or if it’s something she’s always done when she’s nervous or thinking. She shakes her head. “I don’t know,” she whispers. “What’s wrong with me?”

I sigh, thinking how I’m going to explain this to her, when the door to her room opens, and Arden comes rushing in. Without hesitation, she runs over to Paige’s side and hugs her. Paige looks slightly shocked and uncertain, but she recovers quickly. “I’ve been so worried about you,” Arden tells Paige, as she pulls away.

Paige tries to give her a smile, but it seems forced, even to me. I need to tell them both what I think is going on with Paige. “Ladies, I’m not sure if there is an easy way to say this, but I believe that Paige is suffering from Retrograde Amnesia.”

Paige’s eyes go wide and look frightened. Arden looks shocked. They both exchange a look and then ask me in unison “Amnesia?”

“Yes, I can’t be certain until I do a little more testing, basically just asking questions, but from what I’ve asked already, Paige doesn’t seem to remember anything from before she woke up. Paige, do you remember my name?” I ask her and hold my breath while she answers.

“Dr. Jonah Reid, you’re a neurologist and you’ve been taking care of my Hematoma,” she looks at me expectedly.

I nod and give her a reassuring smile. “That is correct. You seem to be retaining information since you woke up. It’s everything from before that is fuzzy.”

“So, what do we do?” Arden asks.

I take a deep breath. “Well, for starters Paige just barely woke up, so she isn’t leaving ICU for a couple of days.Then she’ll be moved to the main floor for probably a week. During that time, I’ll keep checking in and hopefully, the memories will come back slowly.”

“Can this amnesia be permanent?” Paige asks.

I don’t want to lie to her, but that scared look in her eye almost makes me want to. I knew when she woke up, her entire world would be different, but I had no idea it would be like this for her. “It can be, but in the majority of cases, it’s temporary. I don’t see any reason why your case would be permanent.” There’s a knock on the door and one of the cafeteria workers comes in with a tray of food for Paige. Once the food is situated in front of Paige, it becomes evident that her motor skills are a little out of practice. She looks helpless, and I can see the frustration in her face building. “Paige, I’m going to step outside with Arden for a moment. Why don’t you let that food cool off for a minute, and I’ll be back and we can have lunch together?” She turns and smiles at me and I swear my heart stops for a second.

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