“Where to?” the pilot asked.
“Denver,” Stone said, and held up his hand when Kent tried to object. “I’m basing this on Rita’s injuries. She’s been unconscious for more than twenty-four hours. They have a wider variety of doctors to work on her.” Before Kent could object any further, Stone radioed in and when he was done, he looked back at Kent.
“Marvin will meet us there.”
“Okay.” Deflated, Kent sat back and kept his hand over Rita’s as they flew toward their destination.
CHAPTER 20
Kent lookedup when a woman dressed in a set of green scrubs entered the room, and only turned his head to look at her tiredly. It had been almost twenty-four hours since his former teammates had met him at the cave on the mountain and they had been flown to the hospital in Denver. Kent had opted to stay, while the others had taken not only his stuff, but also his dog home with them. Kent had refused to leave until he knew how Rita was.
“Chambers?” the woman in green asked, and since Kent was the only one currently in the waiting room, he slowly stood. The woman came directly to him. “Are you here for Rita Chambers?”
“Yes, I’m her boyfriend, I found her, also. Her father stepped out.”
“Okay, first, I saw the condition she was in, I don’t know if you’ve had medical training before or not, but I agree with what you did to stop the bleeding of her head wound.”
“I was combat medical in the military for twenty years.”
“Oh, wow, okay. If you ever want a job here, I’d give you a recommendation.”
“Thanks, but I don’t have any formal schooling. All my experience came from the military.”
“Okay. Well, it’s going to be a long hard road, but Ms. Chambers will recover, in time.”
“What’s that mean?” Kent asked, and held up his hand when Marvin walked in. They waited until the older man joined them. “This is Rita’s father.”
“Hello, as I was saying, Ms. Chambers will recover, but it will be a long road. She is still currently in a coma. It’s natural and drug-induced.”
“Why?” Kent demanded.
“The natural coma is because of the hit on her head. The drug-induced is in case she wakes up, we can still keep her under to help her heal. Don’t worry,” she quickly reassured them. “We’ll only keep her on those drugs until she shows signs of improving.” The doctor shook her head and rubbed the back of her neck. “The hit to the head did a lot of damage. I’m sure you know we took her immediately to surgery. We saw a blood clot on her CT scan. When we got inside, it was larger than we anticipated, and her brain started swelling.”
“What will be her recovery for her regular motor functions?” Marvin demanded.
“I think once the swelling goes down and she wakes up, then she should make a full recovery. It’s going to be a long haul, but with support, and patience, she can make it back to her regular self.”
“Thank god,” both men said at the same time, and turned back to the doctor.
“What else?” Kent asked.
“As I just said, she had major brain surgery to remove the clot, and her brain swelled. Other than that, she has several broken and cracked ribs. Whoever kidnapped her, they worked her over pretty well. The other reason we’re keeping her in a drug-induced coma is so that her ribs have a chance to starthealing. We’ll be keeping her in the ICU until she wakes up naturally. That is even after we take her off the drugs.”
“Do you have a timeline as to when she might wake up?” Marvin asked as he reached out and gripped Kent’s shoulder tightly.
“No. As I said, we’ll keep her on the drug-inducing coma drugs for a couple of weeks, then wean her off them. It will be up to her when she wakes up.”
“Can we see her?” Kent asked.
“She’s in recovery now, but once she’s transferred to ICU, you can see her for ten minutes at a time, but only every two hours.”
“Okay.” Kent nodded and watched as the doctor turned and walked away. He helped Marvin to his seat, and together the two of them sat there for a long time in utter silence. They didn’t become aware of their surroundings again until Sheriff Jim Faulkner and Jake Cogburn walked into the waiting room.
“You okay?” Jake’s question brought them out of their stupor, and he sucked in his breath at the anguish he saw on their faces. “Talk to me,” he demanded, and pulled up a chair to sit next to them.
“Rita’s out of surgery,” Kent began with a shake of his head. “They have her in a drug-induced coma because she has brain swelling. They’re going to keep her that way for a couple of weeks.”
“Anything else?”
