Gini seemed to never stop with new movements. She could pull her right leg up by bending her knee and slowly sliding it down, and she was moving her right arm more. With all her limb movements, it was quite apparent she so far had no dexterity with her fingers or hands. And she still seemed to be unable to communicate.
Gini would constantly hold her left arm off the bed, saying, “Eee, eee,” sometimes over and over for several minutes.
“Baby,” Debbie said taking her hand. “I wish I knew what you wanted.”
Gini thrust her tongue on the roof of her mouth, a new thing she had been doing the last couple of days. When she pulled her lips tight, her dimples went deep in her cheeks.
Debbie loved the dimples. She put her hand on Gini’s face.
She stopped the tongue thrusting.
That afternoon, Robert repeated the routine of saying their names. Gini slowly opened her eyes and then closed them. He leaned closer to her, still holding her hands to their faces. “Beautiful blue eyes. Let’s see if you can open them again.”
She started thrusting her tongue and opened her eyes and looked at him.
“There you go.” He looked at Debbie, pleased.
Gini slowly closed her eyes and then said, “Ock…
“Tor…
“Rob…
“Ber…
“Un…
“Gee.” The words came out slow, her lips carefully enunciating each syllable.
He took her hand down from his face, still holding it. “Yes, I’m Dr. Robert Young.” He turned toward Debbie, who had tears in her eyes. “I think we have an awakening.” He looked back down at Gini—his look was tender and a bit emotional. “And… a miracle patient.”
Gini slowly turned her head toward Debbie and thrust her tongue again. After a second, she slowly said, “Dee…
“Bee.”
“Oh, baby, you do know me.”
Chapter 3—Awakening
After that afternoon, it was like the floodgates had burst open. Gini constantly said dee… bee and ock… tor… rob… ber… un… gee. To most, it would have been annoying for her to repeat the same thing over and over, but Debbie knew it was the process of relearning how to think and talk. She was thrilled to see her progress.
Each day, Debbie slowly raised the head of the bed, a little higher every morning. Gini seemed comfortable sitting. Since Gini was thrusting her tongue, it was time to see if she could learn to swallow. Debbie squirted a small amount of water in Gini’s mouth and massaged down both sides of Gini’s esophagus. The water trickled out of the side of her mouth for a week, then one day Gini swallowed.
Debbie brushed her fingers gently on Gini’s forehead. “I knew you could do it,” she said in a quiet voice. She had a feeling Gini was going to keep her busy teaching new things.
Every time Robert walked into the room, Gini said, “Ock… Tor… Rob… Ber… Un… Gee…”
Sometimes she repeated it the entire time he examined her. But this day she was quiet. He sat on the bed and gently put his left hand on the side of her face. She thrust her tongue.
“Are you feeling okay today, sweetheart?”
Gini opened her eyes, laid her hand on his, and slowly said, “Er…
“Guiney…
“An…
“Dee…
“Sin.”
He smiled—he had that emotional feeling again—the satisfaction of helping his patients to live on. “Yes, Virginia Anderson, my miracle girl.” He’d had hope for her from the beginning. She was progressing faster than he could have ever imagined.
As soon as Franco returned to Boston, they would do the surgery to place the plate in Gini’s head. She was quite annoyed with the helmet. Debbie knew it was hot and made her head itch. She was never too keen with the helmet period; none of the patients liked them.
Debbie started feeding Gini soft foods, yogurt, pudding, and ice cream. With each new item, Gini’s first reaction was to push the food back out with her tongue, but eventually, she swallowed it. All except the mashed bananas; they were pushed out every time, even when Debbie masked them with the yogurt.
The one thing that proved to be difficult to teach was how to keep her eyes open. It was uncertain if she could see, but definitely she couldn’t see if her eyes were closed.
One day her new word was “awk.” And again, she repeated it over and over. Debbie told Lisa she had no idea what Gini was trying to say.
Lisa did that cute head cock to the side that Debbie adored. She thought for a few minutes, saying words that rhymed or sounded like awk. “Hawk, lock… talk… walk. That’s it, Debbie, she wants to walk. I’ll bet that’s exactly what she wants.”
“Walk! Oh, she is so far from doing that.”
“Are you sure? Have you tried?”
Debbie looked at her and smiled. Actually, it wasn’t that farfetched. Gini was exactly that patient who would want to walk.
Gini’s days on the neurology floor were numbered. Debbie would continue working with her every day until she was transferred to her new home where she’d live the rest of her days. Debbie felt good that Gini would have some kind of life, not just lie immobile in a bed. She hoped she would have some input as to where Gini would go, and a therapy plan to hand off to the new facility. But before she left the hospital, the plate would be inserted. It was a simple operation, but it held some risk to brain trauma patients. They had to be put under anesthesia, which was always a threat, even for healthy brains.
Debbie told Robert about Gini saying awk, which could mean she wanted to walk.
“Hmm… Interesting.” He put the palms of his hands
