“It will be…” Amanda faced up to the consultant. I dragged her back, mouthing an apology. “He will come back to us.”
The rhythmic sound of the ventilator keeping him breathing, the steady beep of the heart monitor. It remained unchanged. Amanda and I sat beside him, we had sat there since that night.
***
“It’s time…” I didn’t recognise the voice. “Hello, you don’t know me. I knew your sister, she needs you. It’s your time Adam.”
“Who are you?”
“Anne, from London, say ‘Hi’ to Mandy, she was always amazing, she was so hurt and, really it was my fault. But, enough of my regrets, it’s too late for them now. Back to you. You’re ready, go on, put them out of their misery. As I said, it’s time.”
***
“Hello, Adam…” The nurse checked the various figures from the machines keeping him alive. “Kate and your sister are here.” There was a sudden change in the rate of the heart monitor. “Oh hello?… Adam, can you hear me?”
I was sat up by now, gripping hold of his hand. His heart rate had risen, it had been the same, rhythmic beep for weeks, now the tone was faster. “Adam…” There was a movement, I squealed. “Oh, God Adam!” His finger moved. I realise that this may not seem like a major milestone, but it was movement. Amanda gasped, grabbing hold of Adam’s other hand.
***
It was a slow process. From the first signs of movement, it took almost a day before Adam opened his eyes. Yet another day before the nurses removed the ventilator when it was clear that he was able to breathe by himself. He was confused and tried to fight off the nurses as they attended to him.
“Adam…” He tried to focus on Amanda but it was not clear he knew who she was. I could see tears filling her eyes and grabbed her hand. The nurse turned to us.
“Please, don’t worry. When someone wakes from a coma they can be very confused, it may take some time for him to recognise you and settle down. Be patient, he will come back to you.”
***
We didn’t leave his bedside for the next two days. One or both of us were there twenty-four hours a day. I was sleepy and almost dozing off when I heard my name.
“Kate?” Adam’s voice was raspy.
“Oh goodness! Adam!” I leapt up, grasping hold of his shoulders. “Oh, Adam…” I saw Amanda approaching with cups of vending machine tea in her hands. “He’s awake…” She threw the tea down and ran to the bedside.
“Sis?”
He was awake in short bursts, his eyes becoming more focused and he was starting to say more and more, even asking questions about the horses. We were exhausted and the nurses eventually shooed us away, demanding we went home and slept.
Although I said I wouldn’t sleep, I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow, not realising how exhausted I’d been. I only woke when the smell of fresh coffee and bacon entered my dreams. I dressed and came downstairs to find May cooking. Amanda was sat at the table, she hugged me and I sat down.
“Are you feeling better now?” May smiled, placing a delicious looking breakfast in front of me. Suddenly my appetite had returned, both Amanda and I ate like we had been starving, which I guess we had been, we filled up on rounds of toast and sweet, freshly brewed coffee.
“Knock, knock…” Dan stepped into the kitchen. Amanda squealed and rushed to him, hugging and kissing him. “Wow! What a welcome! I thought you might want a lift to the hospital.
***
Adam was sitting up when we came into the ICU. The machines had been removed and the nurses said that he would soon be back on a normal ward. We both gingerly hugged him. It was clear that he was still confused. We had been told that he’d officially died that day in the freezer so he had every right to be. However, memories were coming back to him and he was starting to speak more fluently.
It was going to be a long journey to recovery, not least with intensive psychotherapy as he had been laid in bed for weeks now, but, as I assured him. We would be with him every step of the way.
***
Kate had left the room to go to the toilet, I was sitting with him and had been chatting about the horses when he’d coughed.
“Who’s Anne?”
“Annie? You know her, you met in Wiltshire, she’s up here now with her mum.”
“Oh, I know that…” He smiled. “Anne, from London.”
“What are you saying?”
Adam was babbling, almost ignoring me. “Short lady, darker hair. She told me to say hello, said you would know her…”
V
A PERCEPTION OF LIFE
40
Pressing Charges
“I’m ready to come home…”
“Adam, stop whining…” I had to stop myself laughing as Amanda forced him back into bed. We knew he was feeling better as he had started to complain about the physio, ‘I could be mucking out, it would build my strength up’, the food which, according to him ‘tastes awful’, and how bored he was ‘I want to get out and do something useful…’ The nurses loved him, however, as he restricted his moaning to the times we spent with him and was apparently a model patient when he was left alone.
Adam was in a ground floor ward and although there were fields which he could see in the distance he was clearly missing the outdoors and would look on jealously when we invariably came in wearing breeches and boots having come straight from work. He was dressed in a set of ‘My Little Pony’ pyjamas, purchased in an adult size by his loving sister to ‘keep him in bed’ as he was ashamed to be seen in them. He sat back down, mumbling about the injustice of it
