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(Page 2 of 28) Changes by Kate Balsinger"What...?" I wanted to know what was going on. Where my sister was. If my parents were coming. But all the pain in my body pulled me back blissfully, happily back into unconsciousness.
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When I woke again, I heard machines beeping and I couldn't talk because of a tube down my throat. I tried to look around, but I couldn't move. My mother came into my range of vision along with a doctor with brown hair and hazel, hawk-like eyes. "Kara, you're in the hospital. You were in a car accident," He said and even with the tube down my throat I tried to talk. "You started to go into respiratory arrest in the ER. We had to intubate you to help you breathe."
I felt tears starting to sting my eyes and when I let my gaze move off to try and find something to focus on, I saw that my lower body and left leg were in some sort of rig, while my right leg.... My eyes flew to my mother, then to the doctor who gave a small sigh. "You sustained severe fractures to your left leg and pelvis. Your right leg was completely crushed and we had to amputate. You also suffered a spinal fracture. I'm afraid it caused permanent paralysis from the waist down. It will take some time for you to recover as you also broke your left elbow and wrist. There was also a minor shoulder separation."
Oh, God. I couldn't take this. I couldn't be hearing this. This morning I was worried about getting a history essay finished by Monday.... Now I was going to be stuck in a goddamn wheelchair for the rest of my life? At that point, the machines monitoring my heart rate and breathing started going off. Everything was going crazy. My mother looked at me, then at the readouts. "What's happening? What's wrong? Dr. Jacobs?"
Dr. Jacobs put a hand, gently, on my right shoulder. "Kara, calm down. I know that this is scary to hear. But it'll be okay. I just need you to calm down." But I couldn't. My heart was racing and it felt like even with the respirator, I couldn't breathe. Dr. Jacobs took a syringe from a cart and injected something into my IV. After a moment, everything calmed down. I felt relaxed... serene... closing my eyes, I again fell asleep.
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A sharp pain shooting up my back brought me out of slumber and I couldn't help it. I screamed. And I do mean screamed. Apparently someone had taken the tube out while I'd been asleep so when the pain hit, I shrieked my head off. Tears started flowing down my face and I knew that I was back in the smashed truck and I was going to die. But after a moment, the pain subsided, and the weight of sleep was too much to bear. I surrendered...
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Leanne Harman waited outside her oldest daughter's room and watched as a group of nurses and orderlies slowly and very carefully used a harness rig to lift Kara up so they could change the blankets. Then Kara seemed to wake up and the scream she let loose make Leanne sob. With the severity of Kara's spinal injury, Dr. Jacobs had opted to keep Kara unconscious as much as possible.
"Lee?" Leanne turned to see her husband, Sam coming up to her. "I heard Kara all the way down the hall.
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