Now, it's roughly around the 1 o' clock hour when Ms. Ashley Burgess and I arrive at the Memphis Regional Hospital in downtown Memphis---what an interesting place---but I had no clue HOW interesting!
I barely have time to get out of the ambulance and grab my bag before Ashley is unloaded and rolled away (the last time I'd see her for quite some time) and I was escorted inside to begin filling out paperwork and start the process of contacting parents to let them know their daughter was indeed at the hospital and in the intensive care area.
As I'm sitting in the emergency room I begin to look around, not that I'm racist in any way, but I began to notice that I was of a major minority. I was in fact very much something to be stared at myself...it's not everyday you see a man tanned like that of leather, dirty from head to toe, barely dressed and with odd, almost neon, white feet in a hospital as the "official" caretaker of a child from hundreds of miles away, according to her release documents. (I'm sure D.H.S wouldn't have called me the picturesque parental, ha!)
Nevertheless, I was invested in the situation and determined to keep in contact with a set of parents I'd never met in person, updating them as often as I could, and pacing up and down a long corridor outside the intensive care until SOMEONE let me in to see my 'kid'!!
Well as the hours pass, from 1 to almost 6, I had been waiting...calling....pacing....praying....before some relief finally came to bring me; a phone charger, my wallet so I could eat, and more or less and pat on the shoulder for encouragement as I obviously wouldn't be leaving soon. So, again the waiting continued. I left the corridor long enough to get a sandwich and return as quickly as I could to my post outside. I was told that there were only certain times I could see Ashley and I wasn't going to miss my chance. Up and down the hall.. sitting.. laying.. trying to find some comfort on the floor, just one more phone call to reassure Mom and Dad that their daughter was okay. Up and down the hall again.. up and down off of the floor, and again one more phone call. I felt like the minutes were taking years to click by as I waited, begging every nurse, doctor, stranger, anyone that would let me go inside to see my injured kiddo and nothing, so I continued my routine.
Now, at or near 9pm a male nurse comes into the hallway, I'm sitting with my head on my knees, practically curled up in a ball outside the door. He walks up and says "Are you Ty?" and I nod in acknowledgement. "Well we need you to come in here, hurry!" It'd been several hours since I felt that rush of terror, but it was back again -- I was beyond afraid that I would walk in on a young lady passing away or worse already dead. I jumped up, grabbed my gear, and followed closely behind the nurse through a maze of injured, yelling, bleeding, broken and critical people in an overcrowded intensive care area. Walking up to a curtain he pulls it back and there lay Ashley, she was covered in dried blood and dirt, and looked as if she'd been mauled by a bear, or worse. Her scalp had been shaved, stitches everywhere, and she was semi-conscious from the drugs (which I later found out she had only just received for the FIRST TIME since we arrived) for the excruciating pain.
As she lay there, I caught her eyes and she looked up, smiled and said, "Don't worry, it's not bad. I'll still get to march." Of course, I was in no position to disagree and first things first - we got Mom and Dad on the cell phone (which was breaking a rule.. but who cares!). From this point it appeared the night would be over soon and we'd have Ashley back with her corps' family to rest -- too bad that wasn't what Memphis Regional had planned!
Well, looks like this will be a THREE PART NOVEL!
See you back soon for the conclusion...
