Adventures of Devon Carlton - 9. ADC Chapter 9

Devon went to look for Julia, and as he stepped out into the huge entry hall, he was bowled over by the twins; next thing Devon knew was that he was in bed upstairs and a doctor was examining him, “Hello young man, I’m glad to see you woke up, you have been unconscious for nearly two hours” the doctor said and he looked towards the door where Julia was standing.

“Ensure he gets plenty of rest and he is to stay in bed at least till lunchtime Friday, if there are any constant headaches or eyes go blurred, I need to know right away” the doctor said to Julia who just nodded her understanding, and the doctor gave Devon an injection which made him fall asleep.

The next time Devon woke up, he saw his 5 mates standing around the bed, with big grins on their faces, “Welcome back to the real world” Hugh said with a chuckle and Thomas gave his brother a nudge in the ribs for the inappropriate comment.

“What my dumb arse bro is trying to say is, it’s good to see you awake, after two days unconscious and two days of sleeping, we were starting to get worried about you,” Thomas said with concern.

Devon tried to sit up but lay back down again as his head started to spin. In the background they heard – “Mum one of the EQD guys just swore” coming from the twins as they went looking for their mother, which made everyone in the room giggle.

“I guess we better watch what we say while we are staying here,” David said looking directly at Thomas who began to blush a bit.

James and Robert helped Devon to slowly sit up, adjusting his pillows and his sitting position until he was comfortable, just as Julia walked in with a meal tray for the patient, on seeing her enter Thomas blushed again before apologising for his language that the twins heard, Julia nodded and carefully placed the tray on Devon’s lap.

Devon picked up the soup spoon but he couldn’t grip it and it fell back onto the tray with a loud clatter, he tried it again and again but failed each time, and he began to sob, quickly Julia whisked the tray off his lap so as to avoid a mess, and placing it on the nearby table she dashed out of the room.

When she returned twenty minutes later with the doctor in tow, the guys had just finished helping Devon to eat and placed the tray back onto the table before retreating out of the room, about ten minutes later the doctor walked into the guest lounge where he found the 5 worried young men.

The doctor said that an ambulance was being called to take Devon to hospital in Inverness, as it appears he has partial paralysis on his right side, which may be caused by a blood clot, the doctor said that they will do an operation to remove the clot and he should get full movement back, but at the moment he has difficulties with his right hand and his right foot.

When the doctor had left, all five members of EQD just sat there stunned, they had only one more day left of their holiday and none of it had been spent with their now good friend Devon, but because of their status as a famous band, they could not follow him to the hospital, so they said goodbye to Devon before he was loaded into the Ambulance, and wished him a speedy recovery.

Once the ambulance had gone, Robert went to find Julia, to say that the band was packing to return to the city to prepare for the next stage of their concert, and on behalf of the band, he thanked the family for their kind hospitality during their stay.

About half an hour later with everyone packed and the luggage loaded into the van, the band members returned inside, where all the family was sitting in the drawing room, from the main hallway, the band began an impromptu mini-concert with bagpipes included which brought the family and a lot of the staff out into the hall to listen.

After three songs, they ended their mini concert with much applause from every direction, including from the top of the stairs, where the royal guests were seated. After saying farewell to the other guests and to the hosts, the band climbed into the van and made their way out onto the road for the long journey back to Edinburgh, but they soon changed their minds and detoured to Inverness to make one final visit to their friend.

Robert made a phone call to the hospital just fifteen minutes before they were due to arrive, requesting to speak to the hospital administrator on an urgent matter of great importance. When a lady answered and said she was the secretary of the administrator, Robert suggested that she go and get her boss straight away, as he had to speak to him only, finally, a man picked up the call and announced he was the deputy administrator and how could he help.

Robert feeling frustrated by the delays said that some VIP’s were arriving at the hospital in less than ten minutes, and asked for security to be beefed up to keep the media out.

The man on the other end of the line said he would not do anything like that until he knew more; Robert was starting to get really annoyed now and told the man to do as he requested or he would get issued for a summons, and he hung up. When they arrived at the front entrance of the hospital, there was one lonely security guard standing there.

Robert was not at all impressed, as they stepped out of the van and Robert stepped up to the guard, “Do you know who we are” he asked the guard, who swallowed and nodded yes as his jaw dropped open and his eyes wide open, “Can you arrange extra security to keep the media away from us, and place our van at a location where we can get away quickly” Robert added, and he handed the guard the van keys and followed the other band members inside.

Standing at the information desk, the band members heard a two-way radio behind the desk “Security Control, this is the front entrance, I suggest we put the hospital on VIP alert, the band members of EQD just walked into the hospital, over”.

“Received that last message, attention all officers, VIP Alert, I want 4 guards at the front entrance right now, and all external doors are to be checked that they are locked, over”, Robert smiled, “now that’s more like it” Robert said as they headed to intensive care to see Devon.

When they got to the door to intensive care, they were refused entry because they were not family, and this was getting to be too much for Robert, luckily the Administrator appeared just in time and opened the access door to Intensive care with his electronic pass card, and lead the way to the nurses desk, and asked the nurse in charge, what the status was for Mr Devon Carlton.

The band members overheard the nurse say that Devon had just gone into emergency surgery, as his condition had worsened, Hugh stepped forward and thanked the nurse and lead the way out of ICU, once out the door, they stopped to take in what they just heard, and they were all now visibly upset.

As the administrator approached, Hugh asked him if they could visit the children’s ward, and maybe sing a small song for them, the administrator smiled and lead the way down another two passageways till they entered the children’s ward, where a young nurse shrieked with joy when she saw who walked in, and she had to be guided away to calm down, as other nurses appeared and recognised the band members.

Half an hour and two songs later, the band members said goodbye to the children and some of the nurses, before being escorted to a service entrance, where the van was parked and ready to go, and they slipped out of the hospital grounds unnoticed as they saw a crowd of media gather around the front entrance, having heard that they had made a surprise visit.

Robert had spent some time on his phone making plans and once they were in the van, they headed to the airport, where a private jet was waiting for them, to take the band to Edinburgh where their manager was waiting for them.

The operation had not gone as well as it hoped as Devon went into a coma soon after the operation, a blood clot had been found in his brain which was the cause of the paralysis, and also they found a small fracture in his skull, where he had fallen and hit his head at the Estate Manor.

Julia had telephone Hugh and Grace in Australia, and explained what had happened and that Devon was now in a coma in hospital, after undergoing brain surgery, she told them that she was in regular contact with the hospital and that she would be contacted as soon as he awakens from the coma, since they are the nearest relatives to Devon.

Hugh and Grace were in shock and knew they couldn’t travel halfway around the world, because they had their work commitments, plus the twins or Grace didn’t have a passport to be able to travel overseas.

Julia promised to keep in regular contact with them with updates on his progress, and not to worry about any medical bills as they would be covered by them. Nearly two weeks later, Devon finally woke up from his Coma, it was late in the afternoon and a teenage boy dressed in a private school uniform was sitting in a chair nearby reading a novel.

“Water” Devon managed to squeak out loud enough for the boy to hear, who jumped a bit from fright at the sudden noise.

The boy jumped out of his chair forgetting about his book, which dropped to the floor, and he poured a small amount of water into a glass, he then helped Devon to partially sit up and helped him to take a few sips of water, and at the same time he reached for the call button and pressed it twice.

For the next ten minutes there were nurses coming and going from the room, checking the machine, writing down notes, checking Devon’s temperature and blood pressure, and eventually, a doctor appeared, who just looked at all the notes that had been scribbled down, smiled and spoke briefly to a nurse before leaving. During this time the boy had sat back down and recommenced reading until all the activity was over and all was quiet in the room again.

When the boy looked up from his book and smiled, he put his book on the table, stood up and walked up to the bed just four steps away.

“Hey Devon, I’m your cousin Edgar, I was told what my stupid twin brothers did, and I have been sneaking out of school to come and visit you as much as I can.

Your parents have been told that you are in Hospital, and my Mother has been keeping them up to date on your progress, no doubt the hospital has already contacted Mother, and she will be straight onto the telephone to Australia” the boy said with a kind voice.

Devon remembered Julia saying their oldest son was away at boarding school in Inverness, and looking at him silently, Devon could see he was a good looking smart young man who will be going places.

Devon smiled and took another sip of water with Edgar’s help, just then there was a beep sound, and Edgar looked at his mobile.

“Cripes, I have to get back to school, that message is from Mother, saying get back to school now, looks like the hospital mentioned that I was in the room when you woke up, see you soon, bye for now,” Edgar said and he dashed out of the room.

Devon fell asleep soon after and woke up a few hours later, when an orderly walked in with a dinner tray, vegetable soup, stewed fruit and ice cream, it wasn’t much but Devon enjoyed every mouthful of it. After finishing his dinner, Devon watched the open doorway as people walked past in the corridor, and eventually,he fell asleep again.

The next morning after some average hospital breakfast, Devon’s first visitor was the doctor, who for the first time greeted Devon before looking at his charts, and asked Devon a series of questions on where it hurts the most, what level was the pain out of 10, with one being the lowest level of pain.

Is there any blurring of the eyes, any headaches, was he able to feel the pen as the doctor prodded him on the wrist and hand followed by the ankle and foot on his right side.

After this series of tests, the doctor said he would be sending Devon to have another X-ray and CAT scan, to see what’s happening on the inside, to make sure it was healing properly and that Devon was progressing well since waking up from the coma. So, for the next few hours, Devon was shoved onto a trolley, taken to X-ray, brought back, then two hours later the same process to have the CAT scan.

By the time he was returned to his hospital bed, Devon was exhausted, and lunch was served almost straight after he was settled back in bed, once he had eaten, Devon pushed the trolley away from the bed and he slid down so he was lying flat and dozed off to sleep.

When he woke up, Edgar had returned and was reading his novel again, “Hey cousin, water please” Devon croaked as he slowly slid himself into a semi-sitting position, so he could drink, Edgar held the cup for him and this time there was a crazy shaped straw in the cup, and he looked at with a frown as he drank some water, Edgar laughed and said, “So you don’t like the crazy straw I got for you eh, you just went cross-eyed looking at it just now”.

Devon smiled and leaned back away from the cup. Devon and Edgar talked for a little while with Devon asking about the boarding school that Edgar attended, the subjects he studied, sports he played and other recreational activities, until Devon drifted off to sleep again. When Devon woke up again, it was getting dark and Edgar had gone, a tray of dinner was in front of him, cold roast beef and salad, sliced bread & butter, stewed fruit and custard, and fruit juice.

Devon ate it all up as he was very hungry, using his left hand for the fork, as he still didn’t have full movement of his right hand and burped loudly as he finished, which caught a nurse’s attention, and as she walked in she smiled seeing Devon was awake and had eaten all his dinner. Checking his vitals, she scribbled them down and left the room.

Devon noticed that Edgar had left his novel behind, so Devon picked it up and started to read it, getting up to chapter 5 before he began to get real tired, so he put the book down and laid back and was soon asleep again.

The next morning was the same as the previous morning, a visit from the doctor, a series of questions and tests, and just a CAT scan this time, so he was back in his hospital room by 10.30 am, in time for some morning tea, a cup of hot tea, some biscuits and a piece of fruit.

Just as the orderly left, Edgar appeared, this time dressed in casual clothes, that’s when Devon remembered that it was Saturday, so no classes today, but he did have sports later on in the afternoon at 2 pm, so he could only stay till noon.

An hour later a nurse came in with a trolley with a large plastic bowl, with warm soapy water, some towels and some washcloths, “Time for your sponge bath Mr Carlton” the nurse said as she came in. “If it’s ok with Carlton… I mean Devon, may I do it” Edgar ask the nurse, who looked at Devon for a response to the statement, and Devon went a bit red in the face thinking that his younger cousin would see him naked, on seeing this Edgar himself got a bit embarrassed.

“Sorry Cousin, I should have asked you first, I thought with us being cousins, you wouldn’t mind. It’s just I did one day a week of community service for a term as an extra school activity, working in a Disability services hostel, and I had to clean up shit and do sponge baths often for the really disabled guys, most of them aged 14 to 21 years old, I didn’t mind doing it as I was helping them to improve their life by helping with activities and stuff, and cleaning them up was all part of it” Edgar explained to the nurse and his cousin.

“I’m sure you will be fine, and the young lady can go and do more important things, instead of wet nursing me” Devon said with a cheeky smile, the nurse gave a short laugh and went out of the room closing the door behind her, and Edgar pulled the curtain around the bed and put the gloves on, before carefully rolling Devon onto his side so he could place one of the towels down, then did the same on the other side, before removing the hospital gown and starting to sponge clean Devon.