Left You Dead

44

It was over an hour after he had ended the call with Glenn Branson before the A&E consultant returned to give Roy and Cleo an update on Bruno. Adrian Burton looked more gravely serious than he had previously. Roy and Cleo were sitting together holding hands and comforting each other.

‘The report I have from the orthopaedic consultant who’s viewed the trauma CT scans is that Bruno has multiple fractures to his lower legs, rib cage, right hip and left shoulder. These are relatively easy fixes. He does also have, as we suspected, a ruptured spleen, and he is currently in theatre having an emergency splenectomy. That is a very straightforward process and people can make a full recovery with that, although they will be dependent on some medication on a permanent basis.’

Grace looked at him, sensing something more was to come. He could see it in Cleo’s face, too. ‘But?’ he asked, pushing the question out there.

Adrian Burton nodded solemnly. ‘I’m afraid there is a but, yes. Bruno’s head has suffered a massive trauma, and possibly a secondary one, consistent with hitting two hard surfaces — in my experience of such collision victims his head would have come into contact first with the vehicle’s windscreen and then with the road. He doesn’t have a fractured skull, which is a positive, but he’s not waking up, which is a concern. We’ll be doing an MRI scan after twenty-four hours.’

‘What is his potential brain injury, in layman’s language?’ Grace asked.

Cleo interjected. ‘Swelling.’

Burton nodded. ‘Because of his ruptured spleen and his dropped blood pressure, there’s been a further insult to his brain — which we call a secondary brain injury — hypoxia. The team are doing all they can to try to get Bruno’s numbers right and to extubate and stabilize him — and hopefully limit the hypoxia. He’s been given three sets of drugs — ketamine to sedate him, rocuronium, a paralysing agent, and alfentanil, an analgesic.’

‘So, in your opinion, doctor, what is his prognosis?’ Grace asked.

‘I’d be lying if I told you both it was good. It isn’t — but he’s got a strong heart and for the moment we’ve just got to hope for the best.’

‘And pray?’ Cleo asked.

Burton smiled thinly. His eyes signalled, Why not?

‘I know you’re giving him the best care you can,’ Grace said. ‘But is there anywhere — a neurological unit in some other hospital — London, perhaps — that has any facilities you don’t have here? I don’t mind what it costs — we’ll pay for a helicopter, or anything.’

At this moment, Grace thought, he would pay every penny he had in the world to save this boy. Even if it meant selling their house.

Burton shook his head. ‘We’re a regional major trauma centre, we’ve got a neuro ICU, and in this acute episode he’s better off here. If you were talking about rehab in the future, then we could look at that, but we are a long way off from that at the moment. Even if there was a better facility somewhere, he is so unstable at the moment that I honestly don’t think he would survive the journey.’

His words slammed into Roy’s stomach like a massive punch.

Dimly, he was aware of Cleo taking his hand.

‘Bruno’s being moved to the ICU — I’ll come back soon and take you up to see him,’ Burton said and left the room.