Long Distance 2

PHOTO: SACRED JOURNEYS AND SPIRITUALCOMMUNITY

The story doesn't begin here. It springs from HERE.

Jason Ogbeche kept flitting in and out of consciousness. He didn’t know where the sounds were coming from. He barely knew where he was. Someone seemed to be tugging at him, trying to pull him out. But from where?

He tried to open his eyes and when that finally happened, it came with a lot of pain. His mind registered that he was surrounded by people. The tingling feeling all over his body beckoned him to ignore the sea of faces and concentrate on his body. He looked down. There was blood everywhere! He tried to move and something held him back.

‘Do not pull him like that! You will kill him.’

It seemed to come from a far place and each word punctuated the pain he was feeling. He looked down again and saw that the blood flow had one major source.

Jason blanched when he saw the source. The pain overwhelmed him again and he lost consciousness.

***

Doctor Amara Obiekwe forced her way through the crowd, shouting ‘Do not pull him like that! You will kill him.’ until she got to the front of the very ghastly car accident scene before her. When would Nigerians stop pulling people out of accident scenes?! When would people realize that more damage is done when accident victims are not properly removed from the scenes?!

She pushed some more and stopped in her tracks just as she got to the car. Someone had wrenched the door open and the sight before her was daunting.

The young man in the front seat was impaled to his seat by an iron rod that obviously came off the trailer lying a few feet away. From the look of it, the iron entered into his left upper side and exited somewhere into the seat. Thankfully, the man had been wearing his seat belt. If he hadn’t, she was sure he would have flown out of the window and crashed head-first into the underbelly of the huge trailer; which was what happened to the driver.

Dr. Amara dialed the Jos University Teaching Hospital as she assessed what could be done. She could stem the blood flow but she was worried about the proximity of many vital organs to the entry-point of the injury. This man needed immediate surgery if he was to live. But before then, she carried out the ABCDEs of First Aid; she checked his airways, breathing, circulation, consciousness (or lack of it), the penetrating iron, and the amount of blood loss.

She was about to start the secondary survey when she heard the sound of an approaching ambulance.

The forces of the universe seemed to be with this man.

She started to get up when he woke up and grabbed her hand.

‘Don’t leave me!’ he muttered, sputtering some blood and losing consciousness again.

Though unconscious, his hand remained tightly gripped in hers as they raced to the hospital.

***

Adon Kato was restless. She had been calling her boyfriend for the last two hours and he wasn’t picking up.

He left her about four hours ago as he journeyed to Abuja. It took every ounce of her strength to watch the bus leave. When she could no longer see the bus, she grudgingly went to her car and drove home. She had just opened her front door when her phone buzzed. She just knew it was Jason. She smiled even before she read it.

‘Missing you already baby.’

‘Come back to me! I am so lonely with you gone!’ She responded.

‘Stop it, woman! I swear, I will come down from this bus and come back to you!’

Adon laughed. She started typing and then stopped; a voice note would be better.

‘I am so glad we worked things out. I almost thought your presence here would mean the end of our relationship but somehow, we found ourselves. I love you so much, baby! I haven’t been this happy in a long time.’

She watched her phone, anticipating his response.

‘Aww baby! Why are you torturing me? You know I cannot send a voice note and you keep enveloping me with your honey-smooth voice! I will get you back for this. When you come to Abuja, I will make sure I spoil you so bad, that you will have no other choice than to quit your job and leave Gombe. And you know I keep my word!’

Adon laughed again. She was blushing! What did this guy do to her?

‘You will not believe that I am smiling like a sappy teenager. And blushing too! What did you do to me, Jason Ogbeche?!’

He sent in a laughing emoji.

‘Laugh all you want oh! Shebi you now know I love you so you are forming champion right?! Lol. I know what I will do to you. And hey! Speaking of work, I need to prepare. Talk to you as soon as I settle in. I love you, Jason.’

‘I love you too baby.’

They had been chatting when he suddenly went offline. Adon was a bit worried. Something was wrong; she felt it. But she shrugged it off. She tried to concentrate on work to get that nagging feeling away. 

‘Adon, you are too much of a worrier.’ she told herself just as...

...her phone rang.

She jumped to pick it up and in her excitement, dropped it. She quickly picked up and saw that the call had ended. Checking her call log, she saw it was Jason. The phone began to ring again.

‘Jason what the hell is wrong with y...’

‘Good day, ma’am. I am calling from the Jos University Teaching Hospital. The owner of this phone was involved in an accident and is currently in surgery. You were the last person he interacted with and we would like to know if you can make it to the hospital.’

Adon barely heard anything beyond Jason being in an accident. She wanted to faint, to go numb, and to be unconscious as was depicted in the movies but none of that happened. Instead, her senses sharpened and her legs followed.

She picked up her car keys, and bag and ran out of the office.

In less than seven minutes, she was at the Gombe Park paying a driver to take her to Jos. She knew it was only a matter of time before this false sense of calm seeped away and she didn’t want to be driving when that happened.

***

Adon was in the waiting room with Jason’s parents. They arrived an hour after Adon and Jason went into surgery.

She remembered how no one was willing to tell her anything because she ‘was not family’. Even with protests that she IS ‘his fiancée’, no one cared to listen. She wondered why the hell they called her if she was to be kept in the dark. It wasn’t until his parents arrived that Doctor Anwar Isa, Head Surgeon of the Nephrology unit, told them how bad it was.

'Jason has a couple of broken ribs, his spleen was ruptured and his kidney lacerated. The metal that pierced through the kidney was corroded so there was a bit of poisoning. There was a lot of internal bleeding but we have curbed that now. All the other injuries are minor in comparison to these. We are doing all we can but we will need you to sign a consent form allowing us to remove the kidney and spleen if we cannot save them. The good thing is you can live without the spleen and one kidney. However, you need to understand that because the spleen is the organ involved in the production and removal of blood cells, a removal will lower the body's ability to fight infections, opening Jason to a high risk of life-threatening infections. This might require a daily intake of antibiotics to help his immune system. People live normally with one kidney so the spleen is our major worry. That being said, we are working at saving them both and we just need the consent form as a precaution.’

Jason’s mum broke down in tears and his father tried to be her stoic support. He was their only child and they had to sign a form that could possibly reduce the quality of his life.

Adon went to comfort Mrs. Ogbeche when she flared.

‘If you come near me, I swear by god that I will tear you apart with my bare hands.’

Adon blanched.

‘It is all your fault! If he hadn’t been trying to please you, he would never have set out for that God-forsaken place! And now my baby is in surgery fighting for his life. I cannot stand the sight of you. Leave this place! Leave this place!’ she said as she attacked Adon. Mr. Ogbeche held his wife back and sent a pained look Adon’s way.

‘Please go. You are not welcome here.’

Adon looked at Jason’s parents, the pain in her heart written on her sleeves. She went back to her seat and sat down.

‘Are you mad?! I said leave this place! I will…’ Mrs. Ogbeche was interrupted by Doctor Anwar.

‘I am sorry to butt into your family problems but she was the last person he was talking to before the accident. That, and the content of the messages sent, made us contact her. She is obviously important to him. She is etched in his memory so when he wakes up, he needs all the love he can get and her absence may cause him distress. So I advocate that she stays.’

Adon looked at his parents and steeled herself. ‘Even if the doctor hadn’t said that, I was not going to go anywhere! You can blame me all you like but I love Jason and I will be here for as long as it takes.’

Adon was surprised by her response. She was scared of Jason's mum and daring to speak to her with such conviction was not something she thought she could EVER do. When this was over, she would easily just blame it on adrenaline.

Mrs. Ogbeche glared at her and sat down. Her husband stood by her side; their rock as they waited.

The next 3 hours were tense but Adon bore it. She was physically and emotionally tired and the stink looks coming her way from Mrs. Ogbeche were exasperating but she held on; praying…hoping that Jason would survive.

The Doctor returned.

Adon and Jason’s parents jumped up. Adon mentally calculated that Jason had been in surgery for 10 hours.

‘He is out of surgery. We were able to save the kidney but we had to remove the spleen. We tried all we could but the spleen was just too badly ruptured. We have also set his ribs and we will be watching his progress but for now, you can relax a little. He is in the Intensive Care Unit. You can see him one at a time for five minutes each. Keep your fingers crossed. The next few days will determine a lot. Relax a little.’ And with that, he walked away.

A nurse came to usher them into Jason’s room.

***

Jason came to slowly. The smell of antiseptic was the first thing that hit him. He was in a hospital! He tried to move but his entire body was stiff with pain. His upper belly region was so tight he wondered how he could breathe. What was going on?

On his left were his parents. They looked weary and sad: even though they were sleeping.

Holding his right hand was Adon, his girlfriend. She looked like she hadn’t slept in days. She was staring intently at the TV. He wondered if his hearing was bad when he didn’t hear anything from the TV. He dismissed that thought when he heard the gentle hum of the hospital and a generator. Guess the TV was muted. What then was she staring intently at?

His eyes searched for her, his spirit calling out to her, wanting her to know that he was awake. He wished she could hug him and envelop him with the smell of those gardenias and the warmth of her face. He knew that the thought of her was what kept him from dying and he just wanted to love her forever.

She came into the room and their eyes connected.

She smiled.

He smiled back.

‘Hel…lo st..ra..nger…’ he whispered. 

Standing in front of him was the woman he loved.

***

Adon looked at her boyfriend and turned in the direction he was smiling.

Standing at the door was a beautiful and supple woman somewhere in her mid-twenties.

‘Hi. I am Dr. Amara. And I guess I came on time. The patient is up.’

PHOTO: THREE RIVERS DEEP

The Story continues HERE.