Divorced in Danville

by E. M. Sadler

  My Kelly. My Wife. Was laying there so helpless, and there was nothing I could do to make this better.

  And it shattered me.

  Walking towards her bed, I gently raised her hand to my mouth and kissed the spot where her wedding bands sat earlier that day, but had since been removed.

  And then I sobbed into her mattress, not caring who saw me.

  Chapter 60 – Kelly

  I was wandering in a meadow outside of Sadler's Ridge.

  In the distance, I could see my grandpa, and he was talking to a little girl by the gazebo.

  Was that me? Was I remembering a moment from my childhood?

  Walking closer to where I heard laughing and chatting, I realized that it couldn't be me. The child looked like Dale, but she had my nose and hair.

  Suddenly looking up at me, both of them smiled before my grandfather picked up the little girl and walked her through a gate attached to a white picket fence.

  When grandpa turned to close the gate, they both smiled at me one last time and then disappeared before everything went black.

  Chapter 61 - Dale

  Around 1:00 am, I was nudged awake from Kelly's side by a hand on my shoulder. Turning to see who it could be, I was shocked to see Trish Samson. Vaguely remembering that she worked here, I assumed she was here regarding Kelly's condition.

  She'd been out of surgery for over two hours now and was still not waking from her anesthesia. But thankfully, the doctor had assured me an hour ago that she should be awake by morning.

  Acknowledging Trish's presence in the room, I nodded my head.

  "Dale, do you mind coming with me? I need to discuss something with you," she said looking genuinely concerned.

  Kissing Kelly’s forehead, I sat up and followed Trish towards the family lounge. Once there, Trish glanced around to make sure that we had our privacy before saying, "I think there's something you need to know about Kelly."

  Jarred into mental awareness, I asked, "What do you mean? Has something changed in the last hour?"

  How could I have fallen asleep? How could I have missed something less than a foot from her monitors?

  "This is going be hard to hear, but those babies aren't yours."

  What was she talking about?

  "I'm sorry Trish, what makes you think that those babies aren't mine?" Plus, I'm confident that Kelly and Trish hadn't become besties since this afternoon's fiasco.

  "Well..." she said looking nervous but strangely hopeful. "The ultrasound suggested that the triplets were between 2-3 months along, which means they would have to be Fernando's, not yours."

  ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!?!?!

  Only I didn't say it in my head.

  Misinterpreting my reaction, Trish reached to touch my face, and I flinched away from her in disgust.

  Yeah, now she was reinterpreting.

  "Trish, you are un-fucking-believable. First of all, my wife, the love of my life, nearly died less than four hours ago and is laying in the ICU still in her medically induced coma. Not to mention the fact, that today WE, Kelly and I, lost one of our precious babies and our twins are currently on a watch for miscarriage. And you have the fucking nerve to come into her room and pull me away with this bullshit?" I yelled, which was very uncharacteristic of me and shocked the hell out Trish.

  But before I could continue my haranguing of the uber-bitch Trish, we were interrupted by the unexpected wrath of Polly.

  "You selfish bitch! How DARE you try to act like you're here to offer support to Dale when you're just trying to break up his marriage? No wonder Gary left you, even when you were together you were always trying to get to Dale. His wife nearly DIED tonight Trish, and not only are you trying to use this as an opportunity to advance yourself, but you were also the reason she nearly died!" Polly yelled in the most un-Polly way.

  WAIT! "Wait, Polly how did Trish nearly cause Kelly to die?" I don't understand?

  "Oh, Trish purposely left Kelly waiting without being seen in the Emergency Room, even though protocol said she should have been sent straight to triage after registration. Instead, Trish left Kelly sitting in the waiting room in pain, and none of the nurses even knew she was there. All because she thought Kelly was trying to be the center of attention."

  And for the first time in my life, I wanted to hit a woman. But that wouldn't help the situation, and I'm not that guy.

  Before I could verbally attack the sociopath in front of me, Polly turned to me and said.

  "Don't worry Dale. We made sure to document the situation in our records and have already begun termination proceedings. But I would suggest talking to an attorney." Then turning to Trish, she said, "You know Trish, for years I have defended you because for one night in high school you were a decent human being to me, but now I'm done. What you did tonight was pure evil, and I don't want anything to do with you going forward."

  With one last look of pure revulsion at the narcissist in front of me, I stopped only to say, "And Trish, my middle name is Fernando!" My Kelly should never be accused of being a cheater. Then I allowed Polly to guide me back to Kelly's room.

  "I am so sorry, Dale," Polly said with a sigh.

  Still trying to process the events of the last four hours, I just nodded in acceptance of her empathy.

  "You know, I helped my brother put together your wedding scrapbook? There is no doubt in my mind that the love you two share is special. Just let me know if there's anything I can do."

  "Actually, do you mind going over some of the medical terminologies for me. I was kind of in a fog when Dr. Fitzgerald relayed it earlier."

  "Of course, I'm on duty for another hour, just let me go and check on a patient, and I'll be right back."

  Taking out my phone, I tried to make a list of all of the terms that had been thrown at me over the last few hours, so that when Polly returned, I could just read them off instead of trying to recollect them from addled memory.

  After all, my brain was too clouded with concern to focus.

  When Polly returned, I was then given a crash course in women's health.

  My first question was regarding something Nichole Lawson had mentioned about Kelly's history of hyper-ovulation. According to Polly, most women will drop one egg from their ovary a cycle, but Kelly had a history of dropping multiple eggs, which is how two eggs ended up falling.

  "And what about mono-di twins? My twins are fraternal, so this is the first time I have heard of that term before."

  "Mono-di twins occur when an egg splits into identical twins, but they each have their own placentas. This would normally signal a hopefully healthy twin pregnancy, but because of the trauma Kelly has undergone today, we won't know for at least a week if the babies are still thriving."

  "What did they do with our baby that died?" I asked, not wanting our sweet angel to end up in the medical waste bin.

  "Well, we used to send it to the incinerator, but now we save it in a sealed container until the parents decide how to handle the remains. I know of at least one funeral home that will cremate your baby for you so that you can bury them. The baby was still in its beginning stages, so they'll probably have to add some wood during the cremation process to make enough ashes for the urn. From what other patients have told me, their grief was eased by having the opportunity to mourn their loss in this way instead of being told that it was just an ectopic pregnancy and not given a chance to have some closure."

  "I know Kelly will want to cremate the remains. Who do I talk to about that?"

  "I'll let the floor administrator know, and she will have the remains picked up in the morning."

  "Thanks, Polly."

  "Your welcome, Dale."

  As Polly left the room, my focus returned once again to my beautiful Kelly.

  Tonight, was the first night since our wedding that I hadn't fallen asleep with her in my arms. A sudden wave of selfishness and need washed over me, and as I looked to make sure that there was no one nearby, I slowly positioned myself on the edge of K
elly's bed so that I could lay next to her.

  Careful not to jostle her, or her cords and making sure that I was nowhere near her incisions, I placed my hand on the area over her heart and was lulled to sleep by its beat as my heart synced itself with hers.

  At 5:00 am, a very perturbed phlebotomist awakened me, from my rest.

  "I'm going to have to ask you to sleep on the cot provided by the orderly, Mr. Wilson. I want to remind you that the only reason you're being allowed to sleep in an ICU room is because of Polly."

  Kissing Kelly's cheek and feeling thoroughly admonished, I slowly unfurled myself from the warmth of my pregnant wife and took a moment to use the restroom.

  Thankfully, when I return the phlebotomist had disappeared, but I was shocked to find another man standing by Kelly's bed weeping.

  "May I help you?" I asked, trying to see why the gentleman looked so familiar. And then when our eyes meet, I knew.

  Geoff.

  The Skype conversation we had had a week ago had been blurry, and he'd aged quite a bit since his wedding photos with Kelly. It didn’t help that his beard was now completely gray, but those eyes were the same I'd seen on Mandy and Mazie.

  Collecting himself, Geoff wiped his face and said, "You must be Dale."

  "I am, and I'm guessing you're Geoff." Wait, who has the girls? "Aren't you supposed to have the girls?"

  "Nichole offered to watch them. I just had to make sure for myself that she was okay," he said with a breaking voice. "She told me that something was wrong, but I just thought she was trying to get attention."

  I've only known Kelly for four and a half months, and even I knew that was bullshit. But I didn't want to bring nastiness into Kelly's hospital room.

  "Well, she wasn't, she nearly died, Geoff," I said as calmly as possible.

  "I am sorry you know," he whispered before stroking her face with the back of his index finger.

  I wanted to smack his hand away. But they did have a history, and if the roll was different, and it had been me in the hospital bed tonight, I would hope that Maggie would feel some remorse as well.

  "Will you tell her I came?" he asked humbly.

  "I will." Kelly and I didn't keep secrets.

  "I've taken two extra days off work and will bring the girls to Joan's on Tuesday," he said while walking to the door and pausing. "She's the love of my life you know?" And then he left the room.

  At that moment, I finally understood why Kelly had always been so quick to forgive his behavior. Sometimes people were just broken and were clouded from looking past their own failings.

  Geoff, he was definitely a broken man.

  Hopefully, for the girls' sake, he'd get help one day, but for now, I'd have to remember to be there for the girls if he was unable to.

  By 6:00 am, the hospital room was a bona fide train station of activity. Every 15 minutes a new nurse or doctor was checking on Kelly and commenting that her body was probably just exhausted or that she should be awake soon.

  At 9:00 am, my father and mother arrived and thank God for his timing, because on their heels was the hospital attorney. Leaving Kelly in my mother's hands, the attorney led my father and me to a private office down the hall and closed the door.

  After an hour of discussion, it was discovered that three things caused Kelly's condition to escalate to her current state, and all of them were grounds for a separate malpractice suit.

  The first being the failed clamps, who had already agreed to pay for Kelly's hospital stay. In addition to the hospital bills, the manufacturer had been court ordered last week to offer a settlement with a loop-hole for arbitration if further medical harm presented itself in the future.

  This settlement included, but was not limited to: hospital costs for both repair and the cost of either another tubal ligation on the patient or a vasectomy for the spouse; the cost of childbirth and care for mother and all children conceived without knowledge of the clamps' failure for the first five years (ie. Daycare and medical expenses, which was estimated to be around 35k per year per child and 10k per year for the mother; and an initial lump sum of 200k). Thus, if the twins survived, we would be able to afford the sudden additions to our family through high school.

  The second issue was the failure of a senior hospital representative to follow hospital protocol that ended in the jeopardized health of a patient. As a result, the hospital would typically cover costs and the resulting loss of income through its errors and omissions insurance and fire the person found negligent. But since the clamp manufacturer was covering most of those costs, they decided to offer us a lump sum reimbursement equal to all of the costs associated with the procedure’s extremity.

  According to the attorney, when Dr. Fitzgerald had left us the previous evening, he immediately had a colleague review her record. That was when it was determined that if Trish had submitted the admission paperwork properly and followed protocol, Kelly would have been sent to triage quickly and the surgery would have ended laparoscopically instead of opening her up. So, the claims adjuster determined this morning that a fair settlement to cover hospital, pain, and suffering and lost income would equal $300,000, with the option that if any future health conditions arose from the situation, the case could be reopened.

  The final issue and one that we had not been privy to due to uncertainty, were regarding the anesthesiologist, a Dr. Eli Johnston. After Polly and Dr. Fitzgerald lodged a complaint this morning with the hospital board, his superiors were immediately called in to review Kelly's operative report and past medical history. Dr. Johnston was not only negligent but had purposely ignored the client's medical history. A suggestion for suspension with the requirement of him returning after a year as an intern until his superiors determined his suitability for rehiring was made by the hospital board. If we found that was a fair course of action, Dr. Johnston's malpractice insurance would offer us a settlement of $400,000 with the option for reevaluation if Kelly's health should change as a result. However, if we would like to press charges, the hospital would cooperate with the courts and allow a judge to make the decision.

  Expressing the sincerest apologies of the hospital board, the attorney exited leaving us with the three folders to review at our convenience.

  "Well, the hospital is definitely trying to cover their butt even if malpractice protocol has come a long way," my dad said to himself while reviewing the first folder. Looking up, he elaborated with, "Twenty years ago, the hospitals wouldn't have been so forthright with their failures, and the courts wouldn't have pushed the manufacturer into settling. Even ten years ago, you would have had to hire an attorney to sue for each of these failures individually."

  "What do you think, based on what the attorney said?"

  "My gut is telling me that they are offering a fair settlement on all accounts, I'm sure they aren't anxious for this kind of information to be leaked out to the news. However, if it's okay with you, I'm going to stop by the courthouse on the way home and have Judge Caldwell look it over. He's overseen quite a few malpractice suits over the last few years, and I know he goes into the office on Saturday afternoon’s to catch up on his paperwork. He'll know for sure."

  Chapter 62 – Kelly

  Beep...Beep...Beep

  What's that sound?

  Beep...Beep...Beep

  It sounds like the scanner at the grocery store.

  Beep...Beep...Beep

  It can't be that. I think I've been sleeping.

  I hear voices. Are they talking to me? No, that's Dale's mom. I want to open my eyes, but they were too heavy.

  Beep...Beep...Beep

  What is that beeping?

  And then I drifted back to sleep.

  Chapter 63 – Dale

  When I walked back into Kelly's room, I was immediately alerted by beeping coming from her monitor.

  Seeing the concern on my face, my mom rushed to assure me. "Don't stress, she moved her arms, and it dislodged her IV and oxygen monitor. The nurse just ran to get her a new bag
of fluids, which will stop the beeping."

  "But she moved?" I asked, hopeful that maybe she'd be awake soon.

  "She did. I thought I saw movement on her face too, but I can't be sure. By the time the nurse came in, she had started breathing as if she were sleeping again."

  Armed with my new knowledge of the anesthesiologist's errors, I turn to my dad. "Dad, I think I'm okay with all of those settlements as well, but I'd really like a second opinion about the anesthesiologist. Do you think you can ask Judge Caldwell if he knows anyone who could review Kelly's records?"

  "That shouldn't be a problem son," my dad said trying to ease my concern with a pat on the shoulder.

  "What's going with Kelly's records?" asked a confused Joan, who had just walked in followed by Kelly's friend Nichole.

  Once we had brought them up to speed, Nichole walked to the hospital door and closed it.

  "I'm an employee of this health system, so what I am about to tell you is as a friend and not as Kelly's doctor," Nichole said cryptically. "I'm the reason he was transferred here after I noticed him ignoring patient and medical history warnings of aesthetic issues. He's older, and only a couple of years from retirement, so the hospital system sent him here. You may be able to request an amendment to his probation that he be asked to retire."

  In light of this new information, my father went ahead and said his goodbyes, taking the settlement files with him in the hopes that his friend could offer more insight into the case.

  As the day wore on, Kelly remained out of consciousness. To help pass the time, Nichole and Joan kept me company till about 8:00 pm when the doctor came in to explain that they still weren't concerned about her unconscious state. With the combination of her trauma, the pregnancy of twins, and the sensitivity to anesthesia, they suspected that her body was trying to get some much-needed rest. The fact that she had moved her arms earlier today was a good sign, and the doctors were hopeful that she would be awake soon.