“The” Phone Call
The most horrible night of my life so far started with a phone call. You know the kind. The one that comes in the middle of the night when you are sound asleep. The sound of the phone startles you to a half dream state. In the pit of your stomach you just know it’s bad news. That is precisely the call I got On March 8, 2009.
On the other end was the commander of my oldest son’s Unit in Japan. My oldest son’s name is Kevin. He joined the Marine Corp in 2006 and went to Japan in 2007. Now he always called around 4 or 5 am, but this call came at a little after 1am. 1:18am to be exact. The commander said that Kevin had been in an accident and was hurt really bad. He also said that the doctor in Thailand would be calling with more information and asked that I get up and get awake so that I would understand what the doctor was to tell me.
As soon as the commander said he was from my son’s Unit, I asked my husband to turn on the light. Why? Maybe if I had the light on I would understand what he was saying. Maybe with the light on the darkness of his words would disappear. Maybe if I could see, the feeling in the pit of my stomach would go away. Maybe, just maybe, the light would make things better. It didn’t.
The call came from Thailand a few minutes later. The man on the other end was a Navy doctor who was at the hospital with Kevin. He told us that Kevin was badly injured. That he was in emergency surgery. He had been in the OR himself to observe before he called. He said the surgery was going well and the neurosurgeon was very skilled. He promised to call in a half an hour when the surgery was over.
My husband and I went into the kitchen and made coffee. We went over and over what little the commander and doctor had said. We had no idea why Kevin was in Thailand instead of Japan. We decided not to call anyone else until we had answers. We were very anxious to get that next call. 30 minutes went by and no call. We made a second pot of coffee. An hour passed and still no call. Another pot of coffee was made. At 3am we got the second call from the doctor.
He gave us the details. Kevin’s unit had deployed to Thailand a week before. Although no one knew the exact details of the accident, they did know that Kevin was brought to the hospital by a local man. He had a fractured skull, black eyes, abrasions and bruises on his face and arms. It was determined that the “tuk tuk” he had been riding in tipped over and Kevin flew out the back and landed on the street hitting his head. (A tuk tuk is a motorized 3 wheeler used as a taxi. It has an open back seat, kinda resembles a rickshaw.)
The doctor told us he had waited so long to call because once the surgery began there was a lot more damaged found than the CT Scan showed. Now, I had been a nurse 14 years ago so I understood some of the words the doctor used. Although I “knew” the meanings, I couldn’t understand them. I can’t really explain it. Suffice it to say I had to repeat them more than once to understand them in relation to my child.
Kevin was in a coma. The neurosurgeon had to remove 1/4 of his skull. The coma was medically induced. Had he gone into a coma on his own, there was a chance he wouldn’t come out of it. And of course his brain didn’t need the stimulation. He was on a respirator. He had wires all over his body. IV’s too. Now for the hard part…waiting. Only time would tell. The first 24-48 hours were the most dangerous. The doctor would be calling with updates.
3 days after the accident
After finding out the facts, we began to call others and give them “the news”. Let me go back to the first call for a minute. As soon as the call from the commander had ended, I immediately lit a candle and said a prayer. I believe in healing energy. I believe that all my prayers are answered. So after the last call I asked others to pray too. I asked that they pray for Kevin to be healed. I called my family. I called friends. I got online and sent a message to every group I was in and to every person on my messenger list and to every person in my email contact list. I also posted the request on every social site I was a member of. I spent well over an hour calling, talking, and typing. But I knew Kevin would be ok.
Then, another call came.
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June 16th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
Diane, THANK YOU so much for sharing this story with us. I will read every one!