Page 90 of Dr. Brandt

The sound of Cam’s phone as we sat silently in the car nearly made me jump out of my skin.

“Yeah, you’re on speaker, Collin,” Cam said, looking at me.

“Jessa is next to you, I’m assuming?” Collin questioned seriously.

“She’s right here and can hear you,” Cam said.

“Okay, good,” Collin said.

“Where’s Jake? Was he with him?” Cam interjected.

“Jake is still with him. He told me to call you both and run interference while he stayed with Jackson and Dr. Fremont.”

“I barely got vitals from Jake before I had to take the call from the hospital,” Cameron said. He looked at me, “I told them to bypass calling you since you were with me.”

“Fine,” I answered, not caring about these details. “What happened, Collin? I need to know exactly what happened to my son.”

“Apparently, he went into a seizure, and as he began coming slowly out of it, another seizure followed, and then another. His seizures were back-to-back, not even five minutes apart,” Collin said. “Jake says Jackson had maybe four seizures before he fell into this comatose state. With the vitals Jake gave me, I can confirm he’s scoring a five GCS.”

“What the hell is that?” I snapped.

“Sorry, Jessa,” Collin said. “It’s the Glasgow Coma Scale.”

“It’s how we rate the extent of impaired consciousness in patients who may suffer any form of acute medical or trauma-like situations,” Cam explained.

“Being rated a five on that scale,” Collin interjected, “while not great, it simply means that yes, he’s in a coma. And Cam, I’m only confirming what he’s already been assessed at, given pupil dilation and his responses to sensory.”

“I’ll know more when I arrive,” Cam said. “I’m just perplexed, trying to piece together why he went into a coma in the first place. I’m more concerned about the back-to-back seizures in a short period.”

“Right and with no recovery before the next,” Collin added while I felt myself growing numb again.

I couldn’t believe this was my son we were discussing.

“It sounds like status epilepticus,” Cameron said, leaning forward and pinching the bridge of his nose.

“I think that may be what occurred,” Collin agreed.

Cameron looked at my confused expression. “Status epilepticus is when either a seizure lasts longer than five minutes or more than one seizure happens in under five minutes.”

“How did this happen? How could that happen?” I questioned, dropping my face into my hands, wishing I’d been there for my son when the seizures had taken a turn for the worse.

You should’ve expected this instead of running off like a fucking schoolgirl with no responsibilities! I scolded myself. You knew his seizures were worsening, and you still let him stay behind.

The guilt echoing in my brain was deafening, but I needed to concentrate.

“His seizures had advanced and progressed, but not to the point that I thought SE would be something he’d be facing in the near future,” I heard Cam say to Collin and me.

“And that was why you ordered more scans because it seemed the seizures were becoming more frequent?”

And why we should have never left him until we knew more, I thought, crying into my hands.

I felt Cam’s hand running calmly over my back.

“Right,” Cameron answered Collin. “The seizures were occurring more often, but definitely not at a rate that they would potentially consume him like this.”

“After working with adult patients with Jackson’s medical condition for so long, I agree with your assessment. I wouldn’t have imagined SE would become an issue for him.”

“But it has,” Cameron answered. “I just need to determine the next steps to help him and bring him out of this comatose state.”

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