Chapter 25 - Her Skin Under My Fingertips



Jumping out of the car before it comes to a complete stop, Jon runs in through the emergency room doors and straight to the nurses station.  "Where is she?  Where is Beth Adams?"  He slams his hand down on the counter.

"Sir, I don't know who she is, let me look." calmly the nurse answers him.  She gets to her keyboard and says, "They are getting her prepped for surgery, she's on the OB floor, floor 10."  And she points to the elevator bank.

The elevator doesn't come fast enough for him, he's not a patient man to start with, but when you throw crisis at him, he has even less patience.  He bolts up the 10 flights of stairs, pushing open the door of the 10th floor he sees the nurses station there and goes in that direction.  One nurse recognizes him and smiles, unaware that the lady she just cathed could be the mother of his children.  She walks up to him, "Can I help you?"

"Where is Beth Adams?" he says with a mild shortness of breath,  "Where is she?"  He's getting nervous and starting to fidget.

"They just took her back to prep her for surgery.  For a C-section."

"How are the babies?" he snaps, "How are the babies, are they okay?"

The nurse shakes her head and smiles, "They both are doing great.  We tried to avoid surgery but we weren't able to get the bleeding to stop," She looks around, "Let me go see if I can find the doctor.  Have a seat."  She gives direction to the waiting room, he wasn't going to sit.  He wasn't going to wait in a room.  He followed every move the nurse made until she was out of sight.  With the nurse gone he grabs his phone and sends his mom a text: At the hospital in Napa with Beth, she's having an emergency c-section.  I'll call you when I can.  He tucks his phone into his back pocket.

A few minutes later, a man in scrubs appears and walks over to Jon.  "Hello, my name is Dr.  Abbott.  I'll be performing Miss Adams surgery, the nurse said that you have some questions?"

"Yeah, what's going on?  What happened?  Are the babies okay?" he runs his fingers through his hair, "What the hell happened?"

"Well, according to the EMS run report, she passed out in the car before paramedics were able to intercept her.  Her fainting or passing out if you will was caused by hypovolemic shock.  Too much blood loss."

 

"I know what that means.  How are the babies?" 

 

"The babies are fine.  We need to go in and take them out because the placenta is tearing off the uterine wall and is blocking the birth canal.  That's called placenta previa."

 

"Will Beth be okay, can I see her?" he blurts out, "Just let me see her.  Is she awake?" he grabs the doctors arm, "Please let me be with her."

 

The doctor takes the face mask off and gives Jon a look, "Sir, she's about to have major surgery.  I can let you see her for a minute before we put her under."

 

"You're putting her under?  She's had this surgery before." Jon is about to freak out.  He knows how Beth feels about this. 

 

"This time it's a little different.  We don't have time for the epidural to kick in." the doctor turns to walk toward the operating room, "We will let you stay with her until she's asleep."  And he leads Jon into the scrub room, where he had to gown, glove and mask. 

 

As soon as he's through the surgical room door, he rushes to her side and kisses her.  She has never been so happy to see him.  As soon as she does, she doesn't even try to fight the tears.  "The babies are okay, the babies are okay."

 

"I know."  he leans over, they are forehead to forehead.  "The doctor told me."

 

"I'm scared."

 

"Baby, you are going to be fine and so are the babies." he assures her, as he's interrupted by a nurse.

 

She says, "Excuse me.  I need to start this new IV." and she scoots passed Jon and starts the IV in her left arm.  "Just a few more minutes and I'll escort you to the waiting room."

 

"I'm not going anywhere." Jon tells her, and she can hear that he means business.  "I'm right here, beginning to end."  Beth is holding his hand tighter than she has ever held it before.  She could feel everything slipping away and she wasn't going to let him go. 

 

"Don't leave me."  Beth begs.  She looks at the nurse, "He needs to stay with me."  And then she looks back to Jon, "You have to be there when they're born, Jon you have to be with them."

 

"Beth, count backwards from 10." she looks at the nurse, but she doesn't listen to her. 

 

"Promise me you'll stay with them." Jon can see the fear in her face and in her eyes.  A tear rolls down her face and he catches it. 

 

As he always has, he kisses her tear on the tip of his finger and tells her, "I promise, I'll be right here with them."  he finishes that sentence and he can see her drift off to sleep.

 

She is prepped and they are ready to begin.  The surgeon looks at Jon and says, "Stand over there until we are ready to pull them out.  You should be able to see."  Jon walks in the doctors direction, which leads him to the head of the operating table, next to the anesthesiologist.  He's scared, he's nervous and he just about vomits when he watches him intubate Beth.

 

"What are you doing that for?  Did she stop breathing?" Jon's eyes are bugged and he is really scared.

 

The anesthesiologist tells Jon, "We stopped her breathing, now I need to breathe for her."  Jon watches every move that he made and was amazed at the orchestra that he was witnessing.  He's never been witness to a surgery like this, he's never watched a man play God with the love of his life. 

 

It didn't take too long before Jon hears, "Mr.  Bon Jovi we are about ready to bring your son into the world, would you like to cut the cord?"  Jon nods his head yes and steps into position and the surgery technician hands him a pair of trauma shears.  Jon cuts the cord, separating his son from his mother.  He had tears rolling down his cheek, thankfully being caught by his face mask. 

 

He watches the tech suction the boys mouth and nose and then he heard him cry.  He hears his son cry and his heart grows at that very moment.  Jon had another baby.  He continues observing what they are doing to the baby, lost in the moment he can't hear a thing and he wants to focus on nothing else.  The nurses take the baby and do what they do.  They weigh him, measure him, print him and all the other cool things they do with a newborn.  In such a deep trance, Jon can't hear the doctor until he taps him on his elbow.  Jon looks at him, with his eyes darting back over to his baby boy.  "We're ready to bring your daughter into the world, are you ready?"

 

Jon nods.  The baby girls was a little harder to get out.  Reaching in and pulling her out wasn't working.  They needed leverage and they needed it right away.  The doctor calls out for a set of forceps.  Once he has them, he works them into the incision and on the baby's head.  Once he has them closed, he starts to pull the baby out.  She's stuck and he's not having any luck.  Wiggling the forceps back and forth, they manage to work her out little by little. 

 

As soon as Jon sees her face, the water works start again, not only because she's beautiful but because the forceps slipped out of place and were on her face.  With a few more tugs and some help from his surgical technician, the doctor is able to get her head and one shoulder free.  When they get that part of her out of her mother's womb, they unwrap the cord that was around her neck.  It was wrapped three times.  She is free of the noose around her neck and then they are able to free her completely, and Jon cuts the cord.  He can hardly see, his eyes burn and the tears flow, right along with his nose.  He waits for her to cry, and she doesn't cry.  The doctor suctions her nose and mouth and she still doesn't cry.  The doctor rustles her around a little bit, trying to disturb her slumber and make her cry.  After of few minutes of that, Jon finally hears his baby girl cry.  His baby girl.....my baby girl, she's okay he tells himself.  She's okay.

 

He watches them do the same thing with his daughter that they had just done with his son.  He slowly works his way over to the incubators that they were getting ready to put them in, when behind him he hears a loud BEEP BEEP and the doctor yell, "GET THE CRASH CART!!"