Katie and I had just gotten back to my car after we had left the bar where we were hanging out for a little while. She went around the car to the passenger side and got in. I got in and started the car. I looked over at Katie and told her to, "buckle up buttercup." She laughed and replied with, "I'll be fine, it's not that far back to the apartment. I said, "fine," and pulled out and started to drive home. I started to get light-headed and felt kind of woozy.
Something I forgot to mention was we had both been drinking, and I was driving anyway. We were about a mile from my apartment and a deer jumped out in front of me. We both screamed at the sudden thing in front of us. I only had a split second to react and I swerved and hit a tree. It must have been an hour or so. I came back to and looked at the passenger seat next to me. It was empty. Trying to process what had just happened, I unbuckled my seat belt and stumbled my way out of the car, and immediately dropped to my knees. I gathered myself up and half-crawled half-scooted around the car looking for Katie. I saw a human-like form lying on the ground about 10 feet in front of me and about 15-20 feet from the car. I crawled over to it and realized it was Katie.
I shook her and told her to wake up, that it wasn't funny for her to pretend to not to hear me. I shook her harder and realized she was out cold. I noticed that her head was bleeding from the back of her skull. I hurriedly rolled her over and noticed that her head was split open and bleeding profusely. I crawled as fast as I could back towards the car and began to look for my phone. I found it and immediately called 9-1-1. The operator answered and I began to tell her what had happened and that the ambulance needed to hurry. After about 10-15 minutes, the ambulance arrived they quickly came to me and attempted to check me out to make sure I was okay, but I refused their help and stood up to the best of my ability and stumbled over to where Katie was laying limp and unbreathing.
The EMTs followed me as I dropped down next to her and held her hand, tears rolling down my cheeks, as I whispered to her she would be okay, and we would be going to her favorite place down in Florida. The EMTs assured me they would take care of her. One of them helped me to my feet and walked me over to the ambulance. I sat there as the other EMTs were preparing Katie for transport in the ambulance back to Lakeside Community Hospital. They shooed me out of the ambulance to get the gurney for Katie. I watched as they rolled her back to me and slid her right up into the ambulance. The said I could ride with her in the back. I held her hand the entire 15-minute ride to the hospital. I began to let the tears I was holding back roll down my cheeks like the tires on the ambulance were rolling down the pavement towards the hospital.
We arrived within what felt like hours. They helped me down and began to unload my friend. I followed them into the ER. They had me wait in the waiting room. While I was watching them roll her down the hall further and further from me, I heard the doctor say to prepare the OR for her. I immediately began to feel worse and worse, the longer I waited for her to pull through her surgery and come home with me. I waited for a few hours and then finally the doctor came out and asked to speak to me in private. I immediately blurted out, "She's okay, right?" The doc replied with, "Well.... Not exactly." I started to yell at him and broke down bawling. He finished what he was going to say with, "I'm sorry Kelly, but she didn't make it through to surgery. She had an internal brain bleed that we couldn't get to in time for her to stop bleeding so much."
I stood there for a few minutes staring at him, smiling like an idiot and bawling at the same time. I gurgled out a small laugh, and said, "You're kidding right." As a tear started to roll down his cheek, he replied with, "I'm sorry, but I'm really not." I dropped to the floor and started to break down, with one of the ugliest crying episodes I'd ever had. Well except for when Katie's dad had died and I had cried with her about it for a few hours. The doctor, which had been a dear friend of Katie's family, and my dad's boss for a while, bent down and cradled me, he stood me back up, embracing me with a strong, but soothing grip. I began to hear and feel him crying as well. After about twenty minutes of that, we separated ourselves, He looked at me and smiled. I looked at him with a look of sorrow and sadness. He hugged me once more and offered to let me stay with him and his wife for a while until I could get back on my feet. His wife was the nurse that was the doctor's helper when I was born. After my parent's had died when I was about 17, he and his wife were like my second parent's. I had been close to them since before I was in first grade. With his arm around my shoulder's, we walked to his car and he drove us to his house, where his wife was waiting with a few other ladies, and a table full of supper. As soon as we walked into the dining room, they all surrounded me and cradled me and all the other stuff people do to comfort people.