My phone slid from my hand and hit the floor of the car. The bright lights of the store stretched into long, white lines. Then, everything went dark.
I did not wake up when the ambulance arrived or when they rushed me into the emergency room. I didn’t hear the doctors shouting orders or feel the needles being inserted into my skin. All of those details came to me later in fragmented reports and witness statements.
A woman named Mrs. Gable had noticed me slumped over while she was loading her own car. She told the police that she thought I was sleeping at first until she saw the color of my face. She banged on the window, and when I didn’t move, she called for help immediately.
She stayed by the car until the paramedics arrived and broke the window. She was still there when Meredith and Rick walked out of the store with their new charger. According to the witness, my mother screamed about the damage to the car before she even asked about me.
I am glad that I have no memory of that moment. When I finally woke up, the first thing I saw was an overwhelming amount of white light. I was in a room with a white ceiling and a constant, rhythmic beeping sound.
I tried to move, but I discovered that my entire body was wrapped in a dull, heavy pain. A young man in navy scrubs leaned into my field of vision and spoke with a calm, gentle voice. He told me his name was Jordan and that I was in the intensive care unit.
He explained that I had undergone emergency surgery and that I was safe now. The word “safe” felt like a foreign concept that didn’t belong in my vocabulary. I tried to speak, but my throat felt as though I had swallowed a handful of sand.
Jordan used a small sponge to dampen my lips with cool water. He asked how I was feeling, and he asked it with a sincerity that made my eyes sting. He checked my medication levels and told me that I had been very sick when I arrived.
Later, I would learn the official terms for what had happened to me. I had a ruptured appendix, peritonitis, and severe sepsis. I had arrived at the hospital unresponsive and tachycardic due to a significant delay in care.
I drifted in and out of consciousness for the next few days. I heard snippets of conversations between the medical staff about my family and a social work consult. My mother eventually came into the room, and I smelled her perfume before I even opened my eyes.