Casey's Courage by Neva Brown Read Free Book Online

distress?”
    Pauline fidgeted, frowning. “No, but you don’t have to bother. As she gets to feeling better, I’m sure she’ll stop acting this way. It’s not like her at all.”
    He felt Casey’s arms go slack. Her sobs subsided as she drifted into sleep. He got up and eased her onto the bed.
    Amy returned to the room just as he was putting Casey on the bed. “Did something happen?” She turned to Pauline.
    Pauline shrugged. “She just had one of her tantrums out in the hall, so Tres carried her in and held her until she went to sleep.”
    She introduced Amy to Tres.

    Amy felt uncomfortable. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here. I thought the therapists were supposed to work with her for a full hour.”
    Not doing anything to put Amy at ease, Tres asked, “Are you with Casey every day?”
    “Yes, I’ve been her day nurse since she regained consciousness. I usually take a break while she is with the therapists.”
    Tres curbed his impatience. “Do you think she has stopped improving in the last week or ten days?”
    “With this type of injury, there’s no way to know if a patient will continue improving or if improvement will end at some stage due to brain damage.”
    Out of patience, Tres tried to be pleasant. But damnit, he needed to know what could be done to ease Casey’s distress. “I have Pauline’s permission to talk to her doctors. Can you make arrangements for me to see them?”
    His pleasant, yet authoritative, voice elicited a positive response from Amy. “I’ll call their offices and see when they’re available.”
    At three that afternoon, Tres sat in a conference room with both Dr. Newton and Dr. Halson. “I have followed Casey’s progress daily. She has made good progress, but now she seems to be distressed and not doing well. Does she need a change?”
    Dr. Halson looked up from his notes on Casey. “She will need physical rehabilitation for a long time yet, but that could be done in a private clinic or even at home if a therapist comes every day to work with her. Hospitals aren’t always the ideal place to be for long periods of time.”
    Dr. Newton met his gaze. “Casey needs constant supervision and may for some time to come. All indications suggest she will go through developmental stages again just like a child. There’s no way to know if the development will stop somewhere along the way because of brain damage or if she will fully recover in time. You need to take that into consideration as plans are made for her care. Do you have suggestions we should consider?”

    Tres didn’t hesitate. “I think she might do better at the ranch than here with so much confinement. My grandfather had to have special care for the last five years of his life so we have a suite of rooms equipped for a heart patient’s needs with an adjoining apartment for a private nurse. Modifications could be made to meet Casey’s needs. Would this be a possibility?”
    Dr. Newton hedged. “I understand your ranch is some distance from medical help. That might present a problem.”
    “The ranch has a plane and a helicopter for fast transportation. We still have the RV my grandfather had equipped like an emergency room so he could travel.”
    Dr. Newton chortled. “I remember J.D. Spencer. He arrived in that rig once when I was in the emergency room working on car crash patients. By the time they got here, the nurse had him stabilized, and your grandfather was raising Cain about a wasted trip, loud enough for everyone in the ER to hear. If you could find someone for Casey as good as your grandfather’s nurse, your plan might work.”
    For a second Tres longed to hear his grandfather ranting. But he tucked the pang of grief away and spoke to the issue at hand. “I’ll talk to Brad, J.D.’s nurse. He may know someone qualified to take care of Casey.”
    The two doctors and Tres shook hands and went their separate ways. Tres returned to talk to Pauline, who was still flustered because Casey was causing the