“Why would Lisa call you?” My mother didn’t seem to know what was going on. Her eyes flitted around the room, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.
“Do you know where you are, Mom?” I asked with growing concern.
Mom looked around, seeming distressed. “I’m in the hospital. Why am in the hospital?”
“You had a heart attack, Mom,” I said gently, taking her hand again.
“A heart attack,” she repeated.
I nodded. “I flew out as soon as I heard.”
“You flew out from where?” she asked, trying to sit up.
“Don’t. You need to stay still,” I instructed.
“What’s going on? I want to go home, Morgan.” My mother was getting worked up.
“Mom, lie back down. You can’t go home. You just had a heart attack.”
She tried to pull at the wires she was hooked up to. She yanked at the IV, almost pulling it out of her arm.
“Stop it. Leave that alone. You’ll hurt yourself.” I tried to settle her down but she wasn’t having it. Finally, I pushed the button on the side of her bed calling a nurse.
A woman came in immediately.
“My mother’s upset. She’s trying to take out her IV. She says she wants to go home. Is there something you can give her to help her calm down?”
“Ms. Carter, I need you to lie back down. You’ll only hurt yourself,” the nurse said calmly.
“Why am I here?” my mother asked, even though I had told her already. She had tears in her eyes.
“You’ve had a heart attack, Ms. Carter. Remember? You’re recovering from bypass surgery. You have to take it easy. Now I’m going to give you something to help you sleep, all right?” She injected something into her IV. We waited a few minutes, talking soothingly, trying to keep her calm until the medicine kicked in. I watched as Mom’s eyelids started to droop.
“I want to go home,” she said again right before she fell asleep.
I let out a breath as she started snoring softly.
The nurse turned to me. “I’m Elaine, the head nurse on duty. You know that visiting hours are over, right?”
I nodded. “I know. I’m Morgan, Ms. Carter’s daughter. I came straight here from the airport.” I was annoyed I had to repeat my story.
Elaine pursed her lips. Clearly she wasn’t going to be the pushover the other nurse was. “Your mother needs her rest. Why don’t you come back during regular visiting hours. They start at nine.”
“Fine, I’ll go but first can you tell me what her prognosis is? How long will she be in the hospital?”
“You should speak to her physician—”
“I’m not trying to be rude, but I just got off an eight hour flight. I haven’t slept. I drove over an hour to get here. I only want to know how my mother is doing.” I was close to hysterics. Elaine must have seen that because her hard expression softened.
“Your mother had a massive heart attack brought on by a blockage in her coronary artery.”
“She had all sorts of tests not long ago and they didn’t find anything. How could that be?” I asked, getting angry. What the hell was wrong with her doctor that this went unnoticed?
“I can’t speak for any of that. All I can say is that she was brought in and had bypass surgery to increase blood flow to the heart.”
“And the confusion. Is that normal?” I asked her.
“Very. Many heart attack patients have memory loss afterwards.”
