Winners Read Free Page B

mother. She had looked like she was barely clinging to life in the treatment room. “We’re going to do everything we can for her,” he reassured him, and Bill stared at him with panic in his eyes.
    “What happened? What’s broken?” he asked in a trembling voice.
    “We don’t know yet. We’re trying to assess that now.”
    “Her head?” Bill asked in a choked whisper.
    “The ski patrol reported that she had her helmet on when they found her. We’re more concerned about her neck and spine.” Bill nodded silently, and dropped his head into his hands, as the resident sat down in a chair across from him. “We need a history on her. How old is she?”
    “She just turned seventeen.”
    “Allergies?”
    “None.”
    “Medical problems? Heart? Lungs? Surgeries?”
    “Nothing. She’s fine … or she was …,” he said, as tears filled his eyes.
    “Any history of drugs—anything we should know?” Bill shook his head miserably.
    “How soon will you know what her injuries are? How far did she fall?”
    “From the high point of the chairlift. She just missed the ravine. Her instructor wasn’t as lucky,” the young doctor said grimly.
    “Jason?” Bill was shocked—he hadn’t heard that yet.
    “They found him before they found your daughter. She was deep in the snow. The only good thing about that is that maintaining her body at such a low temperature kept the swelling down on her injuries. That could be helpful. I need to get back in now,” the resident said quietly. “We have an orthopedic surgeon coming in to evaluate her. And we have a neurosurgeon on call, if we need one.”
    “Who are they?” Bill panicked again. “I’m not going to let just anyone operate on her,” Bill said, suddenly fierce—he was a lion ready to defend his cub. “I want to know who they are. Can we fly someone in?”
    “That won’t be necessary. We have an excellent team here, the best there is.” He looked insulted, and Bill didn’t care. He wanted the finest doctors he could get for Lily. If she needed surgery, he didn’t want some local quack bungling it. They were at the most state-of-the-art hospital in Tahoe for trauma and orthopedic injuries, but he wasn’t ready to trust anyone with his child.
    “We may not have time to bring someone else in. We need to stabilize her, and do X-rays and exams, and scans. They’re doing that now. As soon as we know something, the head of the trauma unit will come out and talk to you.” He stood up then, trying not to appear nervous. Bill seemed as though he was going to throttle him if he didn’t come up with the right answers, or if they couldn’t save the girl. The resident had no idea if they would be able to save her, but it wasn’t looking good when she came in. The ski patrol and paramedics who had found her had thought she was dead at first and were stunned when they found a pulse.
    He left the room then, and Bill sat going crazy for two hours. He thought of calling Penny, but didn’t really want to talk to her. They had a good time together, but even after two years they weren’t that close. He had no idea who to call, and had never felt so alone in his life, not since a night fourteen years before, when Lily’s mother died. But he wasn’t going to let that happen to Lily.
    He was ready to try to force his way back into the treatment room when the chief trauma doctor came out. He looked like a college kid to Bill, and there was a tall, dark-haired man with him. He was wearing a lab coat, with his name embroidered on the pocket, it said “Ben Steinberg, M.D.,” and he appeared to be a little older than his colleague, in his late thirties or early forties. He introduced himself to Bill immediately, and said he was an orthopedic surgeon.
    “How’s my daughter?” Bill asked in a voice raw with worry and grief.
    “We’re trying to stabilize her. We need to get her body temperature up, before we can do any kind of intervention on her. We’re assessing her