Chapter 39: Tracy in a plane crash

The TV announcer was talking at a rapid rate. Several of the others in the room stopped what they were doing to look at the screen because of the panic in the announcer's voice.

" ... the plane had just taken off from St. Louis' Lambert Field. According to local sources, a microburst from a nearby thunderstorm may have interrupted the flight's climb out, forcing the jet to the ground along a road in an industrial park near the airport. The plane broke into pieces at the hard impact, and there were significant fires from the full-load of jet fuel. Fire crews were on the scene in minutes, and there are survivors, but we have no other word on Transpac Airline flight four-five-two."

As the announcer went on about the disaster, Ellie screamed and sobbed, "OH, NO. NO. NO. TRACY WAS ON THAT PLANE." She looked to her cellphone, and verified the information in the text she'd had from Tracy only an hour earlier. Ellie burst out in wild sobbing fearing the worst about her closest friend. Tina went and held the young blond, but not without her own tears.

Matt leapt up and called Jim instantly. As his best buddy answered, he said, "I hate to bring you bad news, but you need to head to city airport immediately. There's been an airline crash in St. Louis, and we are pretty certain Tracy was onboard."

Jim sobbed out, "You can't be right. She was coming from California."

"Ellie is certain she was on the flight. They'd swapped text messages just an hour ago. Tracy was able to get out earlier than her original plan, and she took a connecting flight through St. Louis – where the crash just happened a few minutes ago. It's on the news. She was trying to get home early."

"I'm turning. What am I doing? How bad is it? Talk to me."

"I'll let you know in a few minutes. There are survivors, but you're heading to St. Louis. Turn on your car radio to the news station. I'll call you back in minutes."

Matt got on the phone with a Transpac Airline agent, explained what was going on, that he was booking for a relative who had a sister on the crashed plane, and got immediate attention. In a few minutes, he'd arranged a first class flight for Jim to St. Louis on another airline. He called Jim back with the details of the flight.

Three hours later, Jim's flight flew a landing pattern that took them alongside the crash site. Jim looked down and felt his heart in his throat and a knot of terror in his gut. Through eyes glazed with tears he saw a thousand blinking red and blue lights, along with high-powered emergency lights on the scene. Some of the wreckage was still smoldering with fire crews attending to it. Large sections of the fuselage looked somewhat intact, but broken in sections like a cracked egg.

Getting off the flight, Jim rushed to the Transpac Airline flight counter. "I'm the brother of a passenger on your plane that crashed. Can you tell me about Tracy Wilson? Where are the survivors of the flight being taken?" He prayed she was on that list, and not one of the dead.

The agent said, "Barnes Jewish and St. Luke's were where the first recoveries went. We don't have all the names yet, so I can't direct you. I don't even have an official passenger list."

Jim ran for the taxi door, an easy task since he didn't have any luggage. He was in a taxi in seconds.

A few minutes later, he burst in the door of the emergency room entrance at Barnes, "Do you have a pretty little blond here from the airline crash. Tracy Wilson."

The ER receptionist, looked up sympathetically, "Let me see what I can tell you. Are you next of kin?" Jim hated that vocabulary – 'next of kin' sounded like a death knell for any survivor.

"I'm her brother. I just got here."

The woman ran through several rosters of names. In the background of the ER, there were hundreds of people racing from room to room, or area to area. There was a lot of yelling going on. He kept hearing the word 'Stat.' The hospital was obviously in a state of disaster mobilization.

The receptionist eventually shook her head, "We have two-dozen no names here; two-thirds of them are women, but I don't have physical descriptions. They're all with doctors." She grimaced indicating that any further news might be bad.

"Can you check St. Luke's?"

"Hold on." The woman got on the phone as another slid into her place at the reception desk, giving him a sympathetic look. She had tears in her eyes. Another family rushed up to the desk with similar questions.

A couple of minutes later she turned back to him, "They have the same problem there that we have. They have about thirty women with no names in various states of health. Can you wait here and let me see what I can find out back there? The airline is also sending someone over; they might know more too; they're overdue."

She stopped and said, "Give me a picture of your sister and let me see what I can find out. Email it to me, if you can." She gave him her email address, and seconds later she had a recent portrait of Tracy pop-up on her cellphone. She went off for ten minutes but came back and just shrugged to show she had no news. "It doesn't mean much. She still might be here. There are over two-dozen patients in the various operating rooms right now. Every doctor we can lay our hands on is here to help. Every operating room is being used. I'm sure it's like this at St. Luke's too.

Jim nodded, and started pacing in the waiting room that was filling up with other friends and relatives of the crash victims. Unfortunately, the media were also there like vultures waiting for fresh meat.

Jim thought about going to the other hospital, but decided to stay at Barnes. No sense rushing around, plus he felt vibes about Tracy being in this one.

Around midnight, the airline rep confirmed the passenger list and Tracy Wilson was on the list, but he had no further news about specific passengers. The television in the waiting area had on nothing but news about the crash. According to them, about a third of the passengers had perished in the crash including the pilot, first officer, and at least one flight attendant.

Jim refused to allow himself to mire down in the worst-case scenarios. Deep inside he knew that Tracy was alive and somewhere nearby.

About midnight, Sheila and Matt came into the waiting room carrying backpacks. Jim sobbed when he saw them, allowing himself to finally let go in the presence of his close friends. No words were needed, just arms to hold him and to even pray with him. The two surrounded him.

The three sat together in the crowded room, Matt and Sheila with their arms around Jim. About once an hour, the representative from the airline stood at the front of the room, and gave an update about the accident. Unfortunately, there was little news except a growing list of fatalities.

About four a.m. the receptionist Jim had first talked to and to whom he'd given the photo, stood near the edge of the room, scanning past everyone. She finally saw Jim, and gestured for him to come to the desk.

He went to her full of questions, but there were many others clustered around. She said to him in a firm voice as she came out from behind the desk, "Sir, the restrooms are this way. Let me show you." She said it in a way that Jim knew something else was up.

Jim caught on right away and followed, waving back at Matt and Sheila as he left the waiting room behind the middle-age woman. She remained mute, until they were down a sterile hallway and away from the melee in the waiting room.

She stopped and said to him and said in a conspiratorial whisper, "You sister is here. She's in an induced coma right now. She was badly injured in the crash. I'm not sure about the prognosis but I will try to find out for you. She's in the ICU after spending about five hours in the operating room. It turns out she was one of the first casualties we got."

Jim hugged the woman, and tried to hold back his emotions. "Thank you so much." Tears streamed down his cheek.

She tried to smile, "I hope she makes it. If you stay in the waiting area, I'll try to get you updates before I go off duty."

Jim nodded, and headed back to his friends. He whispered his news to them, and then went outside and called his parents. They answered on the first ring; Matt had been keeping them informed about what was taking place. They both wanted to come to St. Louis, but Jim told them to stay home until there was more news.

About six a.m., the receptionist again sought out Jim, pulling him away from the throng of people in the waiting area. She said, "Walk out with me. I'm heading out to the garage to head home. My shift just ended."

Jim followed the woman towards the hospital's parking garage. When they were away from the front door, she slowed down. "Tracy Wilson is now officially registered at the hospital, thanks to your photo. You should be able to get medical reports now. Let my replacement know, and she'll help you; her name is Katherine.

"Now, your sister got badly banged up. She has a broken arm, a torn up foot, and a couple of broken ribs. They think she'll mend from those with no problem. She lost a kidney and part of her colon, and there's still worry about infection from the abdominal wound that did that to her. She's on a heavy dose of painkillers, and thus in an induced coma to help manage the pain.

The woman looked sad, and touched his army. "One more thing. She lost her baby. It wasn't very far along. I don't know the details about that, but she's not carrying now; it was just noted on her chart."

Jim sobbed and thanked her. Tracy hadn't said anything, and he briefly wondered if she had even known she was pregnant.

The woman gave him a supportive hug, and they went in opposite directions.

Jim yelled back at her, "What's your name?"

"Ruth Newhouse."

"Thank you, Ruth. I hope I see you again."

Before going inside, Jim called his parents again, bringing them up to speed on the latest news; he left out the part about the baby. "I'll try to find out when they'll be bringing her out of her coma. That's when it'll make sense for you to be here. I'll be back to you later. This place is a zoo, and being in this environment only makes you more anxious."

Back in the waiting room, Jim watched a doctor and nurse giving another family some bad news about a lost loved one. Apparently, there were others that weren't surviving the crash even though they'd made it to the hospital.

Jim checked in with the new receptionist, and with a sympathetic smile got routed to the ICU waiting area, instead of the general waiting area for the hospital ER. Matt, Sheila, and Jim went there, and found a much less crowded area, but still a room full of emotion and angst.

A young nurse's aide served as receptionist there. Jim identified himself. She held up a finger. Moments later an Indian doctor appeared; "Come with me for a moment," he said in his sing-song Indian accent. "I am Dr. Rama Dhanukonda – Dr. Rama for short. I operated on your sister along with a large surgical team to piece her back together."

He spoke as they walked, "Miss Tracy Wilson will survive, but she will have a long recovery, and she'll need some special care the rest of her life, especially because of her missing kidney and a few feet of her colon." He ran through the information about her, going into more detail than Ruth had a couple of hours earlier.

Jim asked, "When can I see her? When will you bring her out of her induced coma?"

"I'll let you peek in now. She is asleep, and we want to keep her that way for at least another twenty-four hours. I'd say mid-day tomorrow we'll bring her out unless there's some complication."

"She lost her baby?"

"Yes. Sorry about that news for her family. I hasten to add that she will not be able to have children after this. We had to remove a few other injured body parts including her uterus and ovaries. Understand that she had a piece of wreckage penetrate her lower body in the crash. She's lucky to have survived the loss of blood. You can thank the EMTs for that piece of work, and the fact that she was one of the first patients to get here. We've given her a lot of blood to make up for what she lost, but she seems to be improving despite it all."

Jim said, "If she needs anything to make her healthy or comfortable, please spare no expense."

The doctor nodded, "That's what we're here to do. Later we'll worry about costs and insurance and everything; fortunately, that's not my job. Right now she needs rest. If she avoids infection we'll move her from the ICU to a surgical recovery room in a few days." He pointed into a hospital room full of electronic gear that blinked and beeped at a regular rate. In the middle of it all in a sterile hospital bed lay Tracy sleeping.

Jim looked across the room from the door. Tracy had a bandage across part of her face, and an obvious bruise on her forehead. Her left arm was in a cast, as well as one of her feet. A dozen plastic tubes came out from under the top sheet. Besides that, she looked peaceful.