Episode 6

"I'm sorry, but I don't believe in her mother's love." I was pissed off and exhausted. All I saw from Branca Montenegro in these three months that Caique

was in a coma, were her attempts to put Matheus in the Presidency and her going on with her life as if she didn't have a paraplegic son on top

of a hospital bed.

"I'm not against your thoughts, I know the mother I have. But let's think about Caique. The Presidency is his, my mother's attempts"

were frustrated and you avenged my brother against that magazine. Let's focus on him now, only.

"Sorry, I'm tired."

"I imagine, me too. I need to see my brother well and out of here. He didn't deserve this, he didn't."

I was looking down when the doctor came to us. Until that moment, neither Branca nor Matheus had arrived. I thanked God and

paid attention to the doctor.

"He asks for Saulo, is that you?"

"Yes, it's me. I'm his best friend."

"Let's go in together. I'll talk to the patient and it will be good for you to be present."

"What about me, doctor? I'm his sister, Beatriz."

"Miss Beatriz, please wait. Since he called for Mr. Saulo, it will be better."

"All right, I'll be here. Take it easy, Saulo." I looked at Beatriz and agreed.

My heart was in my mouth and my hands were shaking.

"Mr. Saulo, in these cases, it's no use trying to soften it, he needs to know the truth. Let's just explain everything he needs to know with"

clarity and calmness.

"Is he already suspicious?"

"He must be suspicious now, before he was still half groggy."

Let's go to that room over there to do the hygiene correctly.

"Okay"

As soon as I entered that room, Caique turned his eyes to me. I had a huge urge to cry to see his eyes open and to

see fear, confusion, and sadness in them.

I approached slowly and reached his side on the bed. There was a chair there and I sat down. His eyes followed me in all my

movements and now he was staring at me.

"Hi," I said softly. "How I prayed to see you awake again."

"Don't hide anything from me. I need to know everything, the whole truth." His voice was extremely hoarse. It must have been because of the tubes that

he used.

"I won't hide anything from you, ever."

"I..." His voice caught and my heart clenched. "I don't feel... my legs. What happened to them? What happened to me? My"

arms, hands, head and torso move, but my legs don't.

"You remember the accident, right?"

"I have some passages in my memory, but I remember the truck coming towards us." I agreed with my head and took a deep breath,

looking at the doctor who authorized me with a slight nod to speak.

"Your accident was a pileup caused by a fallen tree that day. It was raining heavily and it fell in the middle of the road, giving no chance to a van that was in front of you and neither to Fabio to brake in time. You rear-ended it and then a truck crushed"

you guys. This caused the car you were in to turn into an accordion between it and the van.

"Jesus Christ."

"It was a miracle you survived, Caique."

"What about Fabio?"

"He didn't make it."

"God." Caique closes his eyes and I see tears running down his cheeks.

"Not him, nor the driver of the van and the truck. The police investigated and after much investigation, they found that the truck driver was not drunk, his brakes failed at that exact moment and he was unable to avoid the collision, as he was going fast and already close to you. The police concluded that if the brakes had not failed at that time, perhaps everything"

would be different.

"Fabio and he must have been crushed to death?"

"Fabio, yes, but the driver went through the truck's windshield and was thrown into the street. He wasn't wearing a seat belt. His only offense."

"And I..."

"You were rescued by helicopter after they got you out of the wreckage and were in a coma for three months." Caique tries to process everything and

brings his hands to his head all the time.

"Doctor, it's your turn now. Will I be able to walk again?" I see the doctor straighten up and swallow hard before speaking.

"Unfortunately not." I held back my tears at that moment. "Caique, you suffered an incomplete thoracic spinal cord injury. And it made you lose"

movement and sensation from the injury down.

"That's paraplegia, right? What do I have? If I didn't move my upper body, it would be quadriplegia."

"That's right."

"What do you mean incomplete? What does that mean?"

"Incomplete means that some of the pathways that pass through your spinal cord were not affected by your injury."

"That seems good, right?"

"What you have to be aware of is that you will undergo treatments, physiotherapy, and over time, because it was incomplete and because of the segment"

that was affected, you may regain some sensitivity. With treatment it is possible due to the level of your injury.

"Some? Is that all?"

"Caique, from now on, you have to focus on yourself. Everything you do can have good consequences or not."

"What do you mean?"

"The injury is recent, in its so-called acute phase and now you feel nothing. But with proper treatment and your willpower, you"

may regain some sensation. Spasms will come and everything will be a response from your body and your effort. In this initial phase you will use catheters and diapers and even in this the treatments can help you, over time, to regain control of your physiological needs and free yourself from them. As your injury is incomplete, as I explained to you, there are still some safety mechanisms of the spinal cord preserved, so there is still a capacity of the nervous system to perform some functions. Therefore, treatment and commitment to it are paramount so that you can regain some sensitivity and even movement below your

waist. That's why I said the consequences can be good or not.

They will only be good if you commit yourself.

"But walking..."

"No, that unfortunately, no. Focus on the fact that, with the right treatments, you can regain your independence over time. There was"

the injury, but incompletely, so you have that chance. Many sometimes don't even have that opportunity.

Caique covered his face and cried profusely. It was an extremely painful cry. I looked anxiously at the doctor, who with a sign showed me that this crying was part of it. He acted like someone who sees this same scene many, many times and knows how much the patient needs this moment.

I waited beside my friend in silence and so did the doctor, while making some notes on his clipboard. When Caique

calmed down a bit, he looked at me with red eyes and sadly before turning to the doctor again. He already had a look

caring in his direction.

"I'm sorry, doctor, I forgot your name."

"Henrique."

"Dr. Henrique, this commitment time for this so-called"

"independence" — Caique made quotation marks with his hands and I felt him nervous. —, are we talking about weeks or months?

"Months and years."

"My life is over."

"Don't say that, Caique. You survived a terrible accident!" I touched his arm.

"For what? To be an invalid? To stay in bed? To have someone wiping my ass and changing my diapers?"

"Calm down, Caique."