What happened that night came out of the blue. It was unannounced and totally unexpected. Afterward, once I knew what had happened, I understood why.
Jannie and Damon were fooling around, showing off a little, strutting their stuff. Jannie must have walked into a punch from Damon.
The looping blow struck her squarely in the forehead, just above the left eye. That much I’m certain about. The rest was a blur to me. A complete shock. It was as if I were seeing life as a series of stop-motion photos.
Jannie tilted to the left and she went down in a frightening collapse. She hit the floor hard. Her movements suddenly became jerky, and then her limbs went completely stiff. There was absolutely no warning.
“Jannie!” Damon yelled, aware that he’d hit and hurt his sister, though it was an accident.
I hurried to her side as Jannie’s body began to shake and spasm uncontrollably. Soft, gagging moans came from her throat. She obviously couldn’t speak. Then her eyes rolled way back until only the whites showed.
Jannie began to choke horribly. I thought she was going to start swallowing her tongue. I yanked off my belt. I folded it and wedged it into Jannie’s mouth to keep her from swallowing her tongue or possibly lacerating it with a hard bite. My heart was pounding as I held the tightly folded belt in her mouth. I kept telling her, “It’s okay, it’s okay, Jannie. Everything is okay, baby.”
I tried to be as soothing as I possibly could be. I tried not to let her see how scared I was. The violent spasms wouldn’t stop. I was pretty sure Jannie was having a seizure.
Chapter 20
EVERYTHING IS OKAY, baby. Everything is going to be fine.
Two or three horrifying minutes passed like that. Everything wasn’t okay, though, not even close; everything was as terrible as it could be, as terrible as it had ever been.
Jannie’s lips had turned bluish, and she was drooling. Then she lost control of her bladder and peed on the floor. She still couldn’t speak.
I had sent Damon upstairs to call for help. An ambulance arrived less than ten minutes after Jannie’s seizure ended. So far, there hadn’t been another one. I prayed there wouldn’t be.
Two EMS attendants hurried down to the basement, where I still knelt on the floor beside Jannie. I held one of her hands; Nana held the other. We had propped a pillow from the couch under her head and covered her with a blanket. This is crazy, I kept thinking. This can’t be happening.
“You’re okay, sweetie,” Nana hummed softly.
Jannie finally looked at her. “No, I’m not, Nana.”
She was fully conscious now, scared and confused. She was also embarrassed because she’d wet herself. She knew something strange and terrible had happened to her. The EMTs were gentle and reassuring. They checked Jannie’s vital signs: temperature, pulse, and blood pressure. Then one of them inserted an IV in her arm while the other brought out an intubation box / breathing aid.
My heart was still pounding, racing terribly. I felt as if I might stop breathing, too.
I told the EMS workers what had happened. “She had violent spasms for about two minutes. Her limbs were stiff as boards. Her eyes rolled back.” I told them about the shadow-boxing and the punch that had landed above her left eye.
“It does sound like a seizure,” the lead person said. Her green eyes were sympathetic, reassuring. “It could have been the blow she took, even if it was a light hit — the angle of attack. We should take her to St. Anthony’s.”
I nodded agreement, then watched in horror as they strapped my little girl on a stretcher and carried her out to the waiting ambulance. My legs were still unsteady. My whole body was numb and my vision tunneled.
“You have to use the siren,” Jannie whispered to the EMS techs as they lifted her into the back of the ambulance van. “Please?”
And they did — all the way to St. Anthony’s Hospital. I know — I rode with Jannie.
Longest ride of my life.
Chapter 21
AT THE HOSPITAL, Jannie had an EEG, then she underwent as thorough a neurological exam as they could give her at that time of the day. Her cranial nerves were tested. She was asked to walk a straight line, then to hop on one foot to determine the presence of any ataxia. She did as she was told, and seemed better now. Still, I watched her as if she might suddenly shatter.
Just as she was finishing the exam, Jannie had a second seizure. It lasted longer and was more violent than the first one. It couldn’t have been any worse if it had happened to me. When the attack finally stopped, Jannie was given a Valium IV The hospital staff was right there for her, but their concern was also frightening. A nurse asked me if there had been any symptoms before the seizure, such as blurred vision, headaches, nausea, loss of coordination. I hadn’t noticed anything unusual.
When she had finished her examination of Jannie, Dr. Bone from the emergency room took me aside. “We’ll keep her here overnight for observation, Detective Cross. We’d like to be extra careful.”
“Extra careful is good,” I said. I was still shaking a little. I could see it in my hands.
“She might be here longer than that,” Dr. Bone then added. “We need to do more tests on Jannie. I don’t like the fact that there was a second seizure.”