“NURSE, I’ll need a pair of forceps, the bronchial artery has been punctured. A suction tube will be required, blood has flooded the major organs,” stated Doctor McClair. “He also seems to have major head trauma, Doctor,” insisted Paramedic Andrea Kemp. Neither one of them had ever seen such a horrible case in all the 23 years they’ve been working in the medical field. This man, whoever he was, might not make it out of the E.R.
On a cold winter afternoon in Des Moines, Iowa, a man awoke from a hospital bed. Weary eyed and unaware of what was going on, he looked around the unfamiliar place and pondered about all of the possibilities of why he was there. He tried to think of reasons, but his mind was very fuzzy and he couldn’t remember anything. Suddenly, a strange woman came into the room. She began to write on a white board, with a marker, that hung on the wall next to the entrance. After writing several things on the board, she turned around and walked up to his bed. While checking a screen above him that kept a slow steady beat, he saw one of these things before, but where? Her eyes wandered down to his face, and she was astonished to find him looking back up at her.
“Oh my gosh, you’re awake!” she exclaimed. “I’m your nurse, my name is Katherine, but you can call me Kathy for short if you’d like.”
“Why am I here, where am I, who am I....” the questions began to flow like a flooded river. Before he could get out anymore, Kathy put her hand to his mouth and in a calm voice, told him he needed to calm down.
“I can’t give you any of that information until you’re all healed. Right now you need to rest and try not to think too much. I will tell you that you have a condition called retrograde amnesia, and if you work your brain into a frenzy, you could lose your ability to think. We don’t want that now do we?” asked Kathy.
He didn’t know what to say, but for some reason his head automatically shook left and right a couple of times.
“Well, its a good thing you can remember the basics. Now get some rest, the next couple of days are going to be tough,” said Kathy.
Even though he hadn’t known her for very long, he liked Kathy. She seemed to be really easy to get along with and at that point it was nice to have another person around. While laying down he looked up at the ceiling. Kathy said she couldn’t tell him anything, but she told him he had amnesia. She also said that the next couple of days were going to be tough, whatever that meant.
A blinding yellow light, a crash, blue and red flashing lights, then BAM, he woke up. His body is full of sweat. His heart almost pounding out of his chest. Blurry images such as these come to his mind every night, but once his eyes open, he forgets everything in the dream.
More and more people stop in his room each day. Names start finding special slots in his memory, and he learns the name of his mother, Marilyn, his father, Andrew, and his younger sister, Amy. Other relatives stop by but not long enough for him to catch their names. Everybody talks to him louder and slower than his speech therapist, which makes for very awkward conversation. Everyone at the hospital is just as easy to get along with as Kathy. She still stopped by three to four times a day to check on him. During every visit she applied antibiotic ointment on his cuts and iced his bruises, which seemed to be disappearing. Even after being at this place for over a month, he doesn’t know what got him in the hospital. Every chance he gets, he asks people if they know why? Nobody is off limits, even the random people who pass by his room. Still, he never learns anything new.
One day, after physical therapy, a man walked into his room.
“Hey Mike, how’s it goin?” questioned the man. “Its me, John, do ya remember me?”
“Umm, I’ve never seen you before, what did you call me?” he asked.
“Oh come on your name is Michael, you gotta remember me? We always went to the bar together, and I was with you when you got your first D.U.I. Can’t you remember anything?”
“No, nobody tells me anything around here.”
“So you don’t even remember anything about the accident?”

“What accident?”

“The one you got into with your family.”
“What?”
“MIKE, you were in a car accident with your family.”
“Family, what family?” he questioned.
“You, your wife, Michelle, your three kids, Madison, Max, and Macy were in a car accident.”
“Where are they?”
John looked down at his toes, a sad expression on his face. He couldn’t believe nobody had told Michael. He usually never became emotional, and the last time he felt this way was when he was at their funerals.
“Mike,” he said in an extremely quiet voice as a tear dripped from his face, “No one in your family made it. You were the only one who survived. The doctor barely even saved you.”
A wall, full of emotion and questions, slammed into Mike. What caused this? Why not me? Why should I have to live a life of hell alone? My family is gone, and I don’t remember a single thing about any of them.
John handed Mike a folded up piece of leather. In it was a picture of a man that looked like him. Money, credit cards, and change were also inside.
“What’s this?” asked Mike.
“Its your wallet, you left it sitting on bar, probably when Michelle came in to get you. You guys fought over who would be the driver. She was sober and had just gotten off work, while you got off early and headed straight to the bar. Even with about fifteen beers down the hole, you still took the wheel. She had also picked up the kids from daycare, so everyone was inside the car. On your way home you lost control of the wheel and hit another vehicle head on. Its a wonder your still here.”
“Hi, hows everything going in here?” said Kathy walking into the room.
Michael looked at her with hatred written all over his face. She knew exactly what happened, yet all this time she kept it from him. Until now he didn’t even know his own name. He didn’t know why he was in this place, and he didn’t even know his own family.
“I think it would be best for me to go, thats a lot to take in for one day,” announced John.
“Sir, can I have a talk with you in the hall?” asked Kathy.
“Yeah I’ll be right out,” replied John, “See ya later Mike.”
Michael was left alone in the room, although at this moment his thoughts could took up the empty space.
About two weeks after John had left, Mike still thought about the visit. The doctors decided to wean him off of his I.V. Instead they gave him liquid medicine, and then switched him to pills. What they don’t know is that the entire week his pills were given to him, none of them were taken. He hid them under his tongue, until Kathy stepped out of the room. Once he had six days worth of pills saved up, he took a large drink of water, dumped all of the little capsules into his mouth at once, and swallowed. After ten minutes they took effect of his body. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and everything went blank.