Chapter 20
The silence in the room was nerve wrecking. Every once in a while you
could hear a sob escape one of the young men in the room. They have
been
sitting in this room waiting for over an hour on news of Brian. With
every
minute that passed, their hope faded little by little. A soft knock on
the door
brought the boys back from their thoughts. A older gentleman in a white
coat
opened the door and stuck his head in. “Excuse me, but I am Dr. Adele
and
I’m taking care of Brian Littrell during his stay here. I need to
discuss with
you what happened to him before you may see him.” After a few moments
of
silence, Howie finally spoke with his slightly hoarse voice, “Yes sir,
please
come in and have a seat. We have been waiting anxiously to hear news of Brian's condition.” The doctor walked in quickly and shut the door quietly behind
him,
then he took a seat in a chair that faced the boys waiting patiently as the boys quietly introduced themselves. “Can you gentleman please tell me of any strange
behavior you noticed from Mr. Littrell before this happened?” asked Dr.
Adele. Kevin slowly cleared his throat and spoke in a strained voice.
“Um
yes sir I did notice something. One morning Brian woke up and he looked
pale to me. I asked him about it and he just laughed it off saying he
was
alright. Even thought I had a feeling that something was wrong, I
quickly
dismissed that feeling and we made our way to dance practice. About
halfway through, we broke into groups to work on our dancing and Brian
was
in my group along with A.J. As time passed I noticed that he kept
looking at
the clock. I once caught his eye and asked him if he was ok and he told
me
yes and just kept dancing. Finally it was time for lunch and I was
about to
follow Brian to ask him what was wrong but a member of our management
team stopped me and told me that he needed to speak with me about make
up
dates for some concerts we have missed. When the meeting was finished,
Nick came running up to me and was saying that he found Bri in the
cafeteria
and that something was wrong with Brian. I quickly made my way to the
cafeteria and found Brian with his head on the table. After a few
moments of
coaxing him, he finally lifted his head and I was shocked at how sickly
he
looked and it disturbed me. I asked Nick to go get the others and tell
them to
come to the bus because was was taking Bri to the hotel to rest. After
Nick
left I asked Bri if he needed any help and he got mad at me and started
yelling
at me. I was shocked because he is normally peaceful and hardly never
yells
at anyone. He tried standing up and walking away, but his legs gave out
and
he almost fell to the floor, but I caught him in time. I lifted him in
my arms
and carried him outside. On our way to the bus, he rested his head on
my
shoulder and it was then that I realized how warm he was. By the time
we
got on the bus, Bri had fell asleep so I put him in my bunk which was
closest
to the front of the bus and walked outside to wait for the rest of the
guys.
After they got on the bus, we left and we all fell asleep in the bunks. I think
it was
about 30 minutes after we had left that I thought I heard someone let
out a cry
of pain. I thought that maybe I had imagined it, but I decided to
investigate
anyways. I went to where Bri was and it looked like he was asleep.”
Kevin
sighed deeply and took a drink of water from the bottle that Nick had
offered
him. “I then checked for fever and he still had a pretty high one, so I
was
searching for some Aspirin in my bookbag when he woke up. I asked him
how he was and he said he felt better and suddenly chuckled. I asked
him
what that was for and he said that he was glad he felt so much better
and he
thanked me for carrying him to the bus. I finally found the aspirin and
gave
them to him and told him to go back to sleep. We finally got to the
hotel and
checked in then we all fell asleep. I woke Brian up some time later and
brought him something to eat and told him to get ready because we had to
be
at the venue 2 hours from then. We got to the venue and had a quick
sound
check then went on stage. That is the last time I...I talked to him”
quietly said
Kevin as he let out a loud sob. Dr. Adele reached out his arm and
patted
Kevin on the shoulder,”Thank you very much for telling me this Mr.
Richardson. This information may help us assess to Brian’s needs. Now
Mr.
Carter can you tell me what happened when you found Mr. Littrell in the
cafeteria?” Nick took a deep breath before he started to relive what
had
happened. “Um, well after Howie and I got finished practicing, I
decided I
would make my way down to the cafeteria to get some lunch and see if Bri
was down there. I got down there and got my lunch and spotted Brian’s
jacket. I made my way over there and I noticed that his lunch was
pushed
away and that he was resting his head in his arms that were on the
table. I
found it kind of strange that Brian would get his favorite food and not
eat it so
I asked him if he was alright and he said nothing was wrong. I got
frustrated
because I knew something was wrong with him and I asked him again. This
time he slowly lifted his head and the first thing I noticed was how
gray his
eyes looked. Usually they were a bright blue and it kind of shocked me
to
see how stormy gray they were. I then lifted my hand to his forehead
and he
sighed and then when I pulled away, his head returned to its original
position
and I told him to stay put and I left to find Kevin. Then Kevin came
and I
went to go find the guys then we left for the hotel. After we got to
the hotel
and was resting, Bri woke me up to tell me that I had to get up and he
had
some food for me. He also told me that he was gonna take a shower while
I
ate. He was in the shower almost an hour and it worried me because he
usually only took 20 minutes in the shower so I asked him if he was ok
and
he said yes after a few moments. Then he turned off the shower and came
out. After he got ready we left for the venue and then we started the
concert.
The next thing I knew I heard a gasp come from the crowd and heard a
lound
thump. I turned around and found Bri lying on the floor grasping his
chest
and then he started thrashing around. I screamed for someone to call
911 and
then he stopped thrashing around and looked up at Kevin and Kev grabbed
his hand and then a moment later Bri stopped breathing. I remembering
screaming. Kevin then snapped into action a few moments later and tried
to
give him CPR. Brian still wasn’t breathing so Kevin started screaming
and
about that time, the paramedics came and also started CPR on him. Oh
god
they said that he might have Brain damage. Oh God.” said Nick as tears
quickly rose to his eyes and fell down his flushed cheeks. “Thank you
for
telling me what happened Nick.” said Dr. Adele softly as he attempted
to
comfort the young man. “Are you gonna tell us what is wrong with Brian,
Dr. Adele? Please don’t keep us waiting any longer. It is driving me
crazy not knowing.”
whispered A.J. “Yes of course, sorry about that gentlemen, I hope you
will
understand that I had to get information from you gentlemen also to
better
understand what happened leading up to this. Brian’s heart is very
weak. It
always has been since he was born. Another small hole has
developed on the left side of his heart within we would say the past year or so. Because he was so weak, the
case of
pneumonia he developed has caused his heart more strain and the hole has
grown much larger recently. It is currently too large to do surgery on,
so his
only hope is a heart transplant.” the doctor said as his voice trailed
off and he
allowed this information to be processed by the young men in front of
him.
After the boys recovered from their shock Howie asked with a shakey
voice,”Is there anything else you need to tell us doctor?” The doctor
took a
slow deep breath as he prepared himself to tell the boys more
devistating
news about Brian.