HEROES AND FRIENDS

    My friend Danna is incredibly kind and a little shy.  She was one of my 5 closest friends in high school.  She always supported me in plays I was in and told me how talented I was.  She was a great student and after graduation went to college to become an R.N.  We saw each other on breaks. 

    I was in a play about seven years after high school and lived an hour away from her.… I called and asked her to come and stay the weekend and see the show I was in. She explained that she couldn’t as she was getting married in 4 months, and had so much to do.  She said I was invited.  I remember feeling sad that we weren’t as close as we used to be, but I was looking forward to the wedding. 

    A couple of months later, I helped someone roof a house, fell off and broke my back, almost severing the spinal cord.  I was taken to the emergency room and they sent me to another hospital an hour away because I needed a neurosurgeon.  In the ambulance, they told me the name of the hospital, and I remembered Danna worked there.  I had the paramedic see if she was there when I arrived at the E.R.  She was and had just gotten off of her shift.  When I saw her, it was like a breath of fresh air.  She was so pretty and seemed so calm.  We were 24 at the time and when I heard her say, “Hi Mrs. Vartorella!”, it brought back so many memories of high school.  My parents had just arrived and had to drive 3 hours to get to me and when they saw Danna, I think they were so relieved.

  After several days, I had back surgery.  I had a spinal fusion and two rods were put in my back to stabilize the fusion.   I was in surgery for a couple of hours and in recovery for a long time.  I remember people telling me to breathe when I arrived in my room.  I just couldn't catch my breath and it was so frightening... I was lying on my stomach and then they turned me over on my back.  I then heard footsteps of people running and talking and a burning in my arm.  They had put something in my I.V.   Then I started to feel better.  The room was dark and I felt very high.  I don’t remember my parents leaving but I remember Danna swabbing my mouth.  I then heard her talking on the phone.  She was talking to my mother.  She told her my blood pressure was back to normal.  I remember telling Danna that I never felt so close to her.   When my parents came in that morning, my mother started crying.  I was so much better.  What I found out was Danna had gotten off her shift that day and stayed with my mother while I had surgery.  Then when I got to my room at 8 p.m. and they turned me over, she said, “Mrs. Vartorella, go get a nurse, Chris’ stomach isn’t moving.”  I was overdosing on morphine and the burning in my arm was something to counter act that.  Then Danna told my parents to go back to their hotel and she would stay the night with me.  So she worked all day, then stayed all night with me.. making sure I was taken care of.

   I went through a great deal of emotional ups and downs after that.  And Danna was there.  This was 1980 and back then you could stay in the hospital a long time.  I was there for 10 weeks. By the time I left,  I could take a few steps with braces on my legs and two crutches but was mostly in a wheelchair.  I was released the day before Danna got married and I got to the wedding. I walked in the church with my father holding on to me. I walked incredibly slow and I was  so scared I would fall.  We got to the reception and I stayed in the wheelchair.  This was truly the best wedding I had ever been to.