Chapter 7 - THE OLD HOSPITAL RECORDS
Dr. Stone obtained Nora’s prior hospital records with consent.
The old CT showed the same region of injury.
More acute then.
The original diagnosis had been:
traumatic brain injury,
small contusion,
post-traumatic amnesia.
Not “mild concussion” alone.
Nora stared at the chart.
“Why do I remember being told mild?”
Dr. Stone answered:
“Families simplify medical language. Sometimes patients do too.”
Nora looked at Graham’s name.
Emergency contact.
Healthcare proxy at the time.
Then discharge notes:
Patient advised to avoid major financial and legal decisions during early recovery if experiencing cognitive fatigue.
Nora’s hands went cold.
“How long?”
“Generally until capacity and symptoms stabilized. Your treating team would have individualized that.”
Nora asked for dates.
The first financial authorization she signed after the injury was nine days after discharge.
Nine.
She looked at Dr. Stone.
“Would I have been legally incapable?”
“Not necessarily.”
Important.
No automatic incapacity.
Nora could have been capable.
But medically vulnerable.
Cognitively fatigued.
Then Rachel arrived with something.
A photograph from the lake house four years ago.
Family dinner.
Nora in a red dress.
On the table beside her:
a blue folder.
The timestamp was forty-three minutes before the fall.
Nora stared.
And remembered one sentence.
Graham:
“You’re not taking this to Evelyn’s lawyer.”
May you like
Nora whispered:
“Oh my God.”
