To this day he remembers some of that night, though much of the following nine weeks—recovery weeks, two steps forward and one step back, in the hospital and back at Lidia’s—would be lost to him. Nurse Barb was the first to respond. She bustled around Frankie, her voice low but animated, sending another nurse to get him water, checking his pupils and heart rate and blood pressure. She seemed if not as delighted as we were, then at least in the ballpark. Dr. Lomano showed up soon after, and he carefully removed the bolsters beside Frankie’s torso, encouraging him to move his fingers and hands and arms if he could—and he could, thank heavens. Then he removed the neck and head braces and held Frankie’s chin while encouraging him to move his head from side to side. This elicited several muffled cries and a brief burst of tears. The doctor put the neck part of the brace back on. This was a precaution, he told me, since it seemed the swelling had gone down and there was likely little danger now of spinal injury or hematoma.
