As soon as they got the permission, they entered the room.
The girl's dull and tired eyes met with the warm brown eyes of the young ldy sitting behind the desk. The desk was littered with files and scattered pages, all in all it looked messy. The nurse greeted the lady in a very friendly manner and then told the mother and the daughter that she'll be waiting for them outside.
" Please sit down both of you. Would you like something to drink?", she asked with a smile. The girl remained silent with a blank look on her face before slowly shaking her head and the mother politely declined.
Seeing their reaction the lady nodded slightly and continued " okay...hello, I'm Dr. Brooke. You must be ...hmmm", she paused slightly as she looked down at the patient's record in her hand that the nurse had handed her just now before leaving." So Miss Avery and you must be her mother Mrs . Joyce, her mother, correct?", she flashed her a small smile as she confirmed their identity. The girl, Avery's , mother nodded in response.
Miss Brooke asked Mrs. Joyce to leave the room so she could start with the basic assessment. The mother gave the girl a last worried look before leaving the room and giving them privacy.
Soon there was only the girl and Miss. Brooke left in the room. Miss. Brooke looked at the silent girl and thought 'well... it's going to take us a while.'
The girl was not as difficult to communicate with as she seemed at first glance, she was just feeling ' very tired all the time' , in her words.
Miss Brooke called in the nurse and Mrs. Joyce who were waiting outside as she wrote the resulte of her assement of the girl's mental condition.
when Mrs. Joyce Pat down next to her daughter, miss Brooke explained to her that the girl was suffering from depression and PTSD. She explained the depression was likely caused because she feels guilty about being able to survive that incident and the reason for PTSD was very obvious, the girl now felt anxious in crowded places and buses made her anxiety and stress level rise leading to stress responses like, hyperventilation and cold sweating, etc.
After everything was explained Miss Brooke added an hour of regular psycological councelling along with the girl's rehabilitation.
Everydy went on in a repetitive cycle for about a month without much change.
Every day was the same, wake up, breakfast, medicines then rehabilitation then psychological councelling. Same medicines, same exercises and same questions. The only thing that showed any change was the girl's declining will to live.
Miss Brooke felt very distressed for the girl, but she couldn't do much, in the end , it all depended on the girl's own efforts and will. It was clear that the girl was feeling very hopeless, and felt like she shouldn't have survived. She was also feeling a little helpless but she could only persist and try to make the girl feel better and give her more councelling to hopefully elevate some of her negative feelings.
The turning point came when, one day she decided to take the girl out on a walk again. She had done this few times in the past month . Even though the girl didn't show any averse reaction to this 'activity' she also dis not show any behavioural improvement either. But still the fresh air was much better for recovery tha the disinfectant filled hospital air.
On this day while walking through a perticular area, the girl suddenly stopped and looked in the direction of the path of flowers. Miss Brooke followed her gaze . It was nothing out of the ordinary, at first glance it was just a patch of flowers, roses to be exact, Miss Brooke brushed it off.
But this happened again on their next walk, this time her gaze lingered for a ehile longer before her expressions turned annoyed and then self depreciating . Miss Brooke took a note of this unusual behaviour and decided to observe hrr conditions more strictly.
The time went by and soon another month passed, the girl showed sone signs of 'improvement', but Miss Brooke found her behaviour, 'off' .
Another month passed and finally after almost 3 months in the hospital the girl was finally discharged. She was now in a wheel chair and had to come to the hospital every week for an examination and then slowly decrease the frequency .
On the day when the girl was going to leave the hospital Miss Brooke met with Mrs Joyce in her office and told her her own observations. After hearing this Mrs Joyce couldn't help but cry. Her poor child not only had to go through such a big incident but now she also suffered such a mental condition. Miss Brooke could only comfort Mrs Joyce before giving her the medical prescription for the girl .