by: Marty Chrisman

The family and Cooter spent the night at the hospital, each family member taking their ten minutes once an hour to see Luke. In between times, they dozed fitfully in the chairs in the waiting room. Cooter slipped away for a few minutes and called a friend of his who lived in Lexington. After explaining the situation to him, Cooter’s friend happily volunteered to let the family stay at his house as long as they needed to. Cooter knew he would have to return to Hazzard in a couple of days, he couldn’t be gone from his business much longer than that. When he had learned about the accident, he had volunteered to come with the family to the hospital to help drive and to help pay for gas. He had also suspected that they might be in Lexington for awhile and he had planned on calling his friend to arrange a place for them to stay out of respect and friendship for the family. Friends like the Dukes were hard to come by and Cooter loved every one of them as if they were his own blood kin.

When he returned from calling his friend, he discovered that Bo had finally fallen asleep with his head resting on Jesse’s shoulder. Daisy was sleeping too, curled up on one of the couches. Only Jesse was still awake. Cooter sat down beside him and said softly so he wouldn’t disturb Bo or Daisy. “Uncle Jesse, I called a friend of mine who lives here in town and he said y’all can stay at his place as long as you need to. And I wanna let you know that me and those two cousins of mine will make sure the farm gets taken care of until y’all get back to Hazzard too.”

“Thanks, Cooter.” Jesse said sincerely. Jesse was a proud man and he refused to take anything that felt like it was charity but he knew that Cooter’s offer was made out of friendship and not pity so Jesse felt nothing but gratitude. He had been worried about being able to stay in the Lexington until they knew if Luke was going to be okay. The family didn’t have much money and they could barely afford a motel room for one night, staying any long period of time would have been out of the question.

The next morning, Cooter took Daisy and Jesse to meet his friend, Ben Jones, so they could all get acquainted and the two Dukes could get something to eat and some decent sleep for a few hours. Bo stayed at the hospital adamantly refusing to leave. Even though he was injured himself, he forgot about his own discomfort and pain, focused entirely on Luke. Like the rest of the Dukes, Bo had a stubborn streak and once his mind was made up about something it was impossible to change it.

Bo sat with Luke as often as the nurses would let him. There was no change in Luke’s condition other than the fact that the oxygen mask had been removed. He still looked like he was simply sleeping but he just wouldn’t wake up. And it wasn’t because Bo didn’t try to get him to. Bo tried everything, he coaxed, he pleaded, he bargained, but Luke wouldn’t open his eyes.

Later that afternoon, after Daisy and Jesse had returned to the hospital, the doctor informed the family that the results of the tests they had run on Luke had come back. They were all negative. Luke had a concussion but it wasn’t a serious one and his other injuries weren’t life threatening now that the internal bleeding had been stopped. The doctor was confident that the coma had been caused by the hypothermia. But the longer it took for Luke to wake up, the less likely it was that he would wake up any time soon. The family continued to sit with him coaxing him to open his eyes but he remained unresponsive to them.

He was moved out of the intensive care unit three days later and into a private room. His vital signs were strong and stable, his other injuries were healing, but he still wouldn’t wake up. But the Dukes didn’t give up they sat with him almost constantly now that they were no longer restricted to ten minutes each once an hour. And they talked to him, telling him stories from when they were kids, talking about Hazzard, anything and everything they could think of to try and get him to respond in some way and open his eyes but nothing seemed to work. Daisy and Jessie went back to Ben’s house most nights to rest but Bo stayed at the hospital unless Jessie forced him to go with them so he could at least shower and change clothes. Most nights, Bo slept in a chair at Luke’s side.

One day blended into the next without any change in Luke’s condition. His body was healing but he was still locked away somewhere in the darkness of his own mind. After two weeks in the hospital, the doctor met with the rest of the family to bring them up to date on Luke’s condition. The three Dukes gathered in his office and waited anxiously for the doctor’s report.

“Physically, Luke’s body is almost healed.” The doctor told them “And all of the tests we’ve ran have come back negative. There is no medical reason for him to still be in a coma.”

“Well, what does that mean?” Bo demanded in an irritated voice

“It means we don’t know why he won’t wake up.” The doctor told them. He sighed “Or if he’ll ever wake up.”

“No…..” Daisy cried, burying her face against Uncle Jesse’s shoulder. Jesse put his arm around her and tried to comfort her, even though his own heart was breaking at the thought of Luke not waking up anytime soon.

“Is there anything you can do?” Jesse asked

“No, I’m afraid not….all we can do is wait but we can’t keep him here indefinitely. He’s strong enough and stable enough that he can be transferred to a facility closer to your home. I already took the liberty of doing some checking and there’s an excellent facility in Atlanta that he could be transferred to.”

“Another hospital?” Bo asked

“No, it’s a long term care facility.” The doctor told them “Their specialty is taking of patients in Luke’s condition. He doesn’t need that much medical intervention any longer.”

“Uncle Jesse…” Bo said “You can’t put Luke into a place like that…”

“Now Bo,” Jesse said trying to keep his own voice calm “I think what the doctor is trying to tell us is that we don’t have much choice right now. Is that right, doc?”

“I’m afraid so. As long as he remains in a coma, he’s still going to need twenty four hour care, just not the intensive medical care he’s been receiving here. And the sooner he can be transferred the better.”

“How soon could you do that?”

“I could make the arrangements today and he would probably be transferred by ambulance in a couple of days.”

Jesse nodded somberly as he made a decision that he hoped was the right one. “Then do what you have to do. I want whatever is best for my boy.”

“Fine. I’ll make the arrangements today.” The doctor wrote down some information on a slip of paper and handed it to Jesse. “This is the name, address and phone number of the facility. There’s also a contact name on there.”

Jesse thanked the doctor and accepted the piece of paper from her. As the three Dukes left the office, Bo looked at his uncle angrily and said “How can you put Luke in a place like that?”

“Bo, you heard the doctor.” Jesse said in a tired voice “We can’t take Luke home, not the way he is now. He still needs more care than we could give him. I don’t like it any better than you do, but we ain’t got a choice.”

“Uncle Jesse’s right.” Daisy said even though her eyes were filled with tears. “I don’t wanna see Luke in a place like that either, but what else can we do?”

“It still ain’t right….” Bo said sullenly “It just ain’t right.”