Downright Dead

by Barbara Ebel

  He’s the reason I went out two more times after our walk in the park this morning. And he’s a hit around here. The schoolkids are going to be knocking at my door to give him biscuits!

  Awwww. Sweet.

  How were things on the ward?

  OB is so unpredictable! Saw a complicated delivery … obese patient with a ‘shoulder dystocia’ fetus. Good news is that the attending is teaching me like crazy.

  Sounds interesting. I’ll look that shoulder thing up.

  I’ll still see you on Sunday, right? We’ll swap Oliver?

  For sure. I’ll miss him.

  I’m ordering his DNA kit tonight.

  You’re busier than me. I’ll do it.

  Wow … thanks. I’ll reimburse you. Better go.

  Hope all’s well on OB tomorrow.

  I’ll keep you posted.

  Annabel tossed her phone on the bed. She wondered how Dustin’s day went. Yesterday had been a scare. She needed to trust the fact that he was a skilled police officer and totally adept at taking care of himself. After tucking her legs cross-legged on her bed, she grabbed a textbook, ready to study OB for another hour or two. She could catch up with Dustin in another day or two.

  -----

  Exasperated, Dustin Lowe rubbed his hand along the side of his face and into the tight ringlets of hair from his ear to the top of his head. He stood on an exit ramp of the interstate way too long, taking a report and waiting for a wrecker to take away the two vehicles smashed up in an accident. Only one passenger had zoomed away in one of the two ambulances that had arrived and the other adults stood around giving their version of what happened. Probably a moot point, he figured, since the driver of the second car undoubtedly hit the vehicle in front of it. Most likely, in too much of a hurry to get off the interstate.

  Although he was working a late shift, he already craved some caffeine. This was his second vehicular accident in a few hours. He noted the rising full moon over the city, which was never a good sign. Based on his experience, with no data to back up his theory, people had some kind of circadian rhythm during a full moon. They stayed out more and were like non-thirsty vampires roaming the streets in cars and on foot. Getting hit by cars went for pedestrians as well. Which was why he made sure he stood well away from the occasional cars getting off of I-75, almost all with rolled down windows and drivers gawking at his accident scene.

  He was parked next to the two damaged cars with the stop sign in front of his patrol car. He held his clipboard and figured most of the immediate paperwork was done. Soon he’d be back at the station to tie up the loose ends, but maybe he could meet Sean somewhere for coffee and a dinner break. His colleague was still ribbing him about getting more serious with Annabel. Sean sensed he was successful in putting the bug in Dustin’s head and now used terms like “tying the knot.”

  “Exactly,” Dustin had replied. “Marriage is a knot. You’re laced up in a tight shoe and you can’t flip sandals on or off anymore and wiggle your toes in the sand.”

  But Dustin knew better. He was just trying to dampen Sean’s remarks. He was thinking about proposing to the medical student who’d gotten under his skin.

  Dustin went to his vehicle, slid into the driver’s seat, and placed his clipboard on the passenger seat. His police radio blurted out an incident in a shopping mall as he reached for his cell phone to call Sean. As he anticipated his buddy to answer on the third ring, a large thud sounded from the back as his vehicle jerked forward and slammed into the pole with the stop sign.

  Dustin pitched forward as well. His chest slammed into the steering wheel. His momentum, as well as the car, stopped. In a momentary daze, his shook his head. Son of a bitch, he thought. His chest felt like it was on fire and his heart palpated in a flurry.

  “Officer, are you all right?” A paramedic from the second ambulance yanked the cop car’s door further open. His female buddy was right beside him.

  Dustin nodded. “I’ll be fine. Nothing like a punch to the chest. What the hell happened?” He swung his legs around and put them on the ground. The paramedics helped him out.

  He gazed at the rear end of his vehicle, where another third car had rammed into him. “What the …?”

  The paramedic team looked at each other. “Emily and I need to check you out. We think you should go to the hospital.”

  Dustin grinned. “What for?”

  “For the direct blow to your chest from the steering wheel which we bet on our next bacon and eggs that you suffered a blunt cardiac injury. You know, the force to your thoracic wall compressed your heart between your sternum and spine.”

  “I get it,” Dustin said. “You’re just doing your job.” He glanced back inside the vehicle and picked up his phone on the floor. He put it to his ear. “Sean?”

  “What the hell is going on there?”

  “You or some other officers need to come over to my accident scene because there’s been another one and they’re taking me to the hospital.”

  Dustin read the paramedic’s name tag. “Richard, which hospital?”

  “University,” he said while Emily went to get the stretcher.

  “Sean, they’re taking me to University. Don’t worry, I got rear ended and my chest slammed into the steering wheel. It’s not like I’m bleeding to death.”

  “Some of the worst things happen that are hidden,” Sean said, “so just do as you’re told.”

  “Who would have thought that you need to wear a seat belt when you’re stationary in your car and not driving?”

  The two paramedics placed the stretcher next to him.

  “I’d better go, Sean. I’ll update you from the hospital.”

  “I’m almost at your exit ramp. Don’t worry about a thing.”

  The driver from the vehicle behind Dustin’s stood watching the paramedics haul him off.

  “You’re sure you’re okay?” Emily asked the man.

  “Not a bone broken.” He stood against the stretcher nervously rubbing his hands in front of Dustin. “I’m sorry, man. I can’t believe I banged into a police car.”

  CHAPTER 26

  Dustin answered one question after another in the ER from a skinny, medium tall doctor with a facial tic. The man proceeded to give him a fast, yet thorough, physical exam. He proceeded in a business-like manner and was glad to be of service for a team player on the city’s “stellar police force.”

  Dustin rubbed his chin while a technician slapped EKG pads on his chest. The machine scratched out a squiggly tracing and the tech handed it to the doctor standing outside the drapes.

  Dustin assumed that his heart had settled down after the ambulance ride. It no longer made jump starts like he was running sprints. He felt sore and uncomfortable all over his breast bone and on either side of it. Most people, he thought, are accustomed to bangs on their arms, legs, or other places on the bodies except for a direct hit to their chest. That area was like the door to someone’s heart and a steering wheel had just tried to open his.

  He observed the monitor to the side of the stretcher. The distinct wave form, which read ninety-nine percent, came from the clip probe on his finger. He had figured that out because when he took it off, the tracing disappeared. In any case, he realized that was an excellent score for something. He must be just fine.

  The next person who hastened into his room was a woman with a navy shirt and an white tag announcing her position as a laboratory technician. She took his arm, no longer clad in his uniform, only a sleeve of a cotton gown, and began siphoning out blood from a vein for a cluster of vials. He sighed when she left and sank his head back in the pillow.

  Now Annabel cluttered up his mind even more. He argued with himself whether he should call her and decided to not inform her of his circumstance. She would be home tonight after spending her whole day in an environment like this. Plus, she was none too happy when he told her about the diner shooting.

  Another person came to mind. No way would he tell his dear mother, who lived forty mil
es away. Knowing her, she would jump into her car and be next to him by midnight.

  The ER doctor came back in with another doctor. “This is Dr. Singh, a cardiologist,” he said. “He has all the information gathered so far.”

  Dustin tolerated another history and physical with a smile. The man grimaced, which emphasized his heavy black beard. “I recommend an overnight admission so we can keep our eyes on you. Cardiac contusion presents as a spectrum of severity and you did take a forceful shove.”

  “Where do you think I fall as far as the spectrum you mention?”

  “Apparently, you alluded to the paramedics you had some palpitations at the scene; they also noticed a short burst of an arrhythmia on their initial monitoring. Since then, there has been no new abnormal palpitations and I think the precordial pain you are experiencing is attributed to concomitant musculoskeletal injury. Also, your EKG shows only minor electrical changes. We’ll monitor you overnight, I’ll check the lab work we ordered, and run another EKG in the morning.”

  “Okay, but I wish I had a book to read.”

  Dr. Singh cracked a small smile.

  After what seemed like hours, an orderly came in and wheeled him past the ER desk, where he picked up Dustin’s chart.

  “Thanks,” Dustin said to the ER doctor. “By the way, my girlfriend is rotating through the hospital as a medical student.”

  “What’s her name?”

  “Annabel Tilson.”

  “She’s a bright one. We’d love to have her here if she decides to go into ER medicine.”

  “I’ll pass that on,” Dustin said, and wondered what specialty his possible future wife would go into.

  -----

  Annabel woke with a start and a scare. She pressed off the alarm clock, which fully snapped her out of an OB dream … a dream of her having a baby, but she was plagued with the complications she witnessed on her rotation and doctors were manhandling her … so much so that it felt like an ambush against her privacy. She shuddered. How did millions of women go through this experience of childbirth, with or without the sometimes necessary manhandling?

  She put a one-cup coffee container into her machine and drank the result as she dressed. During her ride to the hospital, she said little to the morning driver. She didn’t want any type of repeat conversation like last night. When she arrived on the OB floor, Emmett wheeled a cart by on his way to the supply room.

  “Where is everyone?” she asked.

  “They went back a little while ago to take over a C-section from the night team because they’re leaving. You should probably go back there.”

  “Thanks, Emmett. I’d better hurry and change into scrubs.”

  “By the way, I heard from the ER group downstairs that your boyfriend showed up there last night. Nice to hear you have a boyfriend, but I hope he’s okay.”

  “What? Are you sure?”

  “You didn’t hear from him? The ER doc said he is a cop. Is that true?”

  Annabel reeled from the news. “That’s him. Did they tell you anything else?”

  “Nope, except that they put him in the hospital.”

  “Oh my God,” Annabel said, thinking the worst. “He could’ve been shot two days ago. Now what?”

  Annabel changed into scrubs. As soon as she got out of the surgery, she figured, she needed to find out where he is. She stepped out of the locker room and bumped into Stuart.

  “How’s it going, Stuart? Were you in on that C-section?”

  Stuart nodded while Annabel noted he needed a smaller size scrub set; another person could fit into the ones he wore. “We started not too long ago. The baby’s out, so you’ve missed that part. The fetus showed signs of distress in the labor and delivery room, so the senior resident took the mother back to the OR.” He spoke softer. “I’ll still be glad when this rotation ends. This is not my thing.”

  “Things have improved for me, Stuart. The chief resident isn’t with us anymore and the attending is doing some teaching.”

  “You’re lucky. Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow morning. I’m going home to bed.”

  “Hang in there and get some sleep. And, by the way, I’ve been assigned to give the next grand rounds. I hope you don’t miss it.”

  Stuart’s face showed more expression than Annabel had ever seen on him. He stared straight at her. “A medical student? I’d be scared to death. How did you pull that off?”

  “I fell into it.”

  “When you fall, you fall hard.”

  Annabel grimaced. “We’ll see. More importantly, I’d better pass the OB exam.”

  “Goes for the two of us.”

  Annabel frowned, watching her brainy fellow colleague go into the male locker room. No matter what, Stuart always pulled off the top grades in the class. She donned blue booties over her sneakers and realized she was going back to her first C-section.

  -----

  Annabel scurried into the OR. At the top of the table, Kristin Fleming had the patient under a general anesthetic and worked at a frantic pace since the case was winding down and she had lots of catch-up to do. Since a C-section’s blood loss was double the amount of a normal vaginal delivery, Annabel noted the bloody lap sponges. The RN counted each one of them to make sure none were left in the patient and Dr. Thomas was on the side doing the newborn’s assessment.

  Dr. Harvey glimpsed at Annabel. “Not much going on here now. Too bad also that it’s not an open abdominal case like you’ll observe doing gynecology. Then your attending will interrogate you about pelvic anatomy.” He looked carefully at the closure of the uterus, stepped back, and snapped off his gloves, which meant he was letting Caleb close the skin.

  “Make a note,” he continued to Annabel. “If that is the case, you may need to point out the ovaries, uterus, and fallopian tubes to your gynecology attending. Also the patient’s bladder, cervix, sigmoid colon, round ligament, pelvic floor. You must be familiar with the vascular structures, including the branches of the internal iliac artery; the uterine artery, utero-ovarian artery, and the infundibulopelvic ligament. Shall I go on?”

  “I’m thinking back to gross anatomy. Also the broad ligament, cardinal ligament, and sacrospinous ligament.”

  His eyes sparkled at her; he enjoyed anatomy so much. “It appears you’re ready for that. Perhaps you could go tell this patient’s husband that his new daughter and wife are doing fine. Last name is Moran. And follow up with this patient in recovery. Get her post-op labs, etc.” He turned his head away and went to the chart.

  Annabel went back out, looked at the board, and went into Room 6. A man in sweat clothes and crumpled hair sat forward on the recliner rubbing his thumbs together. His five-year-old daughter twirled in circles. She wore a dalmatian pajama set.

  “Good morning,” Annabel said. “Mr. Moran, your new baby girl is testing her lungs back there in the OR and your wife is fine.”

  He jumped up. “Hallelujah, I was getting worried.” He stepped forward, and before Annabel could brace herself, he gave her a hug. He crouched to his daughter. “Teri, your sister is here.”

  The little girl hugged her father and stepped back. “I can help take care of her, Daddy.”

  “I bet you will.”

  “What’s your name?” the little girl asked.

  Annabel leaned over and the girl tapped the pocket of her scrubs.

  “I’m a student doctor. Annabel Tilson.”

  “I’m going to be a doctor when I grow up.”

  “Really?”

  Teri bobbed her head up and down.

  “There will be a lot to learn, and remember to ask questions.”

  “What kinda questions?”

  “Like what do muscles do?”

  “Walk. And move,” she shouted.

  “What do your lungs do?”

  “Breathe.”

  “I’m impressed. What does your heart do?”

  “Love.”

  Annabel rose. “Wow. You are going to make a spectacular doctor.”

&nbs
p; The little girl’s face beamed and she scooted off into her father’s arms.

  Annabel rushed out to the lounge where she typed in Dustin’s name on the computer and found his room number. She was still clueless why he was admitted, but she knew it was a privacy violation to check his electronic medical record. He was, however, not admitted to the ICU, nor was he in a regular floor room. His room number fell under intermediate care with monitored beds.

  Dr. Harvey paused as he made his way to the locker room. He pulled a twenty-dollar bill from his wallet. “The coffee pot is empty. Would you mind going downstairs and buying the three of us extra-appreciated coffees from the lobby?”

  “No problem. What kind?”

  “Three flavored cappuccinos or their special coffee of the day.”

  “Dr. Harvey, would it be a problem if I first stop by to see a patient that I know?”

  “No,” he said, waving his hand for her to leave.

  -----

  Annabel scrolled her iPhone as she rode the elevator and looked for any message from Dustin since last night. There was nothing. She worried that something had happened bad enough to land him in the hospital, but also saddened that he didn’t call. Was she really his “girlfriend?” Was he possibly seeing someone else? Her gut told her no; he was sincere and trustworthy. He was secure in his attitude towards his job but also with her. His personality reeked of composure and confidence. She admired his self-reliance and his thoughtfulness, and how many guys could attempt to keep an exotic pet and care for it with the same TLC that Dustin did? He was pretty amazing.

  She stepped off the elevator, put her phone away, and landed outside his room, where she gently knocked.

  “No need to knock,” Dustin said. “Come in.”

  His jaw fell as she entered. Annabel put on the sternest expression she could. “Dustin Lowe, I’m furious you didn’t tell me that you’re here but, on the other hand, I’m ecstatic that you appear to be okay from whatever it was that you didn’t tell me!”

  Dustin covered his eyes with his hand and then peered out from under it slowly. Hooked up to the standard monitors, he was relegated to a thin hospital gown like her patients. “I didn’t want to bother you last night. I was going to let you know today. Besides, the cardiologist hasn’t been in yet this morning, so I don’t have a clue if he’s going to spring me.”