Читать книгу Revenge - Sheldon Cohen - Страница 6

The hospital’s Emergency Department was the largest in the state. Shaped like a rectangle, there were ten rooms occupying each long arm of the rectangle and four rooms occupying one of the shorter arms. The other shorter arm included the patient and ambulance entrances, registration area, and waiting room. This made for a total of twenty-four rooms, each equipped to reflect their purpose. This number of rooms was necessary to handle the almost ninety thousand patients per year who sought Emergency Department services. Besides being the largest ED facility by volume, it also carried the largest patient census in the state. There was a nursing station in the shape of a smaller rectangle extending the full length of the center of the large rectangle. Here is where they kept supplies, nurses charted, physicians dictated their reports, and consulted on difficult cases.

As he walked to his office, he saw a nurse wave to him and call out, “Dr. Pollard, I have the paramedics on the line. They’re bringing in a bad one.”

Pollard reversed direction and went to the nursing station. “Stay on the line, Gail. Give me the other phone, please.” He had long ago learned to have a nurse listen in to medical conversations from paramedics. This saved time and facilitated the teamwork between doctor and nurse so necessary for good patient care. He placed the phone on his left ear and with pen in his right hand he said, “This is Dr. Pollard.”

“This is Betty, Dr. Pollard.”

He smiled. He liked Betty. She was new to the paramedic business and she reflected the kind of eagerness to learn that only reinforced his desire to teach. She was twenty-three years old, with short blond hair, a necessity in her new business. She was five foot eight inches tall, athletic, and nimble. A track star in high school, she was always the first one out of the ambulance, more often than not with a graceful leap.

“Good to hear from you, Betty. What have you got?”

“The police called us to see a man about sixty years old. They found him unconscious in his car off an expressway ramp. His wife reported him missing and it was about forty-eight hours before they found him. She told the police that her husband went out to the pharmacy to get her prescriptions, but he never came back. When we arrived at the scene, he was still in coma, and just after we transferred him into the ambulance, he developed seizures. We gave him twenty milligrams of diazepam.”

“Did it help?”

“Yes.”

“Were these grand mal seizures?”

“Yes, I believe so; his right side.”

“Anything else, Betty?”

“Yes, he’s burning up.”

“Burning up? How about a number, Betty.”

“Sorry, Dr. Pollard, it’s 103.8.”

“Blood pressure?”

“124 over 66.”

“Pulse rate?”

“120.”

“Regular or irregular. Always add that, Betty.”

“Regular. Thanks, Dr. Pollard.”

“You’re the best, Betty. I’m just trying to get you even a little better, if that’s possible. Do you have any medical history from anyone at all?”

“None, but we have his identification from his wallet.”

“Any evidence of foul play?”

“Nope. The guy’s well dressed and nothing’s disturbed in the car. There’s no sign of any struggle. He was just slumped over the wheel like he decided to park and go to sleep.”

“On an expressway ramp?”

“Yeah, go figure.”

“Strange. When will you get here?”

“About ten minutes.”

“Okay, thanks, Betty.” Turning to the nurse he said, “Did you get that, Gail?”

“Right.”

“Get a spinal tap tray ready, Gail, also alert CT. We may have need of them. Unconscious, seizures and a fever; we’ve got a big differential diagnosis to think about this morning. Nothing like starting your day with a brain teaser, huh, Gail.”

“Yes, doctor, that’ll keep you busy,” said Gail Cowan the nursing director. She stood five feet eleven inches tall, and had black, somewhat graying, short straight hair. Her broad smile, and pearly white teeth reminded one of a toothpaste add. The ten miles a day she claimed she walked in the Emergency Department no doubt contributed to promoting her trim figure. A confident manner honed by twenty-six years of experience made her a model of efficiency. There was never a wasted movement. Her team of nurses knew what to expect. Long limbs could keep up with any doctor in the department. She had been at Covenant ten years longer than Pollard and was familiar with him since his student days. They made an outstanding clinical team. Together they organized an Emergency Medicine Department whose residency program was first choice for any medical students who desired to follow a career in this discipline.

“Dr. Pollard, did you hear the news?” asked Gail.

“What news? I’ve been out of town for a few days.”

“They brought in Dr. Harrison a few nights ago. He was DOA.”

For a few seconds Pollard said nothing, and then with a look of resignation he said, “Oh, man, what a loss. I’m sure he must have had an infarct. He was a walking time bomb. God, I loved that guy.”

“Me too,” said Gail.

“Remind me to talk to you later, Gail. We need to send something to the family in memoriam.”

Pollard continued toward his office. His mind was reeling from the news about Harrison even though everyone knew it could happen any time. He had much to do today.