Chapter 30
1427 Words
The clock struck at five, sun at the west and ready to rest, but the emergency room of San Valley were packed with wounded individuals from a car accident.
“f**k! I said let go! Let me go!”
A man on his thirties sitting on bed with two bulky male nurses on his side was badly hurt. He was yelling and trying to escape from the hospital as if he could run with his fractured hip.
“I tried to treat him, but he refused,” Doctor Oliver said, breathing heavily with both hands on his waist. “He kept on hitting my hands away, and I couldn’t do anything.”
Another young nurse stated, “We basically can’t help him if he, himself would refuse to be treated.”
“I’m sure it’s too painful for a hip fracture,” Nurse Gwen commented as she stared at the guy.
“But he doesn’t look hurt at all.”
“I bet. Well, look,” Doctor Oliver and others inched close to the patient and quickly lifted his sleeve. “What do you think?”
But the man immediately hit his hand away, covering his arm as if he was hiding something.
“Don’t touch me! Let me go! I want to leave because I’m okay!” the man yelled once more.
Nurse Gwen mumbled, “Injection mark, dilated pupils, and numbness.”
Though it was just a quick glance, they were sure that the bruise-like and purplish color on his arm were linked to the use of drugs.
“He might be a drug addict and unable to feel pain, but I’m sure he’s still mentally unstable. Initially, he can’t make right decisions,” Doctor Oliver commented.
When the nurses let the man go on his own, he just slumped to the floor and wasn’t able to walk nor move his body. He was just shouting about how much he wanted to leave the hospital.
Gon, who just came from the emergency room after a surgery cut in. He said, “What’s wrong with this man?”
“Probably has a hip fracture due to accident, but refused to get treated. He is assumed to be a drug addict,” Doctor Oliver announced.
The doctor heaved a sigh as he untie his mask. He was massaging his nape when he turned to the male nurses.
“Get him back on bed,” Gon instructed and the nurses immediately complied.
After several instructions to what they were going to do with the hip fractured-patient, Gon added, “Make sure to do a drug test as well.”
“Yes, Doctor Gon.”
It was not the last patient. The moment Gon glanced forth, paramedics in a rush pushing a stretcher came in.
“A patient!” they shouted. “This is suspected drug poisoning. We received a call with unconscious children in an apartment. When we got there, one of them was dead. We saw this girl barely awake, expressing her pain. BP 70/40, heart rate 30.”
All eyes were at them. Gon clenched his jaw when he saw that the patient was just a little girl.
“Move her here,” Gon instructed as he inched to an unoccupied bed.
They carried the girl and carefully lifted for moving.
“Okay! 1, 2, 3!”
Gon queried with concern, “What happened?”
“When the mother came home from work, she found her children lying on the floor. The apartment door was locked, and they had to destroy it. The mother could not contact his husband and found out that he was in the bathroom unconscious as well.”
All of them gasped, eyes were wondering.
“Isn’t this an attempted group suicide?” Doctor Oliver mused.
“We thought the same thing and we found this.”
Gon reached for the small, white plastic container. He immediately asked Nurse Gwen to examine it.
A paramedic cut in, “His son were too pale, so we did not bring him here and left him to the police. When they searched inside the apartment, they found bottles of medicine under the bed.”
When the paramedics left, Gon looked at the child. She was mumbling and whining and he could strangely feel her suffering.
“Oh my god! My daughter!”
A woman rushing inside the emergency room surprised everyone. She was crying and she kept on saying the name of her daughter.
“Ali, my daughter! Oh my god, please save my daughter! Ali, please don’t leave me...”
Two female nurses approached her and tried to calm her, but she was too devastated to see her child.
“I’m sorry, Ali. I’m sorry,” the mother cried.
“Madam, please. You’re not allowed here. Let us escort you outside.”
Before she turned to exit, her eyes met Gon’s. All he could do was to heaved a deep sigh as how the mother could be so frustrated.
“We better intubate first,” Doctor Oliver said before he took over.
The emergency room was filled with so much tense. Doctors and nurses were worried to the little kid, but Gon was too obvious.
After a couple of minutes, Nurse Gwen came back with the result.
“Have you identified the drug?” Gon asked as he looked intently to the nurse.
“Yes, Doctor Gon,” she replied. “Calcium channel blocker.”
“CCB?” Doctor Oliver repeated.
Gon breathed as he firmly clenched his fist. His eyes locked to the child again.
“And the father used it to try to kill himself and his son and daughter?” Doctor Oliver wondered, still surprised. “BP 80/40, heart rate 40.”
“Doctor Oliver,” Gon said, “insert an L tube then set the charcoal filter.”
“Okay.”
Gon checked the patient with his stethoscope and asked, “Her BSP?”
“It’s 140,” Doctor Oliver answered.
After checking the child, Gon instructed, “Fifty units of regular insulin on the side.”
“Isn’t that too high?” Doctor Oliver queried and Gon just shook his head.
Gon added, “Mix 50 units to normal staling. At first, 10 cc per hour then reduce the level to 5 cc per hour.”
“Is it safe for her?”
“High-dose insulin therapy is the treatment for CCB overdose. It has become accepted as therapy in calcium channel blocker toxicity refractory to standard vasopressor therapy.”
“Okay.”
“Set up an IV drip. Do the monitoring every 20 to 30 minutes, okay?”
“Yes, Doctor Gon.”
His tense body subsided a little as he watched the child. He was unconsciously biting his nails, eyes focused to Ali. But it was not long before Intern Fara approached Gon who was still beside the young patient.
Intern Fara whispered, “Doctor Gon?”
“Um?” Gon replied without minding to glance at her.
“There is a male patient brought here earlier because of a car accident as well. He’s a bit smaller than you, mid-twenties, he looks nice, but he smelled like cigarettes,” the intern said.
With his creased forehead, Gon turned to her and asked, “What about him?”
“He has a big cut on his arm near the shoulder, but he refused to get treated. Instead, he just asked for a pain reliever and left the hospital immediately.”
“Ah. He was like the other patient earlier who refused to get treated,” Gon mumbled.
“Doctor Gon?”
Intern Fara was scratching her nape and looked so hesitant. As Gon got curious, he asked, “Anything else?”
The intern smiled bitterly and answered, “Just wondering, Doctor Gon. I noticed that he was smelling his wounded arm as if it was really pleasing to his nose.”
“Smelling?” Gon’s brows knitted in wonder. “You got his name?”
“Ah, yes! It’s... um.”
Gon crossed his arms and waited for her to remember the guy’s name.
“It’s Fa...”
“Fa?”
“Fa... ris. Faris?”
“Faris?”
“Yes, Doctor. It’s Faris.”
- Writer
