The Doctor

The ER

The speeding minibus skidded as it drives up the curved ramp, almost hit a security that tried to guide the car which finally stopped in front of the entrance of the busy Emergency Room…

From the passenger seat, a young woman stepped off the vehicle in haste, shouting at the security that opened the door for her…

“Hurry… Grab that wheelchair, will you…?! My father has trouble breathing…! Quickly…! Please…!” She said, as the security quickly grabs the wheelchair, and helped the patient, who was elderly, sitting at the middle row of the vehicle, his breath labored…. On his side, the security saw a young man…. The son of the old man, who was worried

The security helped the elderly patient who breath was short, shallow and labored, to sit on the wheelchair and ushered the man to the lobby as the young woman rushed to the registration while her husband waited next to his father who sweat profusely, winching, groaning from the pain he feels in his chest…

“My father has trouble breathing….! I need to get him to the ER….” She shouts while the security quickly pushes the wheelchair and helped the patient, an elderly man who was panting, heaving, breathing short and labor, sweating profusely, while next to him, a young man who was the son of the patient, supporting his father with his worried face….

The young woman, rushed to the registration desk while the young man, which was her husband, pushes the wheelchair that his father, who was heaving and panting in pain, were using

“My father has trouble breathing, he needs to get treated, now!” Shout the young woman

“Your father can go directly to the ER, and you can help us to complete the administration…” said the officer which makes the young man quickly pushed his father inside the ER

The rhythmic and mechanical sound of the life supporting and medical machinery that helped the respiratory of the patient, or injecting medication into the patient bloodstream, mixed with the hectic voice inside the ER, where the families of patients rushed in panic in and out the ER to get fast medical attention for their family, some pushes their family around in wheelchair, groaning and yelling because they still cand find bedding of their pale, weak family…

“You have to wait, ma’am… We are at capacity…. Once we have patient moved to ICU or medical ward, your family will be taken care of….” Said a nurse patiently…

“Please… Mu father was very sick…. Look at him… Please…!” begged the family of a patient who desperately in need for on bed oxygen…

“Sorry… but we are at capacity…. Please be patient…” said the nurse, trying his best to keep calm against the family of patient who clearly wanted their family to be prioritized….

The nurse feels a bit of relief as the family pulling the wheelchair and backed off, feels that this family would understand and waited patiently, but his relief faded so fast as he saw the family pushes the wheelchair to an empty space which bed was temporarily taken out….

He gave a hard sigh, but as he about to complaint to the family, another family cut his walk and complaint to him, asking to give treatment for their family member, wanting to be prioritized, which by that time, hard to be done….

Beside the complaints, the nurses still have to struggle to tend the truly live threatening patients, they don’t aware a security pushes a medical bed , which bed covered with leather, and at it surface, still sign of bodily fluid of previous patient, which then being cleaned using disinfectant by the security and within second, the bed was pushed by the waiting family at the empty slot and then lay the patient before once again nagging the busy nurses which eventually helped putting oxygen mask to the patient and tell the family to wait for the doctor to come and observe the patient….

****

“Don’t just stand there…. Help my mother…!” Shout a man towards Sandra who just exited the curtain that covers the bed of a patient she just observe…

“One moment, sir…. I….”

Sandra doesn’t get a chance to finish her sentence when another family member of another patient interrupted…

“Doctor…! Check my father first….! He is dying…!” snapped a woman who looks angry and grumbling….

“Get in line….! My mom is urgent….!” Snapped the man….

“Do you think my father is less important than your mom…?! Check my father first, Doc…!” Shout the woman, that makes both parties engaged in heated arguments that makes security came and ushered them bot off the already hectic emergency room…

Sandra then slides inside the curtain where she found a patient, a middle-aged man, groaning, shouting in agony….

“Akh….! It hurts….! So much pain….! Please….! I can’t stand it anymore…!”

Hearing the wailing of the patient, Sandra could do nothing more than asking a nurse to give another dose of morphine injection, just to ease the pain of the patient, even for a brief moment, as his breath still labored, his lungs sound, filled with liquids….

And seeing the relief at the face of the family as they saw their father fall asleep, makes Sandra give a relieved sigh, even for a blink of the eye….

****

“Doc….” Said another nurse, just as tired as she was, just as the young doctor slide out the curtain, and handed the young doctor a folder that contains medical records of another patient under her observation, and the result was not good…

Sighing, the young doctor walks inside the curtain that covers the bed where the elderly man, who was escorted by his son and his daughter in law, was lying, panting, breathing laboriously, while the young doctor can see the sadness in their eyes as they are looking at the condition of their father…

“I am sorry, but your father condition was critical…. His oxygen saturation was very low, and his heart rate was unstable…” Explained Sandra to coupe whose face darkened in every sentence she said…. They are hoping for miracle, hoping their father healed, even though they realize that their father’s condition, and added up with his old age, was critical….

“Can you work out something to help my father…?” Said the young man, clearly putting his hope to the young doctor that stand in front of him…

“We can try to insert endotracheal tube to help the respiratory of your father…. But it was a high-risk method… We have to put your father to a coma, and there’s a high probability that he will never wakes up again….” Explained the young doctor to the couple that looked troubled, weighing the big risk they have to take…

Finaly the son of the patient said….

“Okay, Doc…. Put the tube in…. Just do your best to save my father….” Said the young man, taking the huge risk by the decision, he makes…

“Very well, then I will proceed with the procedure…. Both of you please wait outside….” Said Sandra, ushering the couple off their father’s bed and the pulls the curtain to cover the patient’s bed….