Disclaimer: I do not own House, or the characters.
This is hardly my first fanfic, but it is my first attempt at House fanfic, so I hope it isn't too terrible. Please let me know what you think!
Enjoy!
House and the team have been working on a difficult case for close to a week, and they still haven't found a diagnosis.
Cameron is watching as House busily writes several new symptoms onto the white board, but she doesn't speak up at all as they go over the differential, she has a pounding headache and is struggling to keep her breakfast down.
"Cameron, what do you think?" House turns around to face her, and is shocked at how terrible she looks. He knows she was in a fender bender accident yesterday, but as usual doctors make the worst patients, and she refused to be checked out, otherwise the gash in her hairline would have been stitched instead of glued, and the sprained wrist would have at very least been examined properly.
Cameron struggles to stay focused, swaying dangerously in her seat as she says. "Wha? I don't feel so-"
Before anyone can say anything, or even stop her fall, Cameron falls to the ground, unconscious, and starting to seize.
Chase and Foreman jump out of their seats, and rush to her side.
With Foreman's help, Chase rolls Cameron onto her side, and supports her head as she continues to shake violently.
Foreman shouts to House. "We need some Ativan."
House hobbles out of the room as quickly as he can, and comes back a moment later with a full syringe, which he pushes into Cameron's arm.
The seizure subsides within seconds of the medication being given, but-
"She's stopped breathing!" Chase says worriedly as they roll her onto her back, and he begins giving her mouth to mouth.
Foreman runs out into the hallway, and returns a moment later with a crash cart, and a nurse bringing a gurney behind him.
While Foreman has been out of the room, House has assessed Cameron, and quickly reports to him. "She's got a weak and thready pulse, and her left pupil is blown, GCS is three. Probably been bleeding into her head since the accident." He then sarcastically adds. "But apart from that she's fine."
"Damn." Foreman mutters as he takes position above her head, and orders the nurse. "Start a line, push Sux and Etomidate. Then hand me a laryngoscope and a seven and a half sized ET tube, and get ready to bag her."
Within a minute, Foreman moves away from her slightly, and declares. "Okay, tube's in, start bagging. Let's get her on the gurney. She's got a probable intracranial haemorrhage, we need to get her straight to the OR."
Five minutes later, Chase, Foreman, and House are watching over Cameron as she has a CT scan, when Cuddy walks in. "Why wasn't I informed that Dr Cameron had collapsed?" She asks, as though she is surprised that House didn't take the time to call her when one of his fellows started bleeding into her head.
"I'm sorry, I must've missed the memo that said I had to tell you every little thing that happened in my day." House shoots back mockingly.
Cuddy looks over at Foreman, who quickly answers. "There wasn't time. One minute we were working on the case, the next Cameron was on the floor suffering a grand mal seizure."
"What do you think is wrong?" Cuddy asks with concern in her voice.
"Probable-" Just as Foreman starts to speak he sees the CT scan, and then rephrases. "Massive epidural haemorrhage, probably caused by head trauma sustained yesterday in an MVC." After taking another moment, Foreman tells the assembled group. "There's a large tear in the middle meningeal artery. Get her out of there, we need to relieve the pressure before she suffers permanent damage."
House shuts down the scanner, and they all hurry into the scan room.
Once they've gotten Cameron out of the scanner, Foreman lays out a surgical kit that he'd had the foresight to send for. "She'll never even make it as far as the OR if we don't relieve the pressure."
"You're going to do burr holes?" House says, surprised by his underling's willingness to do what needs to be done.
Foreman looks up at his colleagues grimly as he says. "No choice." Before he makes a small incision just behind Cameron's ear, and then picks up the drill.
They all stay in apprehensive silence as Foreman drills through Cameron's skull. Once he stops the drill, Foreman takes the suction tool from Cuddy, and quickly drains away a large volume of pooled blood, before saying. "Okay. She's stabilized, let's get her up to the OR."
Just as Chase and the anaesthetist, Dr Bradley, transfer Cameron over onto the operating table, she begins to come around. Chase moves into her line of sight, and gently says. "Just relax, Cameron. You had a seizure, we had to intubate you, the scan showed a bleed in your brain. Foreman's scrubbing in now, he's got to do a craniotomy to repair the damage, and drain the blood. Okay?"
Cameron nods weakly before Dr Bradley starts repositioning her to prep.
Chase squeezes her hand reassuringly as he watches Dr Bradley administer the anaesthetic, and he comfortingly says. "I'll be right with you the whole time. You're going to be fine."
As the last word leave his mouth, he watches Cameron's eyes slip closed.
"Okay, she's out." Dr Bradley says out loud as he continues to prep Cameron for surgery.
Chase stays sitting at Cameron's side silently until he sees the scrub nurse bring over electric hair clippers. He knows that it needs to be done, but still. "Do you have to do that?"
The nurse smiles sympathetically at him. "Yes, Dr Chase. I'm sorry."
Just as the nurse turns the clippers on, Chase holds out his hand, and says. "Let me, please."
She is surprised, but hands them over silently before she moves on to set things up.
Chase hesitates slightly before he turns the clippers on, and gently puts them against Cameron's head, and begins to cut away her long dark locks.
As he does so a number of bruises and small cuts become visible; she must have been knocked around a lot more in the accident than she had said.
Several minutes later, Chase has finished shaving away Cameron's hair, and Dr Bradley and the scrub nurse have positioned her in the halo frame, and draped her for the surgery, when Foreman comes back into the room. He baulks at the sight of his co-worker on the operating table, but after a moment, he says to Dr Bradley. "Are we ready to start?"
"Yeah. Everything's set, and she's still relatively stable."
Foreman steps up to the table, but before he makes the incision, he asks Chase. "Are you sure you want to be here, Chase?"
Chase merely nods, not taking his eyes away from Cameron.
Without further delay, knowing that Cameron is losing blood at a rapid rate and has already needed a number of transfusions, Foreman picks up a scalpel, and makes an incision from her forehead to just below her left ear.
"Operation started at ten twenty three am." Foreman says to one of the nurses, who make a note of it as Foreman continues, picking up a neurosurgical drill, and making a series of burr holes in Cameron's skull, he then swaps the drill for a surgical saw, and cuts between the burr holes, and removes the skull flap, before proceeding to commence repairing the damage.
Half an hour later, Foreman is over half way through the repair, when the monitors begin to screech, and Dr Bradley calls out. "She's crashing."
Thanks for reading! Should I continue this fic?