This story was written in response to the request of a reader who wanted a story about hamsters.
Merry Christmas Ava, I hope you like it and don't mind sharing with others.
When a patient's pet hamster gets loose in the halls of Rampart's Emergency Department, the nurses are up in arms, on chairs, desk tops and doing some interesting stepping moves. With Dixie keeping her feet farther from the floor than any of her nurses it's up to Brackett to orchestrate a rodent round up and get things around the ER back in working order.
Rodent Run Amuck
Johnny and Roy were racing to their third run since beginning their shift. The first call came in even before roll call for a heart patient, they were able to routinely stabilize the man and get him to the hospital where he was admitted directly to the Coronary Intensive Care Unit. Before John and Roy were able to get back to the Emergency Department to restock their drug box the next call came in. An explosion in a toy factory pulled four battalions out and six paramedic teams along with them. Fortunately the fire was quick to respond to the firefighters efforts to get it under control but unfortunately there were 22 factory workers who were seriously burned when the machine that poured molten plastic into molds malfunctioned and exploded.
John and Roy made three trips to the emergency room with patients and restocked each time but still used all but one of the preloaded syringes of pain medications in their drug box. There was also only one bag of D5W left in all of the squad's supplies. They were in a serious shortage.
"Cap, we've got to spend some serious time at Rampart restocking after this run," Roy informed his superior.
"I don't doubt it," Hank acknowledged. This had been a long haul and a lot of patients. Hank had to question the Deputy Chief's decision not to call out a triage team from the hospital to help with all of the patients. "We've got everything under control here. Go ahead and take care of getting the squad restocked. We'll meet you back at the station. Maybe you can have lunch ready for us when we get there," Hank hinted.
"We might can work something out." Roy smiled back in understanding.
Just then the remaining paramedic out of 36's was guided to the last ambulance holding his hand. Debris had shifted in an effort to get into the last unsearched room in the factory and he had received cuts to both his arm and the palm of his hand. It was clear he would need to go to the hospital for a few stitches and his captain didn't want him driving the squad so he was placed in charge of the stable patients in the ambulance since there was no further room for another paramedic and his captain assigned one of his other men to take their squad in to pick them both up.
Roy and John had no sooner placed their nearly empty drug boxes in the squad compartments when Dispatch came over the radio asking if there were paramedics available that could respond to a woman down call three miles from their location. The deputy chief answered that Squad 51 was free to respond and the two men were off.
"Roy, I don't know what we're going to do if this is a heart attack. We literally only have one dose of MS on board and the only IV we have is one bag of D5W," Johnny said to Roy as he drove to the address that had been given.
"I know," Roy responded. "We'll just have to do the best we can and let the Doc's know what we've got to work with. Regardless we've got to get more supplies before we can go on another run."
Johnny let out a smirking scoff, "Right, we shouldn't be rolling on this one with what we've got on board."
"We're still better than nothing," Roy countered as he pulled into a circle driveway were a teenage girl was waving to them and waiting for them to get out of the truck.
"It's my grandma." The girl started talking as they pulled the supplies they had from the squad's compartment. "She's staying with us while she's recovering from a slight stroke and her cat started chasing my brother's hamster and anyhow the cat managed to trip her and she hurt her ankle," the girl explained as she led the way to her fallen grandmother. "We've managed to get the cat in his cage but we can't find the hamster yet. My brother's afraid the cat ate it but my mom says that they don't eat them they just kill them and play with the bodies." The girl continued to talk nervously as they moved through the hall to where an elderly woman lay on the floor moaning in pain and complaining of cruel treatment of her innocent kitty cat. The woman's middle aged daughter sat on the floor cradling her mother's head in her lap as she tried to calm the older woman promising the cat would be let out of the cage just as soon as the hamster was found and put back in his cage.
The two paramedics set their nearly empty boxes down and opened them up pulling the supplies needed to get a set of vitals out before going to work on their patient.
The boy was upset looking behind and under every piece of furniture calling for Teddy Mouse but growing more and more agitated when he found nothing.
"Matt, will you please take grandma's kitty upstairs to her apartment and let it out of the cage. You can lock the door to keep it there until you find Teddy.
Both Roy and Johnny were certain the ankle in question was fractured and while John was making short work of splinting it Roy was on the Biophone getting orders from Dr. Brackett to start an IV with D5W and administer their last dose of MS.
When the ambulance arrived Johnny was quick to shut the drug box and latch it before aiding in lifting their patient to the gurney. Then as the patient's daughter started barking out instructions to her children, Johnny grabbed up the mostly empty box and followed the patient into the back of the ambulance while Roy helped the woman's daughter into the cab for a ride to the hospital.
Once at the hospital their patient was quickly directed to a treatment room as Johnny sat the drug box and bio-phone in a safe place in the hallway just outside the door. Once inside the treatment room John helped to move the patient from the gurney to the treatment table and gave Dr. Early a report on all that had happened during transport before leaving them to get the patient undressed and into a hospital gown.
When John picked up his equipment he felt the weight shift in his drug box. That, along with the unusually light weight, reminded John just how low they were on supplies. Fearing another call would come in any second, John hurried to the nurse's desk.
"Dix," John called out just as Roy joined him. "We need a lot of supplies. We are completely out of almost everything."
Just to make his point John hurried past the head nurse who was talking with Dr. Brackett and sat the drug box on the stainless steel cabinet that housed most of the supplies they were in need of. With great haste Johnny undid the latches and threw the box open. The second the box lay open on the counter top a small light brown creature emerged from the bottom tray.
Dixie let out a scream that further shocked the two paramedics as they turned to see that Dixie had jumped into Dr. Brackett's arms with her arms tight around his neck. This further frightened the small critter who quickly escaped his recent confinement and ran across the stainless steel counter top only to turn around once he came to the end and run back again.
Johnny and Roy shared totally stunned looks. "Teddy Mouse!" they spoke in unison before they were able to respond and try to capture the small rodent/pet.
The two paramedics actually collided as they moved toward the little furry creature. Roy managed to get his hands out in front of it only to have it climb over his hands before it jumped the small opening to the counter top and scurried under the radio base station where it was safely out of reach from any fireman's fat hand, and no small handed nurse was even remotely interested in trying to reach for it.
Dixie was finally willing to put her feet on the floor now that the rodent was out of sight, either that or she could tell that Dr. Brackett was about ready to drop her. (A strong muscular firefighter he was not.)
Dr. Brackett took just a moment to catch his breath as Dixie took up a safe position behind him as the flustered Paramedics were trying to figure out how to rescue the smallest victim they've ever dealt with.
"When did you guys start carrying a mascot in with your supplies?" Brackett questioned already knowing this was going to be a good story.
"It must have climbed in there while we were working with the grandmother." Johnny turned to Roy while he tried to make sense of what had just happened. He squatted down so that he could see the frightened creature hiding under the base station. See, but there was no way he could reach it.
"Yeah," Roy agreed. "The drug box was nearly empty; it must have figured that was the safest place to get away from Grandma's cat."
Brackett's face twitched with thoughts of laughter mingled with the seriousness of the ramifications of having a rodent running loose through the hospital.
"Do you men think you can capture that thing or do I need to call an exterminator?"
"NO!" Both men spoke at the same time.
"You can't call an exterminator, its a little kid's pet," Roy explained. "See, the grandmother is staying with them for a while, while she's recovering - " Roy began to explain what little they had been told and overheard. The only thing they knew for sure was that the boy truly cared about the at large rodent and wanted it back in his safe keeping.
"Alright," Brackett responded once the story was told, "but you better hurry up and catch that thing and get it out of here." He then turned to Dixie who was still doing her best to keep him between her and the place the small creature was hiding. "Dix, do you think you can manage to get these boys' drug box reloaded while they're playing mouse catchers, so they can take that thing back where it came from just as soon as they capture it."
Dr. Brackett's statement indicated the faith that he had in his paramedics' abilities.
Following Dr. Brackett's orders, John and Roy worked together to move the base station that was so heavy they both worried about getting hernias. As it was lifted and moved the plug that powered it came loose and John saw the small creature dash toward the opening in the counter top where the wires went through. Unfortunately his hands were full with a very heavy base station and there was nothing he could do to try and catch the little guy before it disappeared down the little hole.