"Doctor, she's crashing!" called Susie. She was a nurse at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Washington DC.
Dr Smith looked up at the heart monitor next to him. The numbers that showed the patient's heart beat were rapidly dropping. When she had been brought in, Ziva's heart rate had already been low, only at eighty beats a minute. Now the numbers were showing that the heart rate was at forty beats a minute and still dropping.
"Damn it! We need to finish this surgery. Get me the Heartner," said Dr Smith. He injected the medication into Ziva's chest and then looked at the monitor. The medication seemed to have an effect and Ziva's heart rate was rising again.
Dr Smith returned to his task. Making an incision in Ziva's head, the doctor inserted a tube and let blood and fluid drain out. There was a lot of it. After another ten minutes, Dr Smith removed the tube. He opened the wound a little more and then put in a camera. He looked around Ziva's brain, checking for any further damage that hadn't been caught on the MRI. He didn't find any, so he removed the camera and stitched up the incision. Ziva's heart rate had started to drop again, so Dr Smith decided to stop operating and try to stabilise her. It was hard work. Ziva's body was so badly damaged that it was hard to do anything.
"Susie, get me the defibrillator pads. I don't want to use them but I can't stabilise her and she's crashing again!" called Dr Smith. He wasn't looking forward to facing Gibbs.
"Here you go Doctor," said Susie as she handed him the defibrillator.
During the exchange, Ziva's heart rate had dropped even further. She was now technically dead but the doctor didn't want to give up.
"Shock her!" ordered Dr Smith as a young surgeon prepared to start CPR.
After four attempts, Ziva's heart was beating again but it was not good. The doctor was worried about the stress that her heart was under at that point, trying to supply enough blood to keep Ziva alive. After a quick think, Dr Smith decided that putting Ziva onto a respirator wasn't going to be enough.
"Let's get her onto the life support!" said Dr Smith.
Susie helped him insert the necessary tubes and attach the necessary wires. In five minutes, Ziva was completely covered. An IV tube was running from her right hand and another was running from her right upper arm. Dr Smith ordered the young surgeon to help Susie move Ziva into the ICU and get her settled while he went to speak with Gibbs.
"Agent Gibbs," said Dr Smith. He was exhausted.
"How's Ziva?" asked Gibbs, the worry evident in his voice.
"She's not good. She's critical. We've managed to stabilise her for now. If she makes it through the night, which I seriously doubt, we'll operate again tomorrow. For now, we've done as much as we can without losing her for good. The pressure in her brain is still pretty high but we can't drain any more than we already have without killing her. I can try again if we go back to surgery tomorrow but that's a big if. Ziva's on life support. There's too much stress on her heart and lungs. She isn't able to breathe on her own right now anyway, so there's no point in trying to make her. I've sent her up to the ICU if you want to see her."
"Yes please."
Gibbs followed the doctor to Ziva's room. The sight of his youngest agent scared him. Ziva was covered in tubes and wires. She had a bandage around her head and was on two separate IVs. Gibbs couldn't take it and left the room.
"Can you find out how the rest of my team is?" asked Gibbs.
"Sure. None of them are my patients though. If you want, I can have them transferred to my care after I find out if any of them are in the same unit as Ziva," said Dr Smith.
"That would be great. Except for Tony though. If Dr Pitt is still working here, I would rather Tony be under his care. There are several things I need to explain and I don't think I can do that right now."
"No problem. I'll organise it for you."
Dr Smith watched Gibbs sit in the ICU waiting room before he left.
It had been a long day for Dr Smith. First, he had been called back to work at the end of his shift. He had only been told that a surgeon was needed immediately to deal with an accident victim. Then Ziva had come into the ER, unconscious and injured. She had been taken to the operating rooms immediately. On his first break during Ziva's operation, Dr Smith had found out that Tony, Abby and McGee had also been brought in. It turned out that the four of them had been driving to a restaurant when a car had been driven directly into them at more than three times the speed limit. Ziva had been a front seat passenger and had taken most of the damage. Abby had been behind Ziva and copped about half the damage Ziva had. Tony had been driving and ended up unconscious with a slight head injury while McGee had sustained several broken ribs, a sprained wrist, and a broken leg. He alone of the group had stayed conscious.
Dr Smith was now heading to the reception desk to ask about the rest of Gibbs team. The nurse at the desk told him that McGee was being kept until he could use crutches. He was in room 100 on the first floor. Abby was in the ICU already but the doctor was hopeful that she'd wake up in a few hours. Tony had been taken to the Neurology department and was already under Dr Pitt's care.
Dr Smith thanked the nurse and headed up to the first floor. He had decided to speak with McGee's doctor and see if it would be possible to transfer him to Dr Smith's care.
"Hey Damien, how's Tim McGee?" asked Dr Smith.
"He's alright John. I'm going to check on him now. Do you want to come?" asked Dr Brown.
"Okay. Do you still have a lot of patients?"
"Yes but one more won't hurt." Dr Brown sounded tired.
"Would you like me to take him?"
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I only have three patients at the moment and two of them are well enough to only need me once or twice a day."
"What about the third?"
"She's in the ICU. Tim's her friend."
"Is that Abby or Ziva?"
"Ziva, why?"
"Tim wants to see them. And Tony too."
"Well, Tony's in Neurology. Abby's in ICU with Ziva. All three are unconscious. Ziva is on life support. She won't even know he's there."
"It can't hurt though. I doubt Tim would endanger his friends."
"Fair enough. Well, I don't mind him seeing Ziva for a while. The other two are not my patients. Abby will be soon, but Tony is staying under Dr Pitt's care for medical reasons."
"Okay, well, you can take McGee but his care pretty much consists of rest for a couple of days."
"Not a problem then."
"Tim, this is Dr Smith. He's looking after Ziva and will have Abby too soon. He's going to take over your care for me and he's agreed to let you visit the girls for a while."
"What about Tony?" asked McGee.
"Tony is not my patient. I can ask his doctor but it's not up to me," said Dr Smith. He left the room and returned ten minutes later with news for McGee. "You can see Tony, but it will only be a few minutes. He's just woken up and needs rest."
"Thank you."