It Can Happen to Anyone
4
Despite Marco's sudden and unexpected collapse, the fire fighters still managed to put out the fire, though unable to save the house.
Roy approached Captain Stanley just as the captain was finishing up talking to Chet about the clean up. "Cap," he began. "Marco's ready to transport. I'm going to ride with him and Johnny's going to follow in the squad."
"What about the little girl?" Cap asked. "Are you taking her in too to get checked out?"
"I recommended it," Roy answered. "But the mother said that she'll take her to their family physician in the morning."
Cap nodded in understanding and looked over Roy's shoulder toward the ambulance that Marco had been loaded into. He looked back at Roy and asked, "How's Marco doing?"
"He's still in a lot of pain. Doctor Brackett agrees that it sounds like appendicitis. In fact he agrees it's appendicitis so much that they're going to have the OR set up by the time we get there."
"They'll have to operate right away, I take it?"
Roy nodded in agreement. "That's right. If they don't, his appendix could burst and that can be fatal."
EMERGENCY!
Once at Rampart, Marco was rushed into treatment room two where Brackett confirmed that he did have appendicitis.
"He's being taken into the OR now," Dixie informed Roy and Johnny. "From what Kel tells me, Marco's appendix is pretty inflamed."
"And to think, it was only this afternoon that the pain started," Johnny observed, shaking his head at how fast his friend and crewmate's condition had worsened.
"It's a good thing he was working when it happened," Roy added. "Knowing Marco, if he had gotten sick while at home, he probably wouldn't have sought medical treatment right away."
"Why do you say that?" Dixie asked curiously, not really knowing Marco Lopez too well to understand the senior paramedic's statement.
"Marco's the kind of guy who tries not to let being sick get in the way of doing things," Roy explained. "He had the flu one time and because he could still walk around, he decided to come into work."
"That is until Cap sent him home and told him not to come back in until he was well," Johnny chimed in.
Dixie nodded, fully understanding now Roy's earlier statement. "Well you know what they say; Doctors, Paramedics, Fire Fighters and Police Officers are the worse kind of patients."
EMERGENCY!
"Roy, John," Captain Stanley greeted his two paramedics as he, Chet and Mike entered the break room at Rampart. "How's Marco?"
"He's still in surgery," Roy informed.
"So then it was appendicitis," Chet assumed at Roy's statement.
Roy nodded in agreement. "That's right. His appendix was really inflamed, so they had to operate almost immediately after he got here before it burst."
Cap sat down at the table and shook his head. He still couldn't believe that he had missed the fact that Marco was hiding the amount of pain that he had been in. "You know right before we went out on this call, I found Marco in the washroom. When I asked him if he was alright, he told me that he simply couldn't sleep." He shook his head again and released a sigh of frustration. "I should have known better."
"Hey Cap," Johnny started. "It wasn't your fault. You know how Marco is when it comes to being sick - we all do."
"That's right, Cap," Mike agreed. "Marco's good at hiding that kind of stuff and not realizing he's sick can happen to anyone - just like it did with you tonight in the washroom. I probably wouldn't have caught onto it either had it been me in there with him."
"And that goes for all of us," Chet echoed. "Like Stoker said, Cap, it can happen to anyone."
Cap finally nodded in agreement. "Well I'm going to make sure it doesn't happen again. When I see Marco, I'm going to order that in the future if he's feeling sick, even if it's just a cold, he tell someone." He shrugged his shoulders before continuing. "Maybe that's going a little too far, I don't know. But I do know that this time him not telling one of us that he was sick could have cost him his life. The fact that he collapsed while at a fire also put his life in danger. As a captain, I can't let that happen again."
Just then the door opened, revealing Doctor Brackett still wearing his scrubs. "Gentlemen," he greeted as he approached the table.
"How is he?" Cap asked.
"He's going to be fine," Brackett announced. "He'll be out of work for a while, but within about three or four weeks, if all goes well, he should be able to return to duty."
"How long is he going to be in the hospital?" Roy asked.
"We'll depending on how well he starts to recover; my guess right now would be about a week."
"When will he be able to have visitors?" Cap asked, knowing that the best time to talk to Marco would be while he was still in the hospital.
"Late tomorrow should be alright as long as it's not too many at a time," Brackett answered. "Right now though, he still needs a lot of rest since he did just have major surgery."
Captain Stanley nodded in understanding. He agreed with Mike Stoker when he said that not realizing Marco was hiding the pain could happen to anyone, but he also agreed that this time nearly cost Marco his safety and his life - something he was going to discuss with the man within a few days after he had a chance to really rest up. For now, however, Cap was just thankful that everything turned out alright and that Marco would in fact make a full recovery.
THE END