AN Thanks to all of you who reviewed and encourged me :-)).
The new cover picture was also made by rogue187. I wanted you to be able to see them both. Thank you so again rogue187.
Again thanks to June Odyssee you can focus on the story without beeing disturbed by grammer and spelling errors. Thanks June!
Enjoy...
Mercy Hospital: Outsider's POV
Doctor Harrison, who was on night shift, had had a quiet shift but that changed when the doors to the hospital emergency entrance burst open and paramedics came hurrying in announcing, "One patient, male, mid thirties, condition after a house fire, unresponsive, arrhythmic, flue gas intoxication and burns up to third-degree."
Then, seeing who was rushing towards them, one of them added, "Hey, Doc Harrison, will you take care of him? I'm telling you, we have a hero on your hands here. This guy rescued a family out of a burning house before the fire brigade arrived. His name is John Sheppard."
"Hi Charlie! A hero, hmm? I'll do my best for everyone but I'll try to do even better." Harrison took in the appearance of his patient while hurrying him over to the next exam room. Sheppard's face was blackened with soot; his clothes – some kind of BDU – battered. There was no base close by hence he had rarely to do with any soldiers and therefore he briefly wondered if his patient really was a soldier or someone who liked to dress as one but he then noticed the chain with the identity tags. He immediately focused on the medical condition again. By the look of it, Sheppard had not only been poisoned with carbon dioxide but also with carbon monoxide and cyan. 'Crap! Hopefully the paramedics had arrived in time!' Flue gas poisoning was dangerous and had to be treated immediately. For now the burns had to wait.
"We have to raise his oxygen-level!" he stated on the arrival at the exam room while taking away the oxygen cylinder the paramedics had used. The arrhythmic beeping of the heart monitor did nothing to reassure him.
"Sally! Intubation set!" But there was no need as Sally had it already prepared. It was high time. The moment Harrison was ready for intubation Sheppard's breathing stopped.
"Oh no you don't, we've got that covered," muttered Harrison, half to his patient and half to himself while intubating carefully. Then he checked with his stethoscope whether he hadn't placed the tube in the esophagus before blocking it and quickly attaching the life-support machine to take over the breathing. The machine was rhythmically pressing the oxygen into the lungs and the system of their hero.
"We have to get him a place in HBOT ASAP." Dr. Harrison worried for Sheppard. The team knew flooding Sheppard's system with hundred percent oxygen wasn't enough to safe him thus Nurse Natalie was already picking up the phone. The beeping of the heart monitor became frantic, alarming everyone and then Sheppard began to cramp and trash.
"No, no, no. You were fighting so well!" Harrison cried out alarmed.
At this moment the line went flat and the beeping of the heart monitor became one constant alarming pesky noise while Harrison began to perform with CPR. "Not on my watch! You don't! Paddles!"
He had to pause shortly so Nurse Sally was able to cut Sheppard's shirt open and got the dog tags out of the way. The paddles were fully charged and the announcing peeping of the machine mixed with the beeping of the flat line from the heart monitor.
"Charging to 200! Clear!"
The paddles released their electric power. Everyone looked anxiously at the monitor. Still nothing but the increasing beep of the defibrillator signaling that the paddles were recharged.
"Clear!"
Again the team was desperately looking at the monitor. 'There! A peak, another!' Relieved they noticed that the heart was beating steadily again. Harrison relaxed some and so was his team. As it seemed Sheppard really needed to give them the full show. They still had to treat the burns…
"Okay, now that you're back with us let's having a look at your burns." Doctor Harrison addressed his unconscious patient and cut away rest of the burned clothes. This time he took the dog tags off passing them over to Nurse Natalie who put them to the rest of their patient's belongings. 'Okay these burns are nasty and some were severe but most of the skin was unharmed so extensive burns there wouldn't be a risk for the patient.' Feeling relieved he began to treat the burns speedily. "There that was the last one! Natalie, what's with the HBOT?"
"We're all set and ready to go, Doctor Harrison!"
"Well. That's good. Let's get him there!" Doctor Harrison was glad they would be able to treat that man with HBOT now as this would increase his prospect. He was already rushing out with his patient on the stretcher while Nurse Natalie was assisting him, giving artificial respiration. They had to detach Sheppard of the ventilator for transport so currently it was again replaced by a bag-valve mask. The transport shouldn't take long but the sooner the patient was back on life support the better and pure oxygen the better.
0-0-0-0-0
Of course, the paperwork also had to be done while the patient was treated and tonight Nurse Hannah was on duty. The paramedics had given her the personal belongings of their latest emergency. Some of the forms had been already filled out on the ride to the hospital but most of them were still blank.
'Okay, the patient's name is John Sheppard, he's with air force, Lt. Colonel. No address, no telephone number.' She would have to call his base for further information. If only she knew which one it was! She looked through his belongings and found his briefcase. There was a folded note. A form of sorts! Jackpot! His emergency contacts! A huge grin spread across her face. Yup, she was lucky! This guy had pulled up some heroic stunt by what the paramedics told her and the sooner he had his family with him, the better.
She waited for the treatment to finish so she could give better information to his family. Not that she was allowed to tell much over the phone anyway but it was always good to be eventually able to calm the people down who received her calls.
Upon hearing the doors of the exam room open she looked up again. Sheppard was rushed to the elevator accompanied by Dr. Harrison and Natalie which was never a good sign. Then Sally came out as well.
"Sally, you finished?" she called to her colleague.
"Yes, Natalie's accompanying Doctor Harrison to HBOP. Up here we're finished. He's still in critical condition. We had a respiratory failure and he crashed on the table…" She handed the rest of the colonel's belonging to Hannah. "So who is he? What did Charlie tell you?"
Hannah filled Sally in.
"Wow. He really is a hero!" Sally exclaimed.
"You can say that. Let's hope for the best. For now I have to call his people, let them know what happened. He has two emergency contacts. I want to try first for David Sheppard. They have the same name so I guess he's family while the other one is a Major and may be more of a friend."
Hannah called David Sheppard but her call went straight to voice mail. "Crap! Okay, hopefully I'll have more luck with Major Lorne…"
The phone was ringing. She waited, then… someone was picking up the phone.
"Lorne."
"Am I speaking with a Major Evan Lorne?"
"Yes that's me. I'm Evan Lorne," the voice confirmed, sounding alarmed.
"…You are the emergency contact of Colonel John Sheppard? I'm calling on behalf of the Mercy hospital. The colonel was brought in tonight after he was caught in a burning house. I regret to inform you that his condition is critical…"
Hannah could hear the man on the other end sighing despondently. "What happened exactly?"
"Sorry, I'm not allowed to give any details over the phone but it's bad. Will you be able to come?"
"Of course." No hesitation on the matter. Hannah was glad the Colonel had appealingly good friends.
Then the Major continued, "We'll all come!"
'Wait, all? Now what's that supposed to mean?' she wondered.
"Can you give me the exact address?" the major demanded.
"Of course, sir!" Whether the Major would bring along some friends or the entire unit was not for her to comment, so Hannah remained professional and gave him the full address before she ended her call.
0-0-0-0-0
Evan stood in the living room, the phone still in his hands, staring at it in denial. This couldn't be happening. John should be on Atlantis not here on earth in a hospital, in critical condition no less. Why was he involved in a house burning anyway?
When the rest of the family came rushing down the stairs he got a grip again, snapping into a mix of older brother, loving son and Major - but mostly Major. 'You have to be strong now, for them and for John.'
His father looked at him concerned. "Evan, what happened?"
"Dad..." Evan noticed that there wouldn't be any easy way to say this. "… that call, it was on behalf of John. He's in hospital."
He could hear the sharp gasp of his mother while the others gazed at him, concerned and troubled.
"How?" his mother choked out. "Evan, what happened? Was he shot?"
"No. That's not it at all. Apparently he was back, um, state side. They told me he was injured due to a house burning…"
"A house burning?" his sister repeated, dumbfounded.
"Why was he involved in a house burning?" his mother wondered.
"I'm sorry they didn't tell me. But, um…"
"There's more?"
'With John there's always more…' Evan thought and then tried to order himself, 'Just tell them everything Evan! You are freaking them out!' "Oh Mom, with John there's always more!" Evan sighed desperately. 'Oops!' He hadn't wanted to say that aloud.
"What do you mean, Evan?!" His mother's voice had become stern.
"Um, Mom I'm sorry." He didn't care to explain that he was sorry for his outburst as well as the bad news he had yet to tell them as he was sure his family would understand the general meaning behind his apology. "They told me John's in critical condition."
Everyone was shocked. His mother had sunk into an armchair with his father standing next to her, one arm around her shoulders to comfort her while Tom did the same for Julie on the sofa. It reminded Evan of the way they had supported each other only a few hours ago when he told them about John. Only then it had been the kind of commotion that was good, in a way. His family had barely known of John existence but he seemed to already be a part of their family and now the commotion was one of the bad kinds, the horrible kind to be exact. Earlier, Evan had told them some funny stuff about John but also stories of bravery and now, much to their dismay, John was proving these stories of bravery to be true.
Evan, who was still in 'Major-Mode', announced, "Mom, Dad, we need to arrange a trip. You'll all come, I suppose?"
"Of course we will. We'll all go," his mother unknowingly repeated his words from earlier.
"Yeah, I was sure of it." Evan smiled warmly at his family. He could see that everyone was still dazed by the news but they were functioning and they cared. Now their first priority was to get to John. "It's way too long to go by car, I suggest we take the first flight tomorrow."
His family nodded their okay.
"You're right Evan", his father said. "Hand me the phone I'll book the tickets."
"Wait!" Julie cut in. "What about the boys? They need to go to school."
"Don't worry about them. You'll fly, I'll be taking care of our boys." Tom told his wife, who looked at him thankfully.
Evan noticed belatedly that his nephews hadn't been awoken by the noise. 'Thank God for that. Better they face those news tomorrow morning.'
After everything was settled and everyone had packed, they tried to get some rest before they had to drive out to the airport. Evan desperately wished he could already be on his way. Laying here on his bed, nearly fully dressed and waiting for the morning to come was distressing him exceedingly.
0-0-0-0-0
Evan rushed into the hospital and straight to the information desk his family hot on his heels.
"Hi, I'm Evan Lorne, you called me on behalf of John Sheppard." Evan didn't bother with military ranking. He was here to see his brother not his CO!
The nurse at the desk looked up. "John Sheppard? Let's have a look. It says here that you're his emergency contact. Okay, Mr. Lorne I'll inform the doctor that you're here. Mr. Sheppard is in room 224 in intensive care. Follow this floor and get to the left wing. It's on the second floor to the right."
"Thank you. Did you already inform his base?"
"No, I'm sorry. We didn't know where he is stationed."
"Okay, I'll give you the number."
He gave her the number of Stargate Command, even though they would announce themselves as 'deep space telemetry'.
Still tense, Evan then led his family, who had remained silent during the conservation, to intensive care. It was a big hospital so it took them a while to get there and when they finally reached the right floor a doctor with a serious expression on his face greeted them. "Mr. Lorne?"
"That's me. I'm Evan Lorne. My parents and my sister Mrs. Julie Archer."
Evan than noticed the sheer plastic bag the doctor was carrying and his gaze transfixed itself at the pair of dog tags among other belongings it contained.
"No!" he heard himself whispering and then a louder, strangled, "NO!"
"Evan? What is it?" His mother asked worriedly while his father wanted to know, "What is it, son?" and his sister exclaimed, "Evan?!"
"Don't tell me we're too late…" Evan looked at the doctor in desperation.
"Too late? No! I'm sorry if I've giving you the wrong idea. No, Mr. Sheppard is very much alive." The doctor looked at him with regret.
"Oh, thank God!" Evan breathed in relief, noticing briefly his heart beating strangely without giving it a second thought.
"Evan! You nearly freaked me out!" His sister complained while his parents looked at him concerned.
"I'm sorry. But seeing John's dog-tags freaked me out." Evan had pulled himself together again and looked at his family apologetic.
"His dog tags?" The doctor wondered since he had thought it had been the way he addressed the family.
"Yeah. Doctor…"
"Cooper."
"Doctor Cooper, see, you never take the dog tags off a soldier unless he's dead!"
"I'm sorry Mr. Lorne. I wasn't aware of this. As I'm sure my colleagues weren't from night-shift."
Dr. Cooper handed the bag with John's belongings to Evan, who awkwardly tried to hold it with his injured arm while his right hand was immediately fishing for John's dog tags. He finished his task just as the others understood what he was up to and offered their help. After a moment of hesitation Evan put them in his right breast pocket. Wearing them would simply be wrong. He would try to give them back to his brother as soon as possible. Maybe there even was chance to hang them around John's neck again today.
"Can you tell us more about his condition?" Evan asked giving the bag to his father who had already reached out for it.
"I wasn't the one to treat Mr. Sheppard this last night but I've been looking after him ever since this morning. As far as we know Mr. Sheppard tried to rescue a family out of a burning house. In doing so he got some severe burns but nothing life threatening. What is really worrying us is the flue gas intoxication. He was unresponsive upon his arrival and hasn't regained consciousness yet, my colleague also informed me that he stopped breathing and his heart stopped. We were able to reanimate him but I fear his condition is still critical."
Evan saw his mother gripping for his father's arm, while Julie clung to him. He didn't felt good he noticed, his heart was still beating strangely, okay he was afraid on behalf of John but this was different. Evan shook it off. Now he had to take care of his family. This was not the time to worry about some presuming meaningless nonsense.
"So you're telling me my son could still die?" Evan's mother asked in a small voice.
"Your son?" Doctor Cooper wondered.
"John is my brother, Doctor Cooper," Evan explained, adding, "But this will be doctor-patient confidentiality."
This earned him a quizzical look from the physician but he nodded and confirmed, "I'm sorry, Mrs. Lorne but I fear you're right. Your son isn't over the worst."
"Can we see him?"
"Yes, I'll show you to his room."
Upon entering, they found John lying in his hospital bed hooked up to pain meds, attached to all kind of monitors and, much to their horror, a ventilator being one of them. The steady stomp of it pumping oxygen into John's lungs was accompanied by the beeping of the heart monitor.
Evan stared at his brother in dismay as did his parents and his sister. John's head was wrapped in a white bandage the color of his skin matching the color of the bandages where it wasn't lightly burned. His eyebrows were singed off adding to his awful look. Bandages were also covering part of his arms. Evan didn't know if John got burns on the rest of his body too but he feared as much.
"As I already told you, while his burns may look awful, there is nothing to worry about. They will heal in time," Dr. Cooper reassured them upon their horrified looks. "He only burned part of his arms, his right leg and obviously his head, but fortunately those burns are the lightest. Please call me if there is anything I can do." With that he left the room.
Evan glanced over to his mother to see how she was holding up. She held herself up straight while she walked over to John's bed, taking a seat and gathering his bandaged hand his hers. "John! It's me. It's Mom," she told him tenderly. "I'm so sorry I missed so much in your life. And look what happened to you now, John! But I'm so proud of you. They told me you rescued a family. You have to hold on John…" His mother continued talking to John whereas the rest of them were standing slightly back to give her some space, knowing that this was her moment alone.
Watching them, Evan had to think of Dave who presumably was still unaware that his mother was still alive and that he had two brothers instead of one and, also, a little sister. 'Had anyone informed Dave about John?' The thought crossed his mind. The nurse at the front desk hadn't mentioned it and he didn't know if Dave was also listed as emergency contact.
'So you better call him.' Evan slipped out of John's room after whispering to his father where he was heading. He wasn't allowed to use his cell in the hospital so he had to get out. Purposely hurrying down the corridor to the next elevator and then walking down more corridors, he was eventually outside dialing the number John had given him. 'Damn! Voice mail!' But Dave was in business so maybe he had turned it off during a meeting. But this couldn't wait. He would at least leave a message.
Evan walked back to John's room and arrived in time to see John starting to crash while his heart monitor was beeping wildly and irregular, adding to the unnerving scene. Then Dr. Cooper burst into the room and the nurses shooed everyone out. Through the window, Evan watched helplessly as the medical team was working on John, while his heart was pounding like mad. After some minutes that stretched to eternity, the team seemed to relax slightly and finally Dr. Cooper came out looking drained but happy.
"We were able to stabilize him before he flat lined. Everything went well."
Evan and his family shared a much relieved group hug when Evan noticed his heart beating arrhythmic again.
Oh, no! This really seemed bad! Hadn't Carson warned about stress?
Dr. Cooper, who had watche the family attentively, must have noticed that something was off. "Mr. Lorne? Are you feeling alright?"
Evan didn't wanted to distress his family any further and was about to crack a dry joke while asking for a seat but instead he felt the floor rushing towards him. The last thing he heard where the anguished cries of his family adding to his own misery, if only for a spit second before everything went black.
AN HBOT: Hyperbaric oxygen therapy