If you recognize it, it is not mine. Some credit goes to everyone behind the book MASH FAQ, the Army Nursing Corps website and Britannica.
In this chapter Major Burns gets well, while Claudia is delirious with fever.
"Oh." Hawkeye said quietly. What else was there to say to Frank's scandalous revelation that he's dating Margaret? He and BJ looked at each other, smirking with amusement. They should let Frank get some sleep. Both surgeons rose to their feet and while BJ went to see what they were serving in the mess tent, Hawkeye walked over to Claudia's bed. Sitting on the stool next to her bed, he began to study her face. The information she provided seemed valid. After a check-up, they found a bite on Frank's left upper arm, which was probably how he caught the fever. And even though Frank was annoying and still a little out of it, it seemed the worse was behind him. The bed rest and fluid restriction was doing him a world of good.
She, on the other hand, took a turn for the worse. Her temperature was almost a 101°F now and they had trouble pushing it down. The cup of tea Radar gave her was the last fluid she had and her kidney were fighting back, but she wasn't conscious anymore. She looked so fragile, lying there dressed in soft yellow jammies with dark red hair dancing disorderly around her pale face. He was tempted to lightly caress her flushed cheek, hoping it would be cool this time. But he resisted the temptation. Her breathing was very heavy and relatively shallow. She was very sick indeed and looked accordingly.
Approximately one in ten. That was the chance of dying from the fever and there was nothing to do but wait and see. Nothing Hawkeye learned in school would help him save her, nothing but some elementary common sense medicine.
All of a sudden, she flinched as if from an invisible intruder and groaned loudly. Hawkeye looked her over, wondering what happened. It was possible she was dreaming. He sincerely hoped her dreams were nicer than the reality.
BJ interrupted his depressing inner voice telling him all that could go wrong inside the female body sprawled in front of him. It was time to waste some time by judging the soldier of the month quiz. Since both Claudia and Frank were out of order, the colonel asked Hawkeye as he was the most senior officer next in line and Hawkeye refused to go through that festivity alone, so he asked BJ for help. Hawkeye found it extremely hard to leave Claudia alone in Post-Op. Okay, technically she wasn't alone, there were nurses on duty and Colonel Potter was right next to Post-Op in his office, but he still felt like he was abandoning her. Yearning for it to be over, he went with BJ to the mess tent.
As if BJ read his mind, he tried to console his colleague on their way. "She is going to be alright, Hawk. Our Claudia is one tough lady."
Hawkeye nodded absent-mindedly. At least BJ stopped trying to pry into his relationship with Claudia. That night they drank to celebrate Colonel Potter's marriage, he laid into him pretty hard. They were both pretty plastered and Hawkeye couldn't really remember how the conversation ended, but it was an uncomfortable experience. Especially since he was too sloshed, as Frank so elegantly put later, to even come up with a joke or a sarcastic remark as a reply.
The quiz was almost a complete disaster, with Klinger found cheating and Igor being too hungry to answer anything. As usual, it was Radar who saved the day. If it wasn't for him, Hawkeye and BJ would have hard time to find anything to judge. Colonel Potter was very proud when Hawkeye announced the results. He looked positively euphoric, like a proud father. Afterwards, he asked for updates on all fever cases. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to tell as there were no quick recoveries with this febrile infection.
As soon as he could, he left Potter's office for Post-Op and resumed his position next to Claudia's bed. Right after he sat down, he called Margaret over.
"Why the hell is she restrained?" His voice was laced with worry and consternation.
"She's been trashing around a lot during these intense nightmares. Screaming on the top of her lungs, too. We were worried she might hurt herself and couldn't think of anything else." The Head Nurse explained.
Hawkeye's eyes turned back to Claudia. It was hard to imagine now, she was resting on the bed, seemingly in peace. The only movement of her body was the constant shivering.
"What is her temperature?"
"101.7."
"Damn." It was higher than before. Hawkeye furrowed his brow, sighing in despair. "Margaret, I will stay here, go look at the other patients."
Hawkeye spent the night on the bed next to Claudia's. A few times he wanted to ask Margaret if she was sure that the restraints were needed, but she looked very angry as it is. Maybe she was angry at Frank, maybe the whole world. It didn't make much difference, the best solution was to avoid her. They propped up Claudia's bed so her legs were higher than her head as was recommended.
The camp was busy with washing everything and everyone with disinfectant to try to limit the outbreak and the 8063rd mash unit was specifically redesigned to deal with fever patients. So despite many new cases in the area, the only ones at the 4077 were Frank and Claudia. Frank was doing okay, so there was no point in transfer and Claudia was doing so badly they didn't know if she would survive the journey to another hospital.
Another eight hours later, with her temperature at 102°, Hawkeye got a taste of what Margaret was talking about. It started with a few unintelligible whispers that still managed to wake him up. He sat up when he heard the cot rattling as Claudia's entire body was shaking violently. Her eyes were tightly shut, but tears were still able to run in streams down her cheeks.
"N-no…" She shouted. "We have to… h-have to go back."
Hawkeye laid his hands lightly on her shoulders, trying to get her to calm down. "Claudia…" He whispered, caressing her softly. "It's okay…shhh…You're safe." His voice was shaking.
She was trying to get her hands free with a surprising amount of strength, which made the restraints cut into the skin on her wrists. Then she kicked her legs to the side, crying out even louder for someone named Adam. Hawkeye watched helplessly the horror scene in front of him.
She rested for a little while, her body obviously spent from the effort and then started kicking again. This time in the direction Hawkeye sat. It was then that Margaret turned up, looking for the source of all the commotion. As soon as she took in what was happening, she ran towards Hawkeye and grabbed Claudia's legs, holding them tightly in place.
It was probably all over in a couple of minutes, but for Hawkeye it felt like a lifetime. It scared him, seeing Claudia in delirium with her mind completely out of his reach like that. He missed spending time with her, just talking and drinking, making up silly things to do. It all seemed like a distant past, yet it was just a few days ago. Now, he was holding her as firmly as possible hoping he wouldn't hurt her already sick body.
When she eventually calmed down, both Margaret and Hawkeye let go off her as they exchanged pained looks. In the end, they agreed it would be best to add more restraints and surround Claudia's body with pillows and blankets, so there was nothing hard she could possibly bump into during one of her fits. Hawkeye gently bandaged her wrists with the supplies Margaret brought him. He didn't want to leave Claudia's side for one second.
Then, it was time to take vital signs again. The good news they were hoping for did not materialize. Her temp was another half a degree up, her blood pressure and pulse was also equally terrible. Hawkeye watched as the Head Nurse was going from patient to patient. He should get some rest, because he's on the next shift and right now he feels like falling down half-dead on the spot.
Who was Adam? He thought to himself as he lied down.
The next two days seemed endless. Hawkeye stayed in Post-Op most of the time. There weren't many patients around and so it was not an inconvenience to leave the bed next to Claudia empty. They had to lower Claudia's legs, because she developed respiratory problems. With her ragged breathing came lower levels of oxygen in blood. While the numbers weren't so bad on their own, it was another complication. And her blood platelet levels were still dropping.
The nurses were instructed to monitor her temperature even more often than normally, because if it got any higher they might have to take drastic measures. There was a cold wet towel lying on her forehead all the time. Her fever was so high, they had to change it every few minutes, even when they started sponging the rest of her face. She was sobbing in her sleep at least every few hours, but usually you couldn't understand what she was screaming in between the tears. Lately she had been calling for her dad while desperately attempting to free her body from the restraints.
Her cheeks were still pink from the fever, her lips chapped and for a few hours during the night she got severe nose bleed. The nurse on the shift had to sit next to Claudia and carefully catch the droplets of blood into cotton balls. As per the Head Nurse's directive, she had a face mask on and gloves on her hands for protection. This was the last night there was only one nurse on the night shift. From then on, there was a doctor and two nurses, one specifically for looking after Claudia. Hawkeye seemed to be always there, too, but when it was possible, they tried to let him sleep.
But when Claudia's temperature reached 104, they were out of options. They had to act. The doctor officially on duty was Colonel Potter, who after receiving the news immediately ordered a bath tub to be prepared. Klinger and Margaret left to prepare the bath as the Colonel assisted Nurse Bigelow with removing the restraints. That's when Hawkeye woke up.
"W-what is going on?" He mumbled, still disoriented.
"Sleep, son. You need to rest, too." Colonel Potter whispered, seeing how tired the young surgeon looked.
"No, I'm okay. I'll help." Hawkeye sat up slowly, running hands through his unkempt hair. Sighing, he stood up and walked to read Claudia's chart. 104 degrees. So, that's what's happening. Aggressive ice-cold immersion.
It wasn't long until Klinger rolled a gurney in and Margaret brought a green top and shorts. Hawkeye and Klinger put Claudia gently on the gurney. As Hawkeye took Claudia into his arms and lifted her up, he could feel her body go completely limp. It took his breath away, it was like nobody was home. Her skin was very hot, you could sense it even over the clothes. Her left arm fell down and was dangling over the side of the board. Hawkeye lightly took it into his hands, as if he was afraid the arms would disintegrate due to his touch, and laid it softly down.
They all noticed Hawkeye's gentle attitude towards their sick colleague, but no one said anything. They were all crazy with worry. Margaret was tasked with changing Claudia into the new clothes. She brought the lightest softest clothes she could find, so it didn't keep near Claudia's body. Claudia's jammies were drenched, completely soaked with sweat, so she tossed them into the sink. She will have them washed with her own laundry later. Then she called on Klinger to get the all the ice he could find, while Hawkeye and Colonel Potter came into the room to help. The tub was filled with water pretty quickly, but it was pleasantly tepid, which right now was not what they needed.
"Have adrenaline ready, just in case." Potter ordered. Hawkeye held his breath for a few seconds. He knew Claudia was at risk of going into shock as it was, even without the icy bath. Looking at her unconscious form, he wondered if she ever sensed his presence during these past few days.
They put Claudia in the bath right after the first batch of ice was in place. Klinger ran away to get the rest and the two surgeons put Claudia in the bath. Hawkeye's heart skipped a beat when his hands came into contact with the ice, still he tried to lay Claudia down as smoothly as he could. Then he took her long red hair and let them hang over the edge of the bath, so they didn't get too wet. He knew that dark red was not Claudia's real color and not knowing much about hair dye, he erred on the side of caution. Some patients with the fever develop rash all over their bodies, which didn't help their condition. As Klinger came back, he reported that wounded were arriving into the compound.
Hawkeye was just taking Claudia pulse and he probably wouldn't leave anyway, so they left him alone with Claudia after Margaret prepared everything they might need on a tray. He took the snow white piece of linen and soaked it in the ice cold water. Then he spread it out and covered Claudia with it from her neck down. They didn't have enough ice to cool down the volume of water needed to fill the tub completely, so the water reached only as far the letters mash on her t-shirt.
He dragged a sturdy-looking box closer to the bathtub and sat down. She stirred a little, but her body stayed slumped against the tub, looking all lifeless. He needlessly fought back tears. She turned her head towards him and he tenderly brushed away a few stray locks of hair that fell into her face.
"Mmmm…" She moaned quietly.
"Yeah, you said it." Hawkeye whispered as he lightly caressed her cheek. He wanted a confirmation that the bath was helping, but the thermometer was slightly out of reach and he did not want to leave Claudia's side even for a moment. Leaning forward a little, he pressed his lips to her forehead. She didn't seem to be as hot as before. "Oh, Claudia, you'll be okay. You have to be."
Claudia drew in a sharp breath and shook off the cold sheet from her body. "No, don't do that." Hawkeye said in kind tone, knowing all too well she probably did not hear him. Trying to wrap her again in the cold linen, he took the cloth in his hands. Startled, he dropped it into the water again, when she spoke.
"Hawkeye." He looked down at her in disbelief. Her eyes were still closed, so she was not awake. Was she dreaming about him? "HAWKEYE!" This time her voice was loud and filled with horror.
"Claudia, shhh…" He brought a finger to her dry lips as he watched the pained expression on her face. His jaw clenched. Many patients suffered excruciating abdominal and back pains. He had hoped that in her state at least she was spared that agony. He finished wrapping her up, then kept running his nimble fingers through her hair. "Claudia…" Hawkeye whispered into Claudia's ear. "You said I didn't want anything serious, but we have something serious happening here."