Here's the new chapter, first I want to thank you for all your comment. It makes me so happy to read it, you can't imagine.
Enjoy!
CHAPTER 5
When Connor woke up, Ava was already awake. In fact, she hadn't slept all night but she didn't want to worry him and omitted that detail. She was in her underwear making coffee in the kitchen.
"Already awake? Are you feeling better?
- Yes, I told you it was just cramps," she lied.
The drugs had had no effect and she continued to have cramps. They prepared themselves and went to work. Mrs Goodwin began the day with a short speech about the upcoming day.
"As you have probably heard, on this day our state will suffer many earthquakes of medium magnitude. There will probably be many injured. Most infrastructure is strong enough to withstand it, but we know that this is far from being the case for Chicago homes. At the hospital, no worries, you will be safe, but avoid using the elevators and especially during the tremors, it is a matter of common sense. Thank you, it is time to get to work, everything must be ready before the first victims arrive. Good work to all of you"
Connor was called in for valve surgery, so Ava was on call for emergencies and CT. As she was going up from the locker rooms to the emergency room, she was cramped again. Their intensities had increased even more. They were so sudden that Ava did not have time to catch up at the ramp and rushed down the few steps she had already climbed. When she regained these spirits the cramps had stopped but now her whole body was hurting her. She got up and went back to the emergency room as if nothing had happened.
The wounded began to flow in and the emergencies were quickly overwhelmed.
"Incoming! - Female in her thirties, received an electric shock, tachycardic, pulse rate 130, low saturation.
- Dr. Bekker, trauma one.
- On my count, 1, 2, 3"
Ava grinned, her fall down the stairs would probably leave some bruises.
"She's in V-fib."
The new intern grabbed the defibrillation paddles and shocked the young woman for the first time. She was still in fibrillation. As he was preparing to try again, Ava leaned a little closer to the heart monitor. She then took the young woman's pulse.
"Clear!
- Wait" exclaimed Ava.
For the young intern to shock had become so mechanical that he did not hear Ava's exclamation and sent the discharge. He became extremely pale when he understood what had just happened. Ava was lying on the ground completely unconscious. Did the young man who was tetanized just kill Dr. Bekker? Maggie, who had witnessed the scene from the nurses' office, rushed into the room.
"Dr. Bekker, can you hear me, Ava?"
She was relieved when she heard the doctor's breathing spontaneously resume. Ava then opened her eyes and tried to get up, but Maggie stopped her.
"Slow down, you just took a hell of a dump.
- I'm fine, Maggie.
- I'll page Connor.
- No, there's no point in making him worry for nothing"
She took her wrist in her hands and felt her pulse.
"My pulse is steady, no sign of arrhythmia.
- You should still get an EKG.
- I'll make one during my break."
Ava was stubborn and Maggie knew she couldn't persuade her.
Meanwhile, they had managed to revive the patient's heart and took her up to cardiology for tests.
It was around noon, Ava was in the rest room and holding her EKG in her hands. The day had barely begun when she couldn't take it anymore. Her whole body was hurting. Connor entered the room and rushed towards Ava. She saw by his eyes that Maggie had told him about the incident.
"I'm fine.
- What you did was totally stupid, Ava!
- It's okay I'm a CT surgeon I think I'd know if something was wrong!
- Is that what you said last time and what was the result? You bled out, you almost died!
- I told you it was okay, I did an EKG for safety, I'm not totally stupid."
She took her EKG, got up and gave it to Connor violently.
"In case you have any doubts about my reading skills"
She left the room followed closely by Connor. It was at this point that Mrs Goodwin arrived to check the situation in the various departments.
"Ava...
- Go to hell!
- I see that everything is back to the way it was," Ms Goodwin said.
Connor didn't have time to answer that his pager started ringing.
In the CT department, Ava's pager also started to sound, one of the valves they had replaced yesterday was leaking, she had to reopen the patient.
As time passed, the surgery was still only at its beginning when the ground started shaking again, which made the operation even more delicate. To avoid any improvement, the cramps appeared again. The nurses in the O.R. were worried, they saw Ava fade visibly.
"Dr. Bekker, are you sure you're all right?
- I'm fine, it's just cramps. It'll pass."
The ground was shaking more and more and more and the intensity of the cramps seemed to follow the same pattern. Ava stepped back from the table, she could no longer continue without risking the patient's life.
"Dr. Bekker?
- Page Dr. Rhodes.
- Is everything all right?
- Yes, just page Dr. Rhodes."
She came out of surgery, took off her surgeon's outfit and headed for the wake room.
"You just need to lie down for a moment," she thought.
But the cramps got stronger and stronger, so much so that she was forced to stop in the middle of the corridor. Nathalie, who was passing by, was worried about seeing her friend in this state. Ava was folded in half and of an unprecedented pallor.
"Ava, are you all right?
- Yes, just cramps.
- You should lie down.
- That's what I was going to do."
The pain seemed to be subsiding, so Ava decided to get up and continue on her way to the rest room.
She took barely two steps when she felt a terrible pain in her stomach. Her head began to hurt and turn. These eyes became heavy, she felt, her body hit the ground and then nothing.