"Conrad, can you hear me?"
An annoying light in his eyes made Conrad wince, breathing faster.
"Easy, Conrad. We´ll take care of you."
He swallowed and felt nausea rise again. Reflexively he turned on his side, retching nothing but clear liquid on the floor.
Both Austin and Pravesh squinted.
Together they turned Conrad back on his back. Austin took the lead.
"Wire him and place a venous line. I need 5 mg Metoclopramide."
Devon, who had checked the pupils and covered the head wound with a sterile patch, looked up.
"Pupils are isocore, but I can´t get through to him."
Austins big left hand laid down suprisingly gently on the forehead of the injured man before him, the fingers of the right hand lying unerringly on the radial pulse point.
"Conrad," he urged.
"Conrad, open your eyes, come on. You have to tell us what happened."
The resident moved his head uneasily and groaned again. Finally his eyelids lifted as under a heavy weight.
"There you are again." Austin smiled friendly.
"What happenend?" Conrad groaned, his gaze wandering back and forth between his two colleagues in growing confusion. Involuntarily his hand shot to his abdomen.
"Thats what we ask you, Bud."
Austin could not resist a slightly mocking tone, then his eyes became serious again, his gaze slipping down Conrads curled form and came to rest on his hand.
"Pain in the upper abdomen?" he asked with concern.
Conrads lips tightened and he nodded. He almost could not suppress a scream as Austin began to palpate the abdominal wall.
"Radiating in the back and right shoulder," Conrad filled in between clenched teeth. Austin nodded.
"I need a sono and an internist," he demanded as his fingers searched and found a specific spot in Conrads abdomen.
"Inhale, Conrad." The young resident winced in pain.
Austin turned to Pravesh:
"Harvard: hepatitis, stomach ulcer or gallbladder?"
Pravesh swallowed, lifting his eyes from Conrads tense face and stared defiantly at Austin.
"Based on his age, diet, habits and the just shown Murphy sign I´m guessing for acalculous gallbladder inflammation."
His symphathetic gaze met Conrad again.
"Not too bad, Harvard," Austin acknowledged.
"Then lets take a look." He handed the intern the ultrasound transducer. The device wandered over Conrads rigid abdomen.
"Here, you can clearly see the congested bile."
Devon stated with a little too much enthusiasm in Conrads opinion. Despite the pain, the resident turned his head to have a look at the monitor. Because of this he missed Nics distraught face, who just entered the door at this very moment.
"Henry informed me that you´ve found Conrad. What happened?" she asked startled, everyone present turning towards her. Conrad closed his eyes for a brief moment. He felt terrible that Nic had worried about him. But there she was already by his side, grabbing his free hand. Her other hand stroked reassuringly through his tousled hair. Her alarmed gaze flickered between Austin and Pravesh and finally searched the screen of the ultrasound machine.
"We'll do a full blood count and a CT, then we'll send you up to the OR," Austin explained a few minutes later.
It was hard for Conrad to meet Nic´s eyes. To see her blinking back tears, feeling her fingers trembling in his hand, her frightened gaze as she listened intently to AJ´s explanations, was harder for him to bear than all the physical pain and anxiety he himself felt. He confided to his colleagues, no question, but to lie here on his back like an upturned beetle, in this state of helplessness, brought him close to his breaking point.
Nothing he wanted more in life than to protect Nic, to be there for her, to give her a safe feeling. But now he lay here, in his own hospital, collapsed out of his own stupidity. He hated himself for that.
"We stitch the laceration in course of the anesthesia," Austin explained with a grin.
"Mina can do that. Conrad, you know the drill. Are there any questions?"
Conrad, whose whole attention was on his own thoughts and the small circles Nics thumb painted on the back of his hand, snapped back to reality and shook his head.
"I will be glad to see the back of that. Go ahead."
