December 9, 2001

Week 36

A torn jacket is soon mended; but hard words bruise the heart of a child. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Mr. Howard, I think you've had a heart attack so we're going to give you some CPK-"

"What's that?" Mr. Howard asked. Luka sighed.

"Creatine phosphokinase. It's an enzyme that elevates in the blood when a heart attack occurs." Luka said, "it's basically to confirm it was a heart attack and a gauge of the damage, all right?"

"All right." Mr.. Howard laid back down. Chuny walked into the room.

"Dr. Kovac, you're patient in five is still complaining of pain." She said.

"Push some Demerol." He said, "No morphine. No wait...try a local anesthetic." Chuny looked at him.

"Which do you want?"

"The local." He said, "If its still bothering her in an hour come get me and we'll give her some Demerol."

"Got it." Chuny left the room. Lydia came in.

"Dr. Kovac, what should I do with your Aids patient in seven?" She asked. Luka sighed.

"Right I almost forgot about him." Luka sighed thinking of the case, "Give him some fluconazole and I'll check in on him in an hour."

"Okay." Lydia left the room. Mr. Howard smiled.

"They're working you to the bone, aren't they?" He asked. Luka smiled at him,

"I'm used to." He said as Malik walked into the room.

"Dr. Kovac we have a MVA coming in. Pregnant woman around thirty-seven weeks." He said.

"Give it to Carter."

"He has a GSW in trauma two." Malik said. Luka sighed once again.

"What's their ETA?"

"About five minutes." Malik said. Luka nodded.

"Okay. I'll be right there."

* * *

The ambulance doors burst open. Doris and penny carried the pregnant woman out. Luka grabbed the gurney.

"What do we have?" He asked.

"Thirty-seven weeks pregnant crossed the street and got hit by a car. BP 100/70 and falling fast." Doris said, "Fetal heart rate is normal. She comes in and out of consciences."

"All right. Trauma one." Luka said looking at the woman. "Ma'am, can you hear me?"

"My baby." She mumbled. Blood poured from her skull.

"Haleh, get five of o-neg." Luka said, "Ma'am, what's your name?"

"G-Gina." She mumbled before she slipped unconscious. They rolled her into the trauma.

"Page Benton. On my count. 1...2...3." They moved Gina onto the gurney. "Give her an epi." Haleh ran in with the bags of blood. "Come on people we have to move." A beeping echoed through the ER.

"She's crashing." Lydia said.

"Grab the crash cart." Luka said as his adrenelin started pumping. He grabbed the paddles. "Charge to two hundred. Get Benton down here. Clear." He hit the button and the woman's body jumped. "Nothing. Charge to two fifty. How's the baby?"

"Baby is okay." Lydia said checking the fetal heart monitor.

"Clear." Luka hit the button again and got no response from the woman. "Push another epi. Charge to three hundred. Clear...shit." Luka cursed when there was no response. "Does she have any family?" Luka asked getting ready to shock her again.

"No can be found." Haleh said. Luka looked at Gina. This was hopeless.

"The baby's BP is dropping." Luka snapped back to reality.

"What?"

"The baby's BP is dropping." Lydia said. Luka let out a Croatian curse.

'Where the hell is Benton? We need to do an emergency C-Section."

"I paged him several times." Chuny said. Luka sighed and assessed the situation.

"All right. I'm going to do it." Luka said. The nurses looked at him.

"You can't do it in the ER." Chuny said.

"If we wait another second, this baby is going to die." Luka said, "Lily, get a warming blanket and stuff from OB." Lilly didn't move. "NOW!" She bolted out of the room.

"I'm going to get Dr. Weaver." Lydia said.

"No. I need you here." Luka said as he prepped Gina. He looked at the nurses, "This baby is going to die and then we'll have two dead people on our hands. Now you either help or go. But I'm doing this."

"I'll stay." Chuny said. The others nodded their heads as Luka tried to steady his hands as he cut into Gina. "Malik, try to find her family." He mumbled as he finally got inside of her. He had never gone inside a person like this before. He knew where everything was, but he was still sweating bullets. He slowly cut into her uterus as Peter burst through the doors.

"What the hell are you doing, Kovac?!" Peter cried as he ran up next to the gurney. Luka took hold of the baby.

"We paged you, but you didn't answer." Luka said.

"I was in the middle of an operation and I come down here. Get out of the way." Peter pushed Luka out of the way and took the baby out. "Look at this mess. You have no surgical background. You had no right doing this."

"The baby was going to die." Luka said taking his gloves off as Kerry came in.

"We don't do emergency c-sections in the ER, Dr. Kovac." Kerry said.

"The baby would have died if I took her upstairs." Luka said.

"Go home, Dr. Kovac." Kerry said assisting Peter.

"What?!" Luka cried.

"Go home. You've done enough damage tonight." Luka stared at her.

"I did what I had to do Kerry. Don't tell me you wouldn't have done the same exact thing if you were in my situation." Luka said. Kerry began to clean the baby girl up.

"This isn't about me, Dr. Kovac." She said, 'Go." Luka growled deeply and ran out of the room.

* * *

Luka stood at the window looking at Peter with the baby. He sighed heavily as Peter looked up. He nodded for Luka to come in. he did.

"How is she?" Luka asked.

"She had a ruptured spleen but we caught it in time." Peter said looking at Luka, "That was pretty ballsy what you did."

"I did what I had to do." Luka said watching the baby. Peter nodded.

"I know." He said, "I probably would have done the same thing."

"Then why is Kerry acting like a-"

"You know her, always by the book." Peter said with a smiled.

"What's gong to happen to the baby?"

"The woman had no family that we can find and we don't know where the father is." Peter said, "So she'll go to the state." Luka sighed.

* * *

Luka quietly entered the bedroom. Abby was sound asleep on her left sighed. A few tears escaped from his eyes. He crawled into bed next to her and wrapped his arms tightly around her and cried softly. Abby stirred slightly.

"Luka?" She mumbled.

"Go back to sleep." He said. She opened her eyes.

"You're crying." Abby said touching his cheek softly wiping up some of the tears. "Did you have a bad day at work?"

"Don't leave me, Abby." He said, "don't ever leave me."

"Luka, I don't plan on doing that ever." She said still waking up.

"We have to make a will." He said. Abby looked at him.

"What? Why?"

"If something happens to either of us, the twins need to be taken care of." Luka said. Abby sighed.

"We need to agree on godparents first and then we can think about the money and property." Abby said.

"Who do you trust well enough to hand our kids of to?" Luka asked looking at her.

"I've ah...actually been thinking about that." Abby said slowly, "And...I was going through all my friends and family and I came up with a few people..."

"Who?" Luka asked. Abby gave him a weak smile.

"Jing-Mei and John." She said.

"Well...I think Jing-Mei is a fine choice." Luka said.

"And Carter?" Abby asked.

"I don't know. It might take me awhile to get used to that one." Abby sighed heavily.

"He's my best friend, Luka." Abby said.

"But he's a recovering addict."

"So am I." Abby said sternly. Luka sighed.

"Let me just think about this and we can talk about it in there morning okay?" Luka asked, "then we'll ask Carter and Jing-Mei." Abby smiled at him.

"All right." She said. "Carter will probably say no anyway."

"Then we'll deal with that when that comes." Luka kissed Abby and snuggled into her. He wasn't too keen on john being his children's godfather, but Abby wanted him to be. He sighed slightly as he fell asleep.