Chapter 19
Carlos and Alex brought a patient into the emergency room and were in the lounge having coffee and filling out the paperwork. Dr. Jamison walked in to grab another cup of coffee. It had been a terrible night with non-stop traumas coming through the emergency room. It seemed as if every patient that came in needed surgery and this was the first free time he'd had since the Code Blue in ICU earlier in the evening. He ached everywhere. He rubbed his face and felt the stubble. He should really grab a shower and a shave before his day of office patients started. "Thank God I don't have any surgeries scheduled for today," he thought to himself gratefully, seriously considering whether to call his secretary and have her cancel the day's patients.
"Hey, Doctor Jamison!" greeted Carlos as the doctor came through the door. Alex also looked up and greeted the doctor as he headed over to the empty coffee pot. He picked up the pot and saw that it was empty. "Shit," he mumbled as he roughly set the pot down and looked at the wall, his eyes landing on but not really seeing the picture of the hit and run driver.
Alex stood up and walked over. "Sorry about that. I guess I took the last cup. Let me just throw on a fresh pot for you," she said apologetically as she got the supplies from the cabinet and got the coffee pot brewing.
"Thanks Alex," Jamison said, stifling a yawn and flopping down in the old, worn leather couch in the corner. He flipped on the television and stared at it, not hearing a word that the infomercial was saying.
"You look like you had a hell of a shift," said Alex, drying her hands off and returning to the table to finish her paperwork.
"Yeah, it all started with you friend, Officer Boscorelli," he started, yawning again. "I can't believe that guy can bounce back from so much."
"What d'you mean?" asked Carlos. Alex and Carlos had been busy and hadn't been back to the station between calls to hear about the excitement from earlier in the evening.
"He coded in the ICU earlier. We got him back, but I still don't know what happened. I'm waiting for some test results," he finished, looking at his watch. "I should probably run up there and check for the results," Jamison said, dragging himself to his feet.
"So, is Bosco going to be okay?" Alex asked, standing up and pouring the doctor a cup of fresh coffee and handing it to him.
"Too early to tell just yet, but I think so. Doc was right there when he actually coded and he started CPR right away, so that was lucky," he said, taking the cup of coffee and adding his cream and sugar. He took a sip. "Mmmm. Thanks, Alex. Take care guys," he said as he left to head upstairs.
"Wow. That's something about Bosco," commented Carlos as Alex gathered up her clipboard and the two headed back to the rig.
"Yeah, I hope he's okay," Alex replied.
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Faith had gotten her x-rays and was brought back up to Bosco's room, where she sat on her bed, not taking her eyes off of her partner. She couldn't believe that she had almost lost him again. She just watched him the rest of the night - afraid to sleep. She didn't know how much more his body could take. She watched the rhythm of his breathing and felt herself being lulled to sleep. Somehow the daylight made her feel better about laying down and taking a nap.
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Crisafulli had been moved out of Bosco's room and settled just down the hall. He was fuming. He couldn't believe that the officer had survived yet again. But, he did smile at the thought of having the two officers in the same room so close to him. He knew that he would be moved out of the ICU very shortly and was looking forward to the time that he could move about more freely without doctors and nurses coming in to check on him every few minutes. He had noticed during his move where the stairwell was in relation to his new room and that of the two officers and thought that it would be fairly easy to sneak in, do his worst, and get back out again before being noticed. He smiled to himself as another nurse came in to check on his vital signs and IV.
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Dr. Jamison looked up as the elevator doors opened and stepped out onto the ICU. It was considerably calmer than when he was last here. There were a couple of nurses at the nurse's station updating charts and it looked like it was medication time - the medication cart was making its way down the hall for those that were due for their next doses.
He walked over to the desk and pulled Bosco's chart, flipping it open. He noticed that the latest test results were back and made a mental note to find out why the nurse hadn't called to let him know as he'd instructed. He read through the chart and frowned when he came to the level of morphine that was in the Officer's system at the time of his crisis. There was a note on the front of the chart clearly indicating that he was allergic to morphine. He flipped back and forth through the chart a few times and then closed and tucked it under his arm as he walked back toward Bosco's room.
He rounded the corner and saw that Faith Yokas had been moved to his room and both patients were sleeping peacefully. He walked over to Bosco's bed and looked at the monitors, happy that all readings were within normal limits. He pulled down the covers and lifted up the hospital gown to check on his surgical wounds following the trauma of the CPR compressions. There were a couple of sutures at the end of the incision that looked a little "iffy," but he quickly decided that they would not affect the proper healing of the wounds. As he was examining Bosco's chest he heard and saw the breathing pattern change and knew that his patient was beginning to wake up.
"Officer Boscorelli," he said gently and waited for Bosco to slowly open his eyes. He noticed the look of confusion come over the officer as he began to feel the beating his body had taken only a few hours before. "Welcome back," he said.
Bosco slowly focused on the man in front of him. He recognized him as the doctor that had done his surgery. He tried to talk, but realized that there was a tube down his throat. Dr. Jamison held up a hand to calm him and began to explain.
"Officer, you had quite a rough night. The surgery went great, but you had some complications and ended up going into cardiac arrest. That explains the amount of pain that you have in your ribs - and just when they were starting to feel better. I'm sorry," Jamison said lightly.
"You're lucky that Doc happened to be walking by. He heard your monitor and came in just as your heart stopped. He kept you alive until we got here with the equipment," he said, pausing to see if Bosco was keeping up. Bosco brought his hand up and motioned that he wanted the tube out of his throat.
Faith awoke to Dr. Jamison's voice, "I can probably arrange that. Hang on and I'll get a nurse to help and we'll get rid of that." Dr. Jamison started to turn to leave and noticed that Faith too was awake.
"Officer, you have someone waiting to see you," he said, motioning toward Faith. "Bosco?" she called to him. Bosco turned his head slowly and tried to focus on Faith who wore a very concerned look. He gave her a 'thumbs up' sign and let his arm fall back to the bed. He was just so tired. He couldn't keep his eyes open and he drifted back to sleep.
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Dr. Jamison had walked back out to the nurse's station and asked Jenny to come and help him extubate Bosco. As they were walking down the hallway, the doctor asked Jenny, "So, why didn't I get a call when Boscorelli's labs got back?"
"What? I'm sorry, Doctor. I wasn't aware they were back," she said nervously. "I must have checked right before they arrived and I was busy with some other patients. I'm sorry," she said, a funny sound escaping her throat.
Dr. Jamison looked down at her and noticed that she was about to start crying. "Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be so hard on you," he said, not thinking that he had been too had on her, but realizing that he was tired and maybe the way he said it had sounded mean.
Jenny shook her head. "No, it's not you. I just don't want to lose my job," she said finally, tears coming down her face.
"What are you talking about? Why would you lose your job?" he asked, putting a hand on her arm and stopping her in the hallway.
"Because I left that patient's medication lying around during those two codes earlier and I can't find it. Now I have to do a report on missing narcotics and I'll probably lose my job. I'm still on my six-month's probation," she finished, trying to take a deep breath and get control of herself.
Suddenly, despite how tired he was, a light went on in Jamison's mind. "Jenny? What was the medication that got lost? Was it morphine?" he asked, answering the question for her.
She nodded her head and looked up at him. "Yes, Doctor. I'm very sorry. It won't happen again, I swear."
"Jenny, are you sure you didn't administer that medication to Officer Boscorelli in all the confusion?" he asked her, his weariness lifting slightly with a surge of adrenaline at possibly figuring out what had caused Bosco's cardiac arrest.
"No, Sir. I know I didn't. I set it down when the first code started across the hall. Both patients were still sleeping so I didn't think it would be a problem," Jenny confessed, ashamed of her error. "But, when the second code started and I ran into the room, I don't remember seeing the syringe anymore. I thought I'd left it somewhere else and was going to look for it later," she explained.
Just then, Dr. Jamison remembered the empty syringe that he had seen lying on the floor after Bosco's code. "Jenny, follow me," he said, pulling her by the arm.
Both Dr. Jamison and Jenny practically ran into Bosco and Faith's room, startling both of the patients. Dr. Jamison went directly over to Faith's side of the room and looked on the floor near the window. Sure enough, an empty syringe was there. He picked it up, avoiding the needle, and held it up for Jenny to see. "I believe I've just found your missing hypodermic," he said, with a smile. "Now if only I can figure out how it got injected into Officer Boscorelli here," he said, looking at Bosco and then Faith who were obviously looking at him like he was crazy.
"Sorry. Jenny, help me to extubate Officer Boscorelli and then we can talk about this some more," he said excitedly as his pager went off. He looked at the pager and realized he was late for the patient's in his office and his secretary was trying to find him. He picked up the phone next to Bosco's bed and called his office.
"Jodi. I'm in the middle of an emergency. You're going to have to cancel my patients. Anyone that has to be seen today will have to either go to the clinic or the ER and I'll smooth it over with the Chief of ER later," he said, listening to her on the other end. "I'm sorry Jodi. It can't be helped. Reschedule them for Saturday, I'll make it up then," he finished and hung up the phone. He smiled and looked over at Jenny. "And you, you'll be helping me see patients on Saturday, without pay, out of the goodness of your heart," he said before she could object.
The tube was removed from Bosco's throat and he was trying to swallow, but it hurt. Jenny handed him some water. "Drink it really slowly, Bosco," she warned. "And only a tiny bit," she instructed.
Faith finally spoke up. "Doc, you wanna tell us what's going on?" she asked him, sitting herself up in the bed.
Jamison put the used syringe into a plastic bag and held it up. "Officer Boscorelli, you're allergic to morphine, right?" he asked. Bosco nodded his head and Faith pointed to the table and said, "Yeah, it's right there on his chart."
Well, when the patient across the hall from you coded, Jenny here was just about to give your former roommate his dose of morphine. She put the syringe down and went to help out with the code. "Jenny, did you ask someone else to finish giving out your medications?"
Jenny shook her head no, "Everyone was busy. There was no one else to give out the meds."
"So, now we have to figure out how this morphine got injected into your IV tubing. Your lab tests show that you had morphine, a pretty big dose, in your system when you coded.
Bosco grabbed at his throat and frowned. "Please stop saying 'coded'," he said in a very low whisper.
"Do you remember anyone coming into your room and giving you any medications?" Jamison asked Bosco. He started to shake his head no, but then remembered that he had seen a dark figure just before he couldn't breathe anymore.
He whispered again, "There was someone in the room when I started feeling really weird. Whoever it was, held something up but I couldn't make out what it was and then everything went black." Bosco started to cough from the talking and it caused severe pain in his now re-broken ribs due to the CPR.
"Bosco, try to calm down," Faith said, sitting forward. Then she turned to Jamison and said, "Doc, there's one way to find out who last touched that needle. Keep it in that bag and hand me the phone," she instructed.
She dialed the 55th Precinct and asked for Lieutenant Swersky.
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TBC... Hope you are still with me.
Carlos and Alex brought a patient into the emergency room and were in the lounge having coffee and filling out the paperwork. Dr. Jamison walked in to grab another cup of coffee. It had been a terrible night with non-stop traumas coming through the emergency room. It seemed as if every patient that came in needed surgery and this was the first free time he'd had since the Code Blue in ICU earlier in the evening. He ached everywhere. He rubbed his face and felt the stubble. He should really grab a shower and a shave before his day of office patients started. "Thank God I don't have any surgeries scheduled for today," he thought to himself gratefully, seriously considering whether to call his secretary and have her cancel the day's patients.
"Hey, Doctor Jamison!" greeted Carlos as the doctor came through the door. Alex also looked up and greeted the doctor as he headed over to the empty coffee pot. He picked up the pot and saw that it was empty. "Shit," he mumbled as he roughly set the pot down and looked at the wall, his eyes landing on but not really seeing the picture of the hit and run driver.
Alex stood up and walked over. "Sorry about that. I guess I took the last cup. Let me just throw on a fresh pot for you," she said apologetically as she got the supplies from the cabinet and got the coffee pot brewing.
"Thanks Alex," Jamison said, stifling a yawn and flopping down in the old, worn leather couch in the corner. He flipped on the television and stared at it, not hearing a word that the infomercial was saying.
"You look like you had a hell of a shift," said Alex, drying her hands off and returning to the table to finish her paperwork.
"Yeah, it all started with you friend, Officer Boscorelli," he started, yawning again. "I can't believe that guy can bounce back from so much."
"What d'you mean?" asked Carlos. Alex and Carlos had been busy and hadn't been back to the station between calls to hear about the excitement from earlier in the evening.
"He coded in the ICU earlier. We got him back, but I still don't know what happened. I'm waiting for some test results," he finished, looking at his watch. "I should probably run up there and check for the results," Jamison said, dragging himself to his feet.
"So, is Bosco going to be okay?" Alex asked, standing up and pouring the doctor a cup of fresh coffee and handing it to him.
"Too early to tell just yet, but I think so. Doc was right there when he actually coded and he started CPR right away, so that was lucky," he said, taking the cup of coffee and adding his cream and sugar. He took a sip. "Mmmm. Thanks, Alex. Take care guys," he said as he left to head upstairs.
"Wow. That's something about Bosco," commented Carlos as Alex gathered up her clipboard and the two headed back to the rig.
"Yeah, I hope he's okay," Alex replied.
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Faith had gotten her x-rays and was brought back up to Bosco's room, where she sat on her bed, not taking her eyes off of her partner. She couldn't believe that she had almost lost him again. She just watched him the rest of the night - afraid to sleep. She didn't know how much more his body could take. She watched the rhythm of his breathing and felt herself being lulled to sleep. Somehow the daylight made her feel better about laying down and taking a nap.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Crisafulli had been moved out of Bosco's room and settled just down the hall. He was fuming. He couldn't believe that the officer had survived yet again. But, he did smile at the thought of having the two officers in the same room so close to him. He knew that he would be moved out of the ICU very shortly and was looking forward to the time that he could move about more freely without doctors and nurses coming in to check on him every few minutes. He had noticed during his move where the stairwell was in relation to his new room and that of the two officers and thought that it would be fairly easy to sneak in, do his worst, and get back out again before being noticed. He smiled to himself as another nurse came in to check on his vital signs and IV.
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Dr. Jamison looked up as the elevator doors opened and stepped out onto the ICU. It was considerably calmer than when he was last here. There were a couple of nurses at the nurse's station updating charts and it looked like it was medication time - the medication cart was making its way down the hall for those that were due for their next doses.
He walked over to the desk and pulled Bosco's chart, flipping it open. He noticed that the latest test results were back and made a mental note to find out why the nurse hadn't called to let him know as he'd instructed. He read through the chart and frowned when he came to the level of morphine that was in the Officer's system at the time of his crisis. There was a note on the front of the chart clearly indicating that he was allergic to morphine. He flipped back and forth through the chart a few times and then closed and tucked it under his arm as he walked back toward Bosco's room.
He rounded the corner and saw that Faith Yokas had been moved to his room and both patients were sleeping peacefully. He walked over to Bosco's bed and looked at the monitors, happy that all readings were within normal limits. He pulled down the covers and lifted up the hospital gown to check on his surgical wounds following the trauma of the CPR compressions. There were a couple of sutures at the end of the incision that looked a little "iffy," but he quickly decided that they would not affect the proper healing of the wounds. As he was examining Bosco's chest he heard and saw the breathing pattern change and knew that his patient was beginning to wake up.
"Officer Boscorelli," he said gently and waited for Bosco to slowly open his eyes. He noticed the look of confusion come over the officer as he began to feel the beating his body had taken only a few hours before. "Welcome back," he said.
Bosco slowly focused on the man in front of him. He recognized him as the doctor that had done his surgery. He tried to talk, but realized that there was a tube down his throat. Dr. Jamison held up a hand to calm him and began to explain.
"Officer, you had quite a rough night. The surgery went great, but you had some complications and ended up going into cardiac arrest. That explains the amount of pain that you have in your ribs - and just when they were starting to feel better. I'm sorry," Jamison said lightly.
"You're lucky that Doc happened to be walking by. He heard your monitor and came in just as your heart stopped. He kept you alive until we got here with the equipment," he said, pausing to see if Bosco was keeping up. Bosco brought his hand up and motioned that he wanted the tube out of his throat.
Faith awoke to Dr. Jamison's voice, "I can probably arrange that. Hang on and I'll get a nurse to help and we'll get rid of that." Dr. Jamison started to turn to leave and noticed that Faith too was awake.
"Officer, you have someone waiting to see you," he said, motioning toward Faith. "Bosco?" she called to him. Bosco turned his head slowly and tried to focus on Faith who wore a very concerned look. He gave her a 'thumbs up' sign and let his arm fall back to the bed. He was just so tired. He couldn't keep his eyes open and he drifted back to sleep.
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Dr. Jamison had walked back out to the nurse's station and asked Jenny to come and help him extubate Bosco. As they were walking down the hallway, the doctor asked Jenny, "So, why didn't I get a call when Boscorelli's labs got back?"
"What? I'm sorry, Doctor. I wasn't aware they were back," she said nervously. "I must have checked right before they arrived and I was busy with some other patients. I'm sorry," she said, a funny sound escaping her throat.
Dr. Jamison looked down at her and noticed that she was about to start crying. "Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be so hard on you," he said, not thinking that he had been too had on her, but realizing that he was tired and maybe the way he said it had sounded mean.
Jenny shook her head. "No, it's not you. I just don't want to lose my job," she said finally, tears coming down her face.
"What are you talking about? Why would you lose your job?" he asked, putting a hand on her arm and stopping her in the hallway.
"Because I left that patient's medication lying around during those two codes earlier and I can't find it. Now I have to do a report on missing narcotics and I'll probably lose my job. I'm still on my six-month's probation," she finished, trying to take a deep breath and get control of herself.
Suddenly, despite how tired he was, a light went on in Jamison's mind. "Jenny? What was the medication that got lost? Was it morphine?" he asked, answering the question for her.
She nodded her head and looked up at him. "Yes, Doctor. I'm very sorry. It won't happen again, I swear."
"Jenny, are you sure you didn't administer that medication to Officer Boscorelli in all the confusion?" he asked her, his weariness lifting slightly with a surge of adrenaline at possibly figuring out what had caused Bosco's cardiac arrest.
"No, Sir. I know I didn't. I set it down when the first code started across the hall. Both patients were still sleeping so I didn't think it would be a problem," Jenny confessed, ashamed of her error. "But, when the second code started and I ran into the room, I don't remember seeing the syringe anymore. I thought I'd left it somewhere else and was going to look for it later," she explained.
Just then, Dr. Jamison remembered the empty syringe that he had seen lying on the floor after Bosco's code. "Jenny, follow me," he said, pulling her by the arm.
Both Dr. Jamison and Jenny practically ran into Bosco and Faith's room, startling both of the patients. Dr. Jamison went directly over to Faith's side of the room and looked on the floor near the window. Sure enough, an empty syringe was there. He picked it up, avoiding the needle, and held it up for Jenny to see. "I believe I've just found your missing hypodermic," he said, with a smile. "Now if only I can figure out how it got injected into Officer Boscorelli here," he said, looking at Bosco and then Faith who were obviously looking at him like he was crazy.
"Sorry. Jenny, help me to extubate Officer Boscorelli and then we can talk about this some more," he said excitedly as his pager went off. He looked at the pager and realized he was late for the patient's in his office and his secretary was trying to find him. He picked up the phone next to Bosco's bed and called his office.
"Jodi. I'm in the middle of an emergency. You're going to have to cancel my patients. Anyone that has to be seen today will have to either go to the clinic or the ER and I'll smooth it over with the Chief of ER later," he said, listening to her on the other end. "I'm sorry Jodi. It can't be helped. Reschedule them for Saturday, I'll make it up then," he finished and hung up the phone. He smiled and looked over at Jenny. "And you, you'll be helping me see patients on Saturday, without pay, out of the goodness of your heart," he said before she could object.
The tube was removed from Bosco's throat and he was trying to swallow, but it hurt. Jenny handed him some water. "Drink it really slowly, Bosco," she warned. "And only a tiny bit," she instructed.
Faith finally spoke up. "Doc, you wanna tell us what's going on?" she asked him, sitting herself up in the bed.
Jamison put the used syringe into a plastic bag and held it up. "Officer Boscorelli, you're allergic to morphine, right?" he asked. Bosco nodded his head and Faith pointed to the table and said, "Yeah, it's right there on his chart."
Well, when the patient across the hall from you coded, Jenny here was just about to give your former roommate his dose of morphine. She put the syringe down and went to help out with the code. "Jenny, did you ask someone else to finish giving out your medications?"
Jenny shook her head no, "Everyone was busy. There was no one else to give out the meds."
"So, now we have to figure out how this morphine got injected into your IV tubing. Your lab tests show that you had morphine, a pretty big dose, in your system when you coded.
Bosco grabbed at his throat and frowned. "Please stop saying 'coded'," he said in a very low whisper.
"Do you remember anyone coming into your room and giving you any medications?" Jamison asked Bosco. He started to shake his head no, but then remembered that he had seen a dark figure just before he couldn't breathe anymore.
He whispered again, "There was someone in the room when I started feeling really weird. Whoever it was, held something up but I couldn't make out what it was and then everything went black." Bosco started to cough from the talking and it caused severe pain in his now re-broken ribs due to the CPR.
"Bosco, try to calm down," Faith said, sitting forward. Then she turned to Jamison and said, "Doc, there's one way to find out who last touched that needle. Keep it in that bag and hand me the phone," she instructed.
She dialed the 55th Precinct and asked for Lieutenant Swersky.
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TBC... Hope you are still with me.