Ch. 3
Just Beneath the Surface
The ambulance was at the apartment in under five minutes, a little bonus to being so close to the hospital. The paramedics quickly came in and assessed the situation: approximately 30 year old male, Caucasian, no breath, no pulse. The paramedics put Carter on a gurney and started to make their way down the hall to the ambulance. The only thing that Abby could manage to say was, "Can I come with him?" a simple request that was granted by a nod from the last paramedic that was in the room. Soon they reached County General Hospital and the ambulance came to a screeching halt. In seconds the paramedic opened the door and Abby's gaze was met by Luka and Susan. Their shocked expressions fit the moment; however there was only a momentary pause until everyone was in action. Luka reached to grab the gurney and helped bring it down. They rushed into the hospital while a paramedic gave Luka the needed information. Susan stayed behind with Abby for a moment and helped her out of the ambulance. "Are you ok Abby?" Simple questions first, that was rule number one when dealing with someone in shock. Abby nodded with her head down not being able to meet Susan's eyes. "What happened, can you tell me?" Susan took her by the arm and tried to bring her face up. "Abby, can you tell me?" Abby tried to speak, her voice was weak and when she opened her mouth to answer her best friend's question nothing came out. Susan realized that it might be a little too early for her to be able to think logically so she led Abby into the doctor's lounge and said, "Wait here, I will go fix up Carter and I will come back in when he is back to normal." Susan spoke with a cheery tone but still no response from Abby. Walking a little closer to her she said, "Abby, he will be ok. Don't worry, we have all the best people with him." With that Susan walked out and started a quick jog to Trauma Room One where Luka and Pratt were already going through the motions. Carter was intabated and Pratt was doing compressions while Luka was barking orders to the nurses. After they had given him an IV and the normal medicine Luka realized compressions weren't going to do it. "Charge the paddles to 200." The buzz of the difibrillator sounded as the current came. "Ready, and clear." Luka held the paddles to Carters bear chest as his whole body rose two inches off the gurney. No rhythm. "Charge to 250, and clear!" Luka shocked him again. No rhythm. "Damn it come on! Charge to 300. Clear." The desperation in his voice was audible and as Carter's body rose again after the shock Susan looked back to see the faces of Dr. Weaver, Romano, and Chen looking desperately in as their friend was in between the thresholds of life and death. She looked back to Luka. "No rhythm" the nurse told him. "Charge again." Luka shouted. "Luka, are you sure?" Pratt said while pressing on Carter's chest. Luka looked up, "Yes I'm sure now stand back!" Luka pushed Pratt to the floor and then shouted again, "Clear!" Susan shut her eyes, unable to watch as her friend was once again shocked, then silence. Everyone was looking at the monitor as the flat green line passed with an ear-piercing buzz. Luka dropped his head, not sure what to do next. He couldn't shock him for very much longer. The silence was almost unbearable, then 'Beep'. They all looked up. 'Beep' 'beep' the heart rhythm came on the monitor and everyone let out a sigh. "Oh my god." Crept out of Susan's mouth as Pratt reached his feet from the floor and Romano came in. After a second Romano spoke, "Well I'm glad to see that you ER people went to med school after all. Nice work everyone. Now lets find out what's wrong with him to see if he needs to go up to the REAL hospital floor." As Romano left the tension did so with him. Susan was very happy that she could at least tell Abby some good news, for the moment at least, about Carter. When she walked into the doctor's lounge she found Abby pacing back and forth, she looked up as Susan came into the room. "Is he ok?" Abby asked desperately. "Abby you need to sit down." Susan said in a calm voice. "Oh my god, Susan tell me now." Susan Pulled up a chair and tried to lower Abby into it but she wouldn't sit. "No! Susan tell me now! Is he ok?" at this point all the force from her voice had gone and tears started to fall as Abby collapsed into she chair that Susan had set for her. Susan crouched down beside her and lifted Abby's head up. "We had to shock him a lot. We still don't know if he is ok but we got is heart started again. He's breathing on a ventilator and Luka is running some tests. Like I said, we still don't know what's wrong with him so you need to tell me what happened so we will be able to help him better." Susan's calm voice helped bring Abby's feelings under control. "So he is stable now?" Abby said with a painfully sore voice. Susan just nodded waiting for Abby's response. "I came home." Abby started, and then swallowed hard. "He had decorated the whole apartment. He wanted us to have a good Halloween together. He looked really pale and clammy and he told me his fever was 101. He said he had felt like passing out a couple of times and that he had gotten sick a few times also. He felt really hot to the touch but said he was really cold. We went to bed and.. And then he just stopped breathing. There was blo ." She stopped and cleared her voice again. "There was blood everywhere when I came back in the room. Susan I was so scared. Please help him." Tears came again as Susan let out a sigh. She knew that wasn't enough information for anything helpful so she just brought Abby into a hug. Once she felt Abby relax she let go and said, "Anything else? Anything out of the ordinary in the last few days?" Abby looked up trying to remember anything. "He hadn't been sleeping very well, but then last night he was like a rock so I thought he was better." "Good Abby, anything else?" Susan asked, trying to squeeze out any additional information. Again Abby looked up and thought. After a few moments she said, "His back had been hurting him. I told him he should stop the yoga for a few days. The only other thing I can think of is his neck." "What?" Susan said with a new interest. "His neck. Right before he had gone to bed he had been rubbing his neck like he usually does. When I looked at it, it looked red like he had been rubbing it for awhile." Susan's mind raced. Vomiting, fever, back and neck pain. The only thing that didn't make sense was the blood in his mouth. "Ok Abby, I'll go check on him and I will be back soon to let you know." Susan walked out of the lounge and grabbed Luka as he walked by. "Did you take some tests yet?" "Yeah they are coming back soon." "Did you figure out why he had blood in his mouth?" Susan asked. "Yeah, he had bitten large part of his tongue. Probably had a seizure due to his high fever." Luka said as he stopped walking to look at Susan in the face. "Oh god." Susan let out. "What?" Luka said as he looked at her. Susan started again, "You need to do a spinal tap. I think he might have Meningitis." Luka looked confused, "Why, what did Abby tell you?" Susan ran her hands through her hair, took a breath and answered Luka. "Abby said he had a fever all day, sleeplessness, vomiting, back pain, and when we went to bed early he had neck pain. If you add convulsions to that, that's classic Meningitis symptoms." Luka rushed over to Carter's room. "If the lumbar puncture comes back high in protein you might have a hell of a save." Luka grabbed the kit and rolled Carter on his side. Susan saw the scar on his lower back where he had been stabbed a few years back. "If you survived that, you have to make it through this" she thought. Luka carefully extracted the fluid and rushed it up to the lab. Ten minutes later he was back down. "Susan, you were right. Meningitis. Good save! Let's shoot him up with some antibiotics and see what we can do. Why don't you go tell Abby." Susan was relieved that they had found what it was, and although it was still very serious, she had a fairly good feeling. She walked in and asked Abby to come with her. As they were walking down the hall to his room Susan started to explain to Abby what they had found. By the time they reached Trauma Room One Abby had gotten the gist of the situation. "Is it ok if I stay with him?" Abby asked. Susan just nodded. "Yeah we just have to give you a shot to make sure you didn't get anything. I'll be back in five with it." Susan left and Abby walked into the room and pulled up a chair. There were tubes all in him. The sight didn't bother her though. She laid her head down on his chest and after moving to the right place heard her favorite thing, the steady beating of his heart. She was afraid at one point that she would never hear that again, or feel the warmth of his even breathing. Even though he was still very sick, she felt a lot better just being with him. A few hours later Carter woke up. He looked very tired but was good enough to be taken off the ventilator. He sat there with his cute, weak smile as Abby sat with him. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that Abby. I should have told you everything from the beginning but I didn't want you to be scared." Abby just shook her head. "The only important thing is that you are going to be ok. I love you so much." She said as she once again put her head down on his chest. After most of their friends had come in to see how he was doing they moved him into an exam room to where it would be quieter. After about an hour they had both begun to drift off to sleep. Abby did not see Romano talking with Luka about the rest of his test results outside their room. Luka brought his head down into his hands. After a moment he looked up and said, "Do you want me to tell them?" "No" Romano said. "Contrary to popular belief, I can actually be a nice guy. I used to be a surgeon, I will tell them what's wrong." As Romano moved to walk into the room Luka grabbed his arm. "You might want to tell Abby first. Separately. Then let her tell Carter. It might be easier that way." Romano nodded and walked into the room. Abby woke and looked up to see who it was. Romano smiled and asked, "How's he doing?" "Sleeping." She replied. "Well that's always good. How are you doing?" "I'm ok now." Abby replied with a smile. Romano stretched out his hand and said, "Why don't we step outside so I can talk to you for a second." Abby with a puzzled look stood up without touching his hand and walked out with him. He shut the door and motioned for her to come to the lounge with him. There was a new young doctor in the lounge that looked up as they entered. "Do you mind?" Romano said in a calm voice. "No." The young man replied as he looked down and started to read his magazine again. "No you nim wit! Get out! Don't you have anything you can do? Never mind. I don't care what you do, but if you aren't out of here in five seconds the next time you come back you better have a knife sticking out somewhere cause you sure as hell won't be working here!" Romano grabbed his magazine and threw it out the door. Within seconds the young doctor was out and Romano motioned for them both to sit down. With a sigh he began. "We fixed up the Meningitis with some antibiotics thanks to Dr. Lewis's catch." Abby nodded in a tense way. She knew Romano didn't pull her out to tell her that. "But.." he continued "we got back the rest of the lap tests a little while ago. The reason it took so long is the fact that I ran them twice to be sure. I'm glad Luka took some of these, otherwise we wouldn't have known." Abby shook her head. She didn't understand what he was trying to tell her. "What is it? What's wrong?" her voice was filled with the same tension as before as her pulse began to race again. "It was a good thing we tested him. We would have missed it. It's so funny how we find these things. Always just beneath the surface."
To Be Continued Hope you like it! Tell me what you think!
Always,
Kathleen
The ambulance was at the apartment in under five minutes, a little bonus to being so close to the hospital. The paramedics quickly came in and assessed the situation: approximately 30 year old male, Caucasian, no breath, no pulse. The paramedics put Carter on a gurney and started to make their way down the hall to the ambulance. The only thing that Abby could manage to say was, "Can I come with him?" a simple request that was granted by a nod from the last paramedic that was in the room. Soon they reached County General Hospital and the ambulance came to a screeching halt. In seconds the paramedic opened the door and Abby's gaze was met by Luka and Susan. Their shocked expressions fit the moment; however there was only a momentary pause until everyone was in action. Luka reached to grab the gurney and helped bring it down. They rushed into the hospital while a paramedic gave Luka the needed information. Susan stayed behind with Abby for a moment and helped her out of the ambulance. "Are you ok Abby?" Simple questions first, that was rule number one when dealing with someone in shock. Abby nodded with her head down not being able to meet Susan's eyes. "What happened, can you tell me?" Susan took her by the arm and tried to bring her face up. "Abby, can you tell me?" Abby tried to speak, her voice was weak and when she opened her mouth to answer her best friend's question nothing came out. Susan realized that it might be a little too early for her to be able to think logically so she led Abby into the doctor's lounge and said, "Wait here, I will go fix up Carter and I will come back in when he is back to normal." Susan spoke with a cheery tone but still no response from Abby. Walking a little closer to her she said, "Abby, he will be ok. Don't worry, we have all the best people with him." With that Susan walked out and started a quick jog to Trauma Room One where Luka and Pratt were already going through the motions. Carter was intabated and Pratt was doing compressions while Luka was barking orders to the nurses. After they had given him an IV and the normal medicine Luka realized compressions weren't going to do it. "Charge the paddles to 200." The buzz of the difibrillator sounded as the current came. "Ready, and clear." Luka held the paddles to Carters bear chest as his whole body rose two inches off the gurney. No rhythm. "Charge to 250, and clear!" Luka shocked him again. No rhythm. "Damn it come on! Charge to 300. Clear." The desperation in his voice was audible and as Carter's body rose again after the shock Susan looked back to see the faces of Dr. Weaver, Romano, and Chen looking desperately in as their friend was in between the thresholds of life and death. She looked back to Luka. "No rhythm" the nurse told him. "Charge again." Luka shouted. "Luka, are you sure?" Pratt said while pressing on Carter's chest. Luka looked up, "Yes I'm sure now stand back!" Luka pushed Pratt to the floor and then shouted again, "Clear!" Susan shut her eyes, unable to watch as her friend was once again shocked, then silence. Everyone was looking at the monitor as the flat green line passed with an ear-piercing buzz. Luka dropped his head, not sure what to do next. He couldn't shock him for very much longer. The silence was almost unbearable, then 'Beep'. They all looked up. 'Beep' 'beep' the heart rhythm came on the monitor and everyone let out a sigh. "Oh my god." Crept out of Susan's mouth as Pratt reached his feet from the floor and Romano came in. After a second Romano spoke, "Well I'm glad to see that you ER people went to med school after all. Nice work everyone. Now lets find out what's wrong with him to see if he needs to go up to the REAL hospital floor." As Romano left the tension did so with him. Susan was very happy that she could at least tell Abby some good news, for the moment at least, about Carter. When she walked into the doctor's lounge she found Abby pacing back and forth, she looked up as Susan came into the room. "Is he ok?" Abby asked desperately. "Abby you need to sit down." Susan said in a calm voice. "Oh my god, Susan tell me now." Susan Pulled up a chair and tried to lower Abby into it but she wouldn't sit. "No! Susan tell me now! Is he ok?" at this point all the force from her voice had gone and tears started to fall as Abby collapsed into she chair that Susan had set for her. Susan crouched down beside her and lifted Abby's head up. "We had to shock him a lot. We still don't know if he is ok but we got is heart started again. He's breathing on a ventilator and Luka is running some tests. Like I said, we still don't know what's wrong with him so you need to tell me what happened so we will be able to help him better." Susan's calm voice helped bring Abby's feelings under control. "So he is stable now?" Abby said with a painfully sore voice. Susan just nodded waiting for Abby's response. "I came home." Abby started, and then swallowed hard. "He had decorated the whole apartment. He wanted us to have a good Halloween together. He looked really pale and clammy and he told me his fever was 101. He said he had felt like passing out a couple of times and that he had gotten sick a few times also. He felt really hot to the touch but said he was really cold. We went to bed and.. And then he just stopped breathing. There was blo ." She stopped and cleared her voice again. "There was blood everywhere when I came back in the room. Susan I was so scared. Please help him." Tears came again as Susan let out a sigh. She knew that wasn't enough information for anything helpful so she just brought Abby into a hug. Once she felt Abby relax she let go and said, "Anything else? Anything out of the ordinary in the last few days?" Abby looked up trying to remember anything. "He hadn't been sleeping very well, but then last night he was like a rock so I thought he was better." "Good Abby, anything else?" Susan asked, trying to squeeze out any additional information. Again Abby looked up and thought. After a few moments she said, "His back had been hurting him. I told him he should stop the yoga for a few days. The only other thing I can think of is his neck." "What?" Susan said with a new interest. "His neck. Right before he had gone to bed he had been rubbing his neck like he usually does. When I looked at it, it looked red like he had been rubbing it for awhile." Susan's mind raced. Vomiting, fever, back and neck pain. The only thing that didn't make sense was the blood in his mouth. "Ok Abby, I'll go check on him and I will be back soon to let you know." Susan walked out of the lounge and grabbed Luka as he walked by. "Did you take some tests yet?" "Yeah they are coming back soon." "Did you figure out why he had blood in his mouth?" Susan asked. "Yeah, he had bitten large part of his tongue. Probably had a seizure due to his high fever." Luka said as he stopped walking to look at Susan in the face. "Oh god." Susan let out. "What?" Luka said as he looked at her. Susan started again, "You need to do a spinal tap. I think he might have Meningitis." Luka looked confused, "Why, what did Abby tell you?" Susan ran her hands through her hair, took a breath and answered Luka. "Abby said he had a fever all day, sleeplessness, vomiting, back pain, and when we went to bed early he had neck pain. If you add convulsions to that, that's classic Meningitis symptoms." Luka rushed over to Carter's room. "If the lumbar puncture comes back high in protein you might have a hell of a save." Luka grabbed the kit and rolled Carter on his side. Susan saw the scar on his lower back where he had been stabbed a few years back. "If you survived that, you have to make it through this" she thought. Luka carefully extracted the fluid and rushed it up to the lab. Ten minutes later he was back down. "Susan, you were right. Meningitis. Good save! Let's shoot him up with some antibiotics and see what we can do. Why don't you go tell Abby." Susan was relieved that they had found what it was, and although it was still very serious, she had a fairly good feeling. She walked in and asked Abby to come with her. As they were walking down the hall to his room Susan started to explain to Abby what they had found. By the time they reached Trauma Room One Abby had gotten the gist of the situation. "Is it ok if I stay with him?" Abby asked. Susan just nodded. "Yeah we just have to give you a shot to make sure you didn't get anything. I'll be back in five with it." Susan left and Abby walked into the room and pulled up a chair. There were tubes all in him. The sight didn't bother her though. She laid her head down on his chest and after moving to the right place heard her favorite thing, the steady beating of his heart. She was afraid at one point that she would never hear that again, or feel the warmth of his even breathing. Even though he was still very sick, she felt a lot better just being with him. A few hours later Carter woke up. He looked very tired but was good enough to be taken off the ventilator. He sat there with his cute, weak smile as Abby sat with him. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that Abby. I should have told you everything from the beginning but I didn't want you to be scared." Abby just shook her head. "The only important thing is that you are going to be ok. I love you so much." She said as she once again put her head down on his chest. After most of their friends had come in to see how he was doing they moved him into an exam room to where it would be quieter. After about an hour they had both begun to drift off to sleep. Abby did not see Romano talking with Luka about the rest of his test results outside their room. Luka brought his head down into his hands. After a moment he looked up and said, "Do you want me to tell them?" "No" Romano said. "Contrary to popular belief, I can actually be a nice guy. I used to be a surgeon, I will tell them what's wrong." As Romano moved to walk into the room Luka grabbed his arm. "You might want to tell Abby first. Separately. Then let her tell Carter. It might be easier that way." Romano nodded and walked into the room. Abby woke and looked up to see who it was. Romano smiled and asked, "How's he doing?" "Sleeping." She replied. "Well that's always good. How are you doing?" "I'm ok now." Abby replied with a smile. Romano stretched out his hand and said, "Why don't we step outside so I can talk to you for a second." Abby with a puzzled look stood up without touching his hand and walked out with him. He shut the door and motioned for her to come to the lounge with him. There was a new young doctor in the lounge that looked up as they entered. "Do you mind?" Romano said in a calm voice. "No." The young man replied as he looked down and started to read his magazine again. "No you nim wit! Get out! Don't you have anything you can do? Never mind. I don't care what you do, but if you aren't out of here in five seconds the next time you come back you better have a knife sticking out somewhere cause you sure as hell won't be working here!" Romano grabbed his magazine and threw it out the door. Within seconds the young doctor was out and Romano motioned for them both to sit down. With a sigh he began. "We fixed up the Meningitis with some antibiotics thanks to Dr. Lewis's catch." Abby nodded in a tense way. She knew Romano didn't pull her out to tell her that. "But.." he continued "we got back the rest of the lap tests a little while ago. The reason it took so long is the fact that I ran them twice to be sure. I'm glad Luka took some of these, otherwise we wouldn't have known." Abby shook her head. She didn't understand what he was trying to tell her. "What is it? What's wrong?" her voice was filled with the same tension as before as her pulse began to race again. "It was a good thing we tested him. We would have missed it. It's so funny how we find these things. Always just beneath the surface."
To Be Continued Hope you like it! Tell me what you think!
Always,
Kathleen