Mark pulled himself up off the narrow gurney. Exam four was far from top of his list of ideal places to sleep. But it happens. Shifts happen. Double shifts happen. Chuny had come in at least twice insisting he move his ass with speed. There wasn't a whole lot of speed going on but he was moving and, considering he'd had three hours of sleep in the last fourty eight hours, moving at all was pretty impressive.
"Mark!" Chuny pushed the door into his face as he reached it.
He swore and rubbed his nose but she just hurried him.
"I'd ask where the fire is but there's a possibility that would be in bad taste." He jogged after her.
"Close but no cigar – gas leak at a nursing home."
"Oh man." He gowned up en route and followed a gurney into trauma three.
Susan was bouncing between trauma one and two – instructing residents with her usual level of competence. Mark had number three under control in minutes and went to help her just as the others had both gotten stable and she was sighing in relief.
"Now onto the minors?" she asked.
"Medical's on their way?"
Susan nodded.
But before the trauma rooms could be cleared more ambulances arrived and with them a whole parade of elderly people in various states of disrepair.
Two hours later the ER was virtually empty – only one elderly patient, one of Susan's, who they should never have revived but the DNR arrived half an hour too late.
Susan had her twenty-something-th cup of coffee and went to wait with her last patient. It could go either way at this point. The patient was doing well- surprising everyone considering the information accompanying theDNR informed them on n-stage lung cancer and a host of other problems that made any kind of recovery unlikely. But she was beating the oddsand they hoped to get her off the vent in another hour or so.
Mark came and sat beside Susan. He looked wide awake but completely exhausted at the same time.
She smiled at him in the dim room.
"Can we take her off yet?"
Susan shook her head. "You can go get some rest if you like. I've got this."
"I've had so much coffee it'll be days before I sleep again."
"I dunno – mass trauma's metabolize six cups of coffee an hour. I'm sure I read that somewhere."
"Woman's magazine." He checked the chart. She whacked him in the chest playfully.
The patient started triggering the vent. Mark and Susan were up in a flash – working like clockwork. The patient was extubated in moments and hoarsly asking her whereabouts.
Susan answered her questions while Mark did the chart.
"Be right back." He headed for admits.
The patient wasn't too pleased about being in a hospital.
"Because of the gasleak we were unable to locate your paperwork – including the DNR."
"I should have died." She rasped resignedly.
Susan wasn't sure what to say. So she bluffed, "Well according to your paper work you should have never come off that vent – and yet here you are."
"I shouldn't have gone on the vent at all."
"You could get better – the body has miraculous ways of…"
"I have n-stage lung cancer."
There was nothing else to say. "Is there anyone I can call?" She stood up, reminding herself for the billionth time not to get too involved.
"No." the old woman turned her head away and Susan exited the room.
"She alright?" Mark looked up from the desk as she approached.
Susan shrugged. "I hate cases like this."
"There's not light side to wanting to die."
She shook her head in agreement.
It was too late to admit her to medical. Mark headed back to exam four to catch as much sleep as possible before the next rush. Susan perched at the bedside of her last patient – wondering again why she put herself through this. If she was trying to prove that she wasn't ripped up by it then she was failing miserably.
She fell asleep in that horrible chair only to be woken by quiet sobbing andstruggling breathing.
"Do you want something morefor the pain?" she bent over the patient.
"I need my Harvey." The woman struggled to even whisper between rough shallow breaths and sobs.
"What's his surname?" susan asked but it was pretty clear that without a vent Harvey would never get here in time.
"Sharp." The woman struggled, "Harvey Sharp. I have to see him."
The machine began to beep urgently and a couple of nurses ran in. Susan sent one away immediately to find Harvey Sharp.
"She has a DNR." She told the other before they began.
"I don't want to die." The old woman barely articulated.
Susan froze for a moment.
"Do you want me to put you on a ventilator."
The woman gave up speaking and nodded.
Susan paused a moment before giving the order.