Chapter 5

Gary blinked slowly. Something was sticking in his nose, and he reached up to remove it.

"No, don't touch that, okay?"

Gary looked to his right trying to locate the voice. It belonged to a paramedic who was kneeling beside him. Gary put his hand back down, and tried to figure out why he was flat on his back in the middle of a parking garage surrounded by paramedics, police officers and a familiar-looking woman. He suddenly remembered why he had been in the garage in the first place, but that left him even more puzzled. If everything turned out okay, then why was he lying here?

"Hey?" he tugged on the paramedic's sleeve to get his attention. "What happened?"

"You passed out, buddy," came the reply, as the paramedic tightened a tourniquet around Gary's arm.

"I passed out?" Gary couldn't believe it. He had never fainted before and felt silly lying there with a gathering crowd of people gawking at him. He glanced down at his arm, "Wha-what are you gonna do?" He didn't think he was going to like the paramedic's answer.

"I'm preparing to start an IV. Just hold still, now."

Gary grit his teeth as his skin was punctured by the sharp IV catheter. Nope, he didn't like this one little bit. "Look, I'm fine now. You can just take all this stuff off me and I'll be on my way, okay?"

The paramedic paused in the process of taping the IV down, "I wouldn't advise that, sir. You've been out for almost ten minutes, and you're running a high temp." The man finished taping the line in, and sat back on his heels, giving Gary a level look. "Technically, you can refuse treatment, but I don't think it would be in your best interest. Why don't we take you to the hospital, let them discover why you passed out, and then you can decide what to do after that, okay?"

Gary sighed, and reluctantly nodded his head, "Okay, but do all these people..." Gary nodded towards the onlookers. Before Gary could finish the sentence, the paramedic took the clue, and asked the police to clear the crowd out.

A few moments later, Gary was loaded into an ambulance. He closed his eyes and relaxed, relieved to be shielded from the curious spectators.

Gary must have fallen asleep because the next thing he knew, he was in a small cubicle in an emergency room. His shirt and jeans had been removed and a hospital gown had taken their place. A nurse appeared and stuck a thermometer in his ear. In only a few seconds, the probe was removed, and the nurse's eyebrows went up, but she didn't say a word. A plastic clip was attached to Gary's finger, and a rapid, but steady beep-beep emitted from a monitor behind his head.

The nurse was intently watching the monitor, her brow furrowed. She turned back to Gary and fiddled with the clip on his finger.

After a few moments, she shook her head, "Eighty-four? That can't be right." She adjusted the oxygen tubing in Gary's nose, sighed, and said, "I'll be right back, okay?"

Sure. Whatever. Gary nodded, and closed his eyes, more exhausted than he cared to admit.

The nurse returned shortly with the doctor in tow. The nurse hooked Gary up to a heart monitor while the doctor went to the sink and washed his hands.

"Hi, Gary. I'm Dr. Nielsen. Can you tell me what happened today?"

"Umm...well...I guess I just passed out." Gary squirmed, uncomfortable under the doctor's scrutiny.

"Were you sick? Did you have any symptoms?"

"Yeah, I guess. I woke up not feeling well."

"Did you have a fever? Chills?" The doctor took the stethoscope from around his neck, and motioned for Gary to sit forward.

"I had chills, but I don't know about a fever. I don't have a thermometer," Gary admitted.

Dr. Nielsen finished listening to Gary's breathing, and stepped back. "I'm going to order some lab tests and a chest x-ray. I think you could have a pneumonia, but I'll know more when I get the test results, okay?"

"Thanks, Doctor," Gary sighed, triggering a bout of coughing that left him breathless and clutching his right side.

The doctor cocked his head to the side. "Does it hurt to take a breath?"

Gary nodded, still too short of breath to do more.

Dr. Nielsen turned towards the nurse. "Order a chest x-ray and an ABG, stat. I don't like the looks of that pulse ox reading."

The nurse nodded, "Yes, I know. His sats were only eighty-four on two liters of oxygen when he came in, so I bumped him up to four liters, but he's still only at eighty-six."

Gary watched the exchange between them, wondering why they were talking as though he weren't in the room. "What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry, Mr.Hobson. I didn't mean to alarm you, it's just that your oxygen level seems a bit low. We'll get some blood and check it, but in the meantime, just try to rest, okay?"

A little over an hour later, most of the tests had been completed, and Gary was feeling thoroughly rung out. He had a fierce headache, his stomach was still churning, every muscle in his body ached and worst of all, every breath sent a stabbing pain shooting through the right side of his chest. The nurse had brought him a couple of acetaminophen tablets, but they hadn't seemed to have kicked in yet. All he wanted to do was to go home, climb into his own bed, pull his covers up and sleep for a week.

"Mr. Hobson? Gary?"

Gary's eyes snapped open. He must have dozed off, though he wasn't sure. He struggled to sit up, as the doctor approached. "Yes?"

Dr. Nielsen pulled a stool up to the side of the bed. "Well, Gary, I was right. You do have a pneumonia; a fairly extensive one in the right lung. You're being admitted to the telemetry unit because your heart rate is a bit fast also-probably from the fever, but I want to be on the safe side."

"Now, wait a minute," Gary protested. "I...I can't stay here. I've got things to do. I have to go home. Can't you just give me a prescription for antibiotics?"

The doctor shook his head. "I'm sorry, but you're going to have to receive intravenous antibiotics for this extensive of a pneumonia."

"Are you sure? Can't I just-"

"Listen, Gary, you have a very serious bacterial pneumonia. Your oxygen level is less than half what it should be-and that's with supplemental O2. In fact, in just a few minutes, the nurse is going to be bringing in an oxygen mask that will allow us to give you higher concentrations of O2. In addition, did you know that you're temperature when you were brought in was one hundred and four degrees?"

Gary shook his head, and swallowed. "How did I get this? I didn't even have a cold."

"Well, the bug I think you've got comes on very suddenly and without warning. I won't know till lab tests come back, but it can hit anyone, though it's most common in people with compromised immune systems."

The doctor appeared slightly uncomfortable, "I have to ask you if you have ever been tested for HIV."

Gary felt himself blanch and turn cold. "N-no. Why?"