Case 01: Truth is Painful and Ugly

"Some people think that the truth can be hidden with a little cover-up and decoration. But as time goes by, what is true is revealed, and what is fake fades away." -Ismail Haniyeh

The Emergency Room was chaotic as always: doctors and nurses rushing back and forth while demanding for certain drugs for their dying patients, loud screams and unbearable groans from the suffering patients who kept bleeding, choking, or seizing, while the scent of blood, rubbing alcohol, and death lingered in the air. It was even worse because it was the holiday season where dumb people did more stupid things than their normal days.

The doctors and nurses who were trained and used to the amount of stress in the Emergency Room, were even more on edge during this particular late morning.

Hence, Dr. T. Fairy- the Chief Hospital Administrator, remained pacing back and forth by the door. It was even more unusual with Dr. Bunnymund, the Head of Orthopaedics, was standing next to Dr. Fairy with a huge frown smeared on his face. Finally, Dr. North, a renowned neurologist and psychologist, dashed into the Emergency Room and found the other two specialists worriedly waiting for the next ambulance.

Dr. North demanded, "Is it true?"

Dr. Fairy nodded her head and said, "Yeah, I got a phone call just a few minutes ago."

Dr. Bunnymund remained stunned and said, "It can't be Jack and his family..."

The Chief Hospital Administrator braced herself and slowly said, "It is Jack and his family... Jack and Rebecca are fighting for their lives and they are coming in the next five minutes."

North frowned and said, "What about Riley?!"

She wiped the fresh tears away from her red, blotchy eyes with her hands and choked, "He was found dead at the scene... the emergency rescuers couldn't get on the scene on time because of the fire. Riley suffered too much for his tiny body to handle."

North scratched his head and replied, "It's no surprise... the mountain fire has been flashing on the news. Jack's car was crashed with a gasoline tanker... It was a fairly big explosion. They say the ordeal was 'fortunate' because of all the snow and ice up the mountain... the damage was minimized."

"Ballocks!" Bunnymund angrily pounded his fists into the metallic doors and hung his head. He gritted his teeth and hoarsely asked about his godson, "How did they find him?"

Dr. Tooth answered, "We don't know yet... but Jack apparently demanded to be sent here before he passed out..."

The air was thick and tense which made everyone hard to breathe... as it was commonly described as the silence before the storm.

The three stopped fidgeting and waited patiently... waited for the unwanted blaring sounds of the ambulances. They silently watched other doctors and nurses get ready for the arrival as they also prepared themselves mentally, emotionally, and medically.

Then they could hear it, the loud alarms raging outside, demanding everyone to stay out of its path. Dr. Fairy opened the heavy metallic doors and watched the two ambulances rear themselves as close as possible. Doctor North and Doctor Bunnymund brought out the stretchers while the emergency medical responders opened their doors to reveal the raw, scorched horror.

For a second, it felt as if everything froze and turned mute as all the doctors and nurses absorbed the wretched sight of their dying colleague and friend. They could recognize Doctor Overland's handsome face, but it was much paler than usual and his usual well-groomed brown hair was sleek with blood, grease, sweat, and ashes. His burnt purple shirt stuck and molded against his lean, burnt upper body... and his broken body...

Dr. North whispered, "Oh my God."

They wore their clean, white, rubber gloves and Doctor T. Fairy steeled her shaking hands as the emergency medical responders said, "One of his humerus and scapula were broken the moment the truck crashed into his car. We also think that one of his clavicle has a fracture due to the impact. He has five of his ribs broken and his sterum has been damaged further when we gave him CPR."

Nearly all of his body was already swollen, yet the areas where his bones had broken and fractured, the soft tissues were much more inflamed. However, the burn marks were much more noticeable than the inflammations. He bore major third degree burns as patches of white and black leathery skins marred his chest, upper abdomen, and the lower back. Meanwhile his lower abdomen, the upper back, and the upper right shoulder suffered from a second degree burn. They marked the red, scolding blisters, and the areas were a mixture of pink and red burnt flesh and it oozed with bodily fluids.

Doctor Bunnymund quickly noted all of the apparent signs and shouted, "Take him into the ER, otherwise he's going to go into shock!"

The trained doctors and nurses immediately wheeled Jack's body in the sterilized emergency room. The man ran into the room after his friend and ordered the other medical personnel, "We need to work on his burns now, before they get infected. Start the IV!"

One of the nurses brought out the IV and checked both of his arms. She searched for the vein and wiped the forearms clean before inserting the end of the IV under Jack's skin. Another doctor began to carefully remove the remaining pieces of his shirt which clung on Jack's bare body. As the doctor in charge, Bunnymund gingerly touched the leathery skin and knew that the all of the dead skins had to be removed while making sure that no infection would disturb Jack's vulnerable body.

He rushed out of the ER while the nurses and the doctors did their best to keep their immediate patient alive. Bunnymund faced Fairy and argued, "We need to give Jack the maggot treatment for his burn wounds. We need to get rid of the dead skins before I can do anything. Meanwhile fluid is getting restored back into his body."

Fairy nodded her head and said, "That makes sense. Maggots eat dead skins and any possible infections. Get that done immediately... and Rebecca also needs one. She's in the other room. North is in charge of her care right now. However, she has more second degree burns than third degrees. I think Jack possibly protected his family members."

He agreed, "That and the explosion was closer to him when it happened."

North came out of a different ER room and said, "We had to sedate Rebecca for the whole treatment... she's going to be under medical induced coma for the pain and to protect her brain from further swelling. There's no way she can endure it... and we may have to remove the dead fetus..."

Fairy sealed her eyes close and murmured, "Her baby died."

North gravely commented, "It must have when the air bag collided to her abdomen. After her burn treatments are done, we are going to need to check the fetus's size to determine if she will need the surgery or not."

Once again the toxic silence lingered in the air for a few seconds as they accepted the truth of two children dying in the early wake of the day. It was a painful truth. The body count had risen to three: Riley Overland, the truck driver- Mr. Siller, and Jack and Rebecca's unborn child.

North sniffled and asked, "Does Jack also need a medical induced coma?"

One of the doctors from Jack's emergency room came out and unintentionally answered their question, "Doctor Bunnymund, we think Doctor Overland fell into a coma because of the trauma to the head. We're trying to lessen the swelling in the brain. There may be damage done to the reticular activating system in the brain... Doctor North, we need you to check it."

Fairy's jaw gaped open to hear further damage done onto her friend. However Bunnymund and North had to return back into the emergency room to debate what needed to be done first. Then more alarms rang outside and two officers, two women, stepped into emergency room.

As the Chief Hospital Administrator, she went to talk to the officers, "Hello, I'm Doctor Fairy, the Chief Hospital Administrators. Do you need something?"

The blond officer replied, "I'm Detective Elsa and this is Detective Anna. This car crash has been ordered to be investigated due to the two immediate deaths in the crash. We need to find out why did crash occurred. We must know with certainty if the cause was a natural cause."

Fairy intervened, "Three. Three people died."

Detective Anna frowned and asked, "Did either Mister or Missus Overland pass away?"

The hospital administrator did not falter and numbly said, "No, their second child has passed away."

Detective Elsa said, "We're very sorry to hear that...but we need to have the driver's cause of death checked and perhaps get testimony from the survivors."

Fairy was aware that the two young women were doing their jobs as much as she was, but hearing her close friends' misfortune be so easily ignored... having them just seen as a source of information made her numbness go away and anger and deep sadness kicked her in the guts. Then she coldly spat out the ugly, painful truth, "I'm sorry, but they are in a coma."

Then shock and confusion spread across on the detectives' faces at the fact.

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