A/N: Ah, springtime in Oklahoma. I was going to post this Wednesday night, but instead I got to spend an hour in a library basement with 100 other people and four very wet dogs and then the power got killed to half the town because effing tornadoes. And all during finals week as well. Thanks, nature. We get it. You hate us. Anyways, fun fact of the day, the CT scanner was in fact invented in 1972, which I know because I looked it up to make sure I wasn't pulling a historical stupid. As with last time, reviews are very welcome and thanks to everyone who followed or reviewed chapter one. Enjoy! ^-^
It was ten after three when the HT crackled in Johnny's hand. "Squad 51, what is your status?" Johnny took only a moment's hesitation.
"Squad 51, unavailable at this time. I'll let you know as soon as we are."
"10-4 51." Johnny put the HT on the seat beside him and stood.
"I'll go call Cap and tell him to find somebody to cover for you for the rest of the shift." Roy just nodded silently and continued to watch the door to Treatment 3. Johnny watched with him for a second before he sighed quietly and wheeled away, heading for the phone. It picked up after the second ring.
"L.A. County Fire Department, this is Captain Stanley."
"Cap, it's Johnny. I need you to call in somebody to cover for Roy. He's not hurt, he's just fine- it's Jenny. She fell and hit the side of her head on a trampoline. We took her into Rampart but it looks like she's gonna be here for a few more hours." Cap muttered a curse on the other side of the phone.
"That was the call you guys got half an hour ago, wasn't it?" Johnny nodded before he remembered that he was at Rampart, not the station.
"Yeah, it was. I told Roy I'd ask you to find a fill in."
"Okay, I'll call HQ right away. You going to come back in?"
"Yeah, I'll be on my way back in a couple minutes."
"I'll see you when you get back. Give Roy our best and tell him we'll be there to visit once we're off shift tomorrow." Johnny hung up and went back to his partner. He grabbed up the HT and breathed deeply a couple of times.
"Cap's finding somebody to fill in for the day, but I gotta get back now," he said apologetically. Roy stood as well, stretching, and nodded.
"It's fine, junior. I hope you have a slow shift."
"I'll be back as soon as I get off tomorrow and if I had to guess I'd say everyone on A-Shift is coming along with me. See you later, pally." Johnny gave one last look at Treatment 3, worry creasing his eyebrows, and left his partner. Once he was gone, Roy realized with a jolt that he hadn't called Joanne yet. He ran a hand through his hair and went to the payphone.
Inside the treatment room, Brackett turned to Dixie. "I want a full skull series, draw blood for cross and type just in case, and get Dr. Early in here stat." Dixie quickly dispatched the orderly. Brackett pumped the BP cuff and read the results: 120/83. "Hypertension is increasing," he remarked to nobody in particular. He looked to the heart monitor. "Pulse is down to 40, pupils are still uneven." He spoke directly to Jenny. "Jenny, do you remember which side of your head you hit when you fell?" Jenny nodded slightly.
"Yeah, I hit the left side. What's wrong with me? Am I going to be okay?" Brackett smiled down his worry and patted her shoulder reassuringly.
"We don't know what's wrong with you right now but when we do we're going to do our best to make you feel better, I promise. Right now Dixie's going to take some blood from you so we can test it just in case, okay?" Jenny nodded slightly again just as Dr. Early came into the room.
"What have you got, Joe?"
"Jenny DeSoto fell and hit the left side of her head on the edge of a trampoline. She was unconscious for about six minutes but hasn't been since. She's experiencing nausea, bradycardia, and hypertension, as well as a fixed and dilated left pupil."
"Anything wrong with the right?"
"No." Dr. Early pulled out his penlight and checked Jenny's pupillary response and then carefully studied the left side of her head. "I've ordered a full skull series and Dix is about to draw blood for cross and type."
"There's a small amount of blood behind the left eardrum," Dr. Early told him. "I'm thinking at least a fracture." Brackett frowned at him.
"At least? What else do you suspect?"
"I have an idea but I want to do some more tests to make sure."
"Roy's outside," Dixie told them. She focused her attention on Jenny. "Hey there sweetie, I'm going to draw some blood from you so we can send it down to the lab, is that okay?" Jenny nodded, eyes blinking tiredly. Dixie drew the blood as quickly as she could and sent it with an orderly to the lab just as the portable x-ray machine rolled through the door.
The trio went out into the hall to wait for the x-rays to finish when Roy spotted them and was over in a flash. "How is she? I've called Joanne, she's on her way here with Chris."
"They're doing a full skull series on her right now," Dr. Early answered gently. "We think she's at least got a concussion and very possibly a skull fracture. We'll know more once we can see the x-rays, and I want to do a few more tests just in case."
"Can I see her once the x-rays are done?" Roy asked anxiously. Brackett nodded.
"Sure you can; it shouldn't be more than a few more minutes." Soon enough the technicians wheeled the x-ray machine through the door and a very anxious Roy followed Brackett and the others through into the room. He took Jenny's free hand and gave her a big smile.
"Hey baby. How are you feeling?" She shrugged slightly.
"I feel kind of sick and I have a headache. Where'd Dr. Brackett go?" Roy was confused.
"He's right over there." He gestured to Brackett, who was standing by the door to Jenny's left.
"No he isn't." Now all four adults exchanged worried glances.
"Loss of visual field," Dr. Early muttered quietly, striding forward. "Jenny, are you right or left handed?"
"Right," she answered.
"Okay, could you take my left hand with your right and squeeze as hard as you can?" She did so and he did the same with his right and her left. "Okay, now I'm going to bend your right knee and put my hand on your heel and I want you to push back against my hand as hard as you can. Okay, now let's do the same thing with the left."
"What's wrong, doc?" Roy asked quietly.
"Jenny is experiencing weakness in her right extremities and a loss of visual field on her left side. I want to have a CT scan done on her as soon as possible and take a look at those x-rays." Dixie sent the orders and the small group waited in Treatment 3. "As soon as I can see the CT results I'll let you know. I don't know about you, Kel, but I don't see any reason why Roy can't stay here until they come to get Jenny." Brackett nodded in agreement.
"Sounds good to me; I'll find Joanne when she gets here and send her in, Roy." Roy nodded his thanks and they left him in the room with his daughter.
"I didn't mean to fall, Daddy," Jenny said. "I was jumping with Sarah only I went too far to the side and then my feet slipped out from under me and I hit my head. Then I woke up on the couch and you and Uncle Johnny were there." Her brow crinkled in confusion. "Where is Uncle Johnny? I didn't not see him too did I?"
"No, Uncle Johnny had to get back to work, baby, but he'll be here to visit you tomorrow morning. I get to stay with you, and your mom and your brother will be here soon. How does that sound?" Jenny smiled but didn't get to respond before an orderly came in with a wheelchair.
"I'm here to take Miss DeSoto to her CT," he said, giving the little girl a friendly smile. "Now let's get you sat up and over there, eh?" Roy hefted the IV bag and put it on the hookup attached to the wheelchair as the orderly slowly moved Jenny into a sitting position and then turned to Roy. "Doc Early said she was showing weakness in her right extremities, so we're going to pick her up so that we don't risk her falling again. Would you like to do it?" Roy nodded quickly.
"Daddy, what's a CD scan?" Jenny asked as Roy lifted her carefully from the exam table. He smiled and gave a small laugh.
"Not a CD scan, baby, a CT scan. The doctors are going to take a look at the inside of your head. It won't hurt a bit. Now let's get you settled so that you can relax faster." He set her down in the wheelchair, careful to maneuver everything so that he avoided being trapped by the IV, and then squeezed her free hand. "I'll be back the moment you're done, and by then Chris and your mom should be here, okay?
Jenny just smiled; she didn't want to nod. The change in position was not helping her nausea even in the slightest and though her stomach was empty she didn't want to risk it. Roy followed her out of Treatment 3 and went back to the waiting room. He had barely sat down when Joanne and Chris came through the doors and he leapt back up again.
"She's not here right now," he told them preemptively. "They've taken her up to do a CT scan and then they'll get her settled somewhere." His wife hugged him tightly.
"Oh Roy, I'm so sorry you had to be the one on call," she whispered. "What do they know so far?" Roy shrugged dismally.
"Not much; definitely a concussion and they suspect a skull fracture. We'll know for sure once Dr. Early's taken a look at things." Roy wrapped his arm around Chris and the three of them waited together in the emergency room. It was about three forty when Dixie called Roy into Brackett's office, where he and Dr. Early were awaiting the paramedic's arrival. "So what have you found?"
Dr. Early slid Jenny's x-rays onto the lighting board and the orderly arrived bearing the results of the CT scan. He pointed to the thin, fine line running across the temporal bone. "Well, there is a definite skull fracture and as a result at least a moderate concussion." He hesitated slightly as he opened the CT results; he didn't want to be the bearer of bad news but it had to be done.
"What did the CT find?" Roy had noticed the older man's hesitation and began to get a sick feeling in his stomach. Dr. Early pulled the scan out of the folder and held it up to the light. Most of it was normal, but there was a strange pale spot on the left side against the temple, convex and shaped like a sort of lens. Roy knew next to nothing about reading CT results but it didn't take a doctor to know that was unnatural- and very, very bad.
"The CT scan shows clear evidence of bleeding on the brain; between that, her other symptoms, and the lucid period following unconsciousness, it's almost certain that Jenny has an epidural hematoma." Roy felt like someone had taken all his internal organs and plunged them into a bucket of ice, but he forced himself to listen for his family's sake as Dr. Early continued quietly. "When she struck her head against the metal edge on the trampoline it fractured the temporal bone; as her brain scraped past the fracture the middle meningeal artery began to bleed into the space between her skull and the dura mater- the outer membrane of her Central Nervous System."
Roy leaned up against the edge of Brackett's desk as his knees threatened to give out on him. "What do you need to do to stop it?"
"Surgery, and fast, is the only option we have," Brackett replied. "Ideally we'll have her prepped and ready to go in before she loses consciousness again. If we can do that it'll vastly improve her chances." He bit the inside of his cheek. Like Dr. Early, he didn't want to cause the DeSoto family any more pain than it was feeling already but the truth had to be told. "If she loses consciousness before we can drain the clot she may not survive."
"What's the mortality rate for an epidural hematoma?" Roy asked. His fingers clenched the desk so tightly they had gone white and he hated himself for even having to ask the question but he had to know.
"Anywhere between five and fifty percent," Dr. Early told him softly. "But Jenny's got good odds. We caught it early and she's young and otherwise healthy. I want to perform a few additional neurological tests to be sure of the diagnosis and then we'll get her prepped and ready for surgery as quickly as possible." He reached forward and clasped Roy on the shoulder. "Roy, you have to believe in her. She can make it through this."
Roy nodded faintly. "I know, and I know you guys will do the best job you possibly can, but I'm still scared to death."
"Just go be with your family," Brackett told him. "We'll let you know when we're ready to operate." Roy nodded again, not quite in mastery of his words, and left the room. Joanne and Chris rose to meet him and he explained the situation as best he could. Joanne began to cry, but Chris was only eleven, too young to understand the full extent of the situation. Roy simply sat and hugged them for a few minutes until Joanne had calmed down. She looked her husband over and gave a faint, shocked laugh.
"I just realized you're still in your uniform. I'll take Chris home and find somebody to watch him for the evening and bring you back a change of clothes. I have to do something right now or I'll panic." She hugged her husband tightly and he couldn't help noticing that she was trembling.
"Be careful," he murmured. "Nothing else goes wrong today, okay?" Joanne nodded tearfully and gathered up their son. Once they were gone Roy went to the cafeteria, hoping some food would still his shaking hands- or at least give him something to do with them. He swore to himself as he remembered that he'd promised Johnny before he left that he'd update the guys at the station when he knew what was going on. He figured now was as good a time as any to have the conversation.
It seemed that fate was smiling on the men of Station 51 for the rest of the day, because they had almost no call outs and the squad only had one run, just after Johnny had picked up Dwyer at the station and called them in as available. It turned out to be an old lady who'd accidentally burned her hand on a hot pan. They bandaged her up and she gave each paramedic a half a dozen cookies afterwards in exchange for their trouble.
As soon as he and Dwyer got back to the station, Cap leaned out his office door. "Johnny, Roy called a few minutes ago and told you to call him back at Rampart." Johnny bolted to the phone like the devil was behind him and punched in the hospital's number.
"Hello, I'd like to speak to Roy DeSoto." The other men gathered around him, waiting to hear the news, until Roy finally came on the line. "Hey, Roy; how is she?" On the other side of the line, Roy sighed and leaned against the nurses' station, rubbing a tired hand over his face.
"Not good, junior; she's got an epidural hematoma. Brackett wants to have her prepped and in surgery by five at the latest. Listen, Johnny, I know you're still on shift but I know Jenny would love it if you were there when she went in for the surgery. She's been asking about you."
"I'll be there," Johnny responded automatically. He briefly forgot that the others were surrounding him and his face drained of all color. He leaned heavily against the wall and ran a hand through his hair. "What is… how bad is it?"
"They think if they don't operate within the next hour or so there's a strong chance she might-" Roy couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence but Johnny knew what would have completed it. He raked a hand through his hair again, shaking slightly.
"I'll be there as soon as possible."
"Thanks junior."
"Not a problem, pally. She's gonna be okay." It was a thin reassurance, but right about now it was the best that Johnny had to offer.