Vengeance of the Freeway Phantom
Chapter 11
As Jon left the area of the accident, he decided he'd better do one more thing, "LA, 7 Mary 3, contact S4 for me!"
Seconds later, Getraer came back, "7 Mary 3, this is S4. What's up?!"
"Sarge, I need you to meet me at Rampart General's ER! Ponch has been involved in a MVA!"
"Okay, Baker, I'll be there as soon as I can."
When Jon got to the hospital he quickly entered the building. He spotted Roy at the nurses' station.
The paramedic spoke up first, "Hi, ah, your friend's in treatment room 3." Roy again saw the officer's very worried expression, "Look, Dr. Kelly Bracket is one of the best ER doctors. He'll do everything he can to help your friend. Uh, I also mentioned to Nurse McCall that the patient is an off-duty police officer, she'll relay that information to Doctor Brackett."
"Thanks. I just want to make sure I can talk to him to get any medical information on Ponch. My sergeant's also due here any minute, he'll need to know too."
He barely got that out when he felt a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He turned around and found Getraer standing there. "No word yet, huh?" Joe solemnly determined.
"No, too soon. Oh, Sergeant Joe Getraer, Roy--" he paused to read the fireman's nameplate, "DeSoto, one of the paramedics that took care of Ponch."
"Thanks, Roy," Getraer gratefully told him, as they shook hands.
"Well, we did what we could for him out in the field. Dr. Brackett and Dr Early are two of LA County's best ER doctors," Roy announced, hoping it would help reassure them.
"C'mon, you can wait for the doctor in the lounge," Nurse Dixie McCall told them. She had been standing there noticing how very troubled looking both officers were. She guided them to the doctor's lounge, knowing the officers would feel a lot more comfortable waiting in there then out in the busy hallway.
Jon was extremely nervous because of 'not knowing' Ponch's real medical condition and it scared him half to death. Baker didn't even realize it, but, as soon as Dixie left the room, he had started pacing back and forth--until Joe finally got his attention, well, the umpteenth time around anyway. "Jon!" Getraer tried but failed to get his attention--again, so he thought he'd try it one more time, "Jon!"
"Huh?"
Getraer didn't say a word he simply motioned for him to come over by him, then pointed to the vacant chair.
Jon simply shrugged his shoulders, walked over toward the chairs. "Sorry, Joe," he apologized as he sat down beside his superior.
Getraer was upset too, but he knew he had to be and sound positive. It was times like this that being a sergeant really sucked. He could never really show any emotions, at least not in front of his officers. "Look, Jon, he's gonna be okay. He's young, he's--"
Jon practically exploded, "Joe, you weren't there! You didn't see them rip his car apart to get to him...see the blood...or hear the paramedics describing his injuries! See them try to start his heart beating again! Joe, he just may not--"
"Jon we can't think--" he stopped as the door opened. Both men stood up as a doctor walked into the room.
Baker spoke up first, "Doc, how's Ponch doin?" he definitely didn't like the frown showing on the doctor's face.
Getraer added, "Doc, I'm Sergeant Joe Getraer, this is Officer Jon Baker. Frank...is he going to be okay?"
The doctor shook both their hands, "I'm Doctor Brackett. Well, your friend has multiple injuries. We're getting X-rays right now. We've got him stabilized at the moment. He's got a compound fracture of the left femur, broken ribs on both sides, left lung collapsed, which we tried to re-inflate. It didn't hold. We'll have to repair that surgically. He's also got--" he suddenly stopped when he heard he was being paged.
"Doctor Brackett, treatment room 3! Doctor Brackett, treatment room 3!"
Brackett barely got out, "Excuse me!" Then the door to the doctor's lounge closed behind him leaving the two very worried CHP officers alone again.
Jon quickly went to reopen the door to go out to the hallway, but Getraer walked up behind him and pulled him back in. Baker was frantic, "Joe, that's Ponch's room!"
Getraer was worried too, but reminded him, "Jon, there's nothing we can do but wait till the doctor comes back to tell us what's going on. C'mon, grab a seat." But both men stood there a moment in silence, Jon wasn't ready to go back to sit. Then he finally, but reluctantly, turned back to the room and let the door close behind him. Both men once again took their seats.
Back in treatment room 3, just as the X-ray tech was finishing up, the heart monitor Ponch was hooked up to suddenly started beeping wildly, alerting the guy to the fact that the patient's condition had suddenly headed south. Sure enough, the monitor showed flat line. The X-ray tech quickly hollered for help. Nurse McCall came running and then paged Doctor Brackett.
Seconds later, Brackett came into the room and started barking orders. CPR had already been started. The defibrillator was used to try to jump start the patient's heart. The first two times there was no conversion. So medicine was put directly into Ponch's stalled heart. They were forced to shock his heart a third time.
"C'mon, c'mon!" Brackett pleaded. Then finally, the patient's heartbeat returned--to everyone's relief. "Okay, prep him for surgery--now! The quicker we get him in and out, the better his chances will be. Have me paged when he's ready."
"Right, Kel!" Nurse McCall confirmed, and then quickly got started following the doctor's orders.
Doctor Brackett was all too aware that he really didn't get a chance to completely fill in the patient's friends regarding all of the off-duty officer's injuries. Then again, maybe what he had already told 'em was more than enough for them to handle. Although they did have the right to know that their friend had a real fight ahead of him. It was Brackett's job to keep the patient alive so he had a chance to put up that fight.
Kel paused a moment at the lounge door. He knew this wasn't going to be easy. He forced himself to push through the door. He raised a hand as Jon quickly stood up, "He's back with us. We're getting him prepped for surgery right now. Now, he's also got some internal bleeding going on that we've gotta stop. Look, he's gonna be in surgery for some time. Why don't you go back to your station, and we'll call you as soon as he's out of surgery and in recovery."
Getraer simply said, "Thanks, Doc." He knew the man now had his own job to do.
Brackett was paged to the OR. The doctor apologized, then quickly left the lounge. The two CHP officers sat there mute for some time.
Jon's stomach was in knots. He kept asking himself, 'How many times did that make it for his heart to stop? How many times can his heart and body take the beating it takes to get it started again? How many more times before his heart simply calls it quits?'
Getraer was thinking about both young men. Although Frank had the knack of adding a few additional gray hairs to his head now and again, he knew his abilities as a cop were unquestionable. As for Jon, he knew he was the one who placed--and kept Frank in place--on the straight and narrow. Both had helped each other through some very rough times. Now was the time when Jon would need all the guys from Central to help him deal with this ugly situation. He also realized, 'What am I thinking?! All the guys in the entire Central Division are going to need each other to get through this.'
Suddenly the door opened and a nurse ushered in Bonnie, Baricza, Turner and Grossman. All four started asking questions at once until Getraer held up a hand to stop them. "Hold it! Hold it! Frank just went in to surgery and yes, he's in critical condition."
Bear spoke up, "Well, looks like the Phantom finally got one of us from the day shift."
"Wha-at?!! both Getraer and Jon exclaimed in sheer disbelief.
"What'd yah mean, the Phantom?! There wasn't a cop in sight! Well, except Ponch and he was in his own car!" Jon exclaimed, visibly upset. He was about to add something else, but stopped when he took a good look at the four faces looking back at him.
"From what more than a couple witnesses stated, there was all the classic signs. A green Pontiac clipped Ponch's fender hard enough to create a domino effect and there wasn't any reason for the driver to have to move so quickly in his space..." Baricza stopped as Jon finished his thought for him.
"...Other than it was on purpose," Jon flatly added. "It still doesn't make any sense! Ponch wasn't even in uniform!" Then he felt something else that had already been said needed repeating, "And he was in his own car!"
"Well, if it is true and he's starting to attack us when off-duty, then we've got ourselves an even bigger problem here," Getraer admitted with a very worried look on his face. "Captain's really gonna love hearing this one. Okay, I've gotta get back to Central, Jon, you're officially done for the day and if you need it, take tomorrow off too," then he turned to the other four.
But before he could say anything, Grossman beat him to it, "Yeah, we know, we know, get back to work."
Getraer really felt like a monster at a time like this. He really hated to have to force his people to go back out on the highways, but they all still had a job to do. Yeah, even when one of their fellow officer's was lying in the hospital, critically injured--and who knew if he'd even make it. Before the four left, he turned to them and spoke rather sympathetically, "Look, you guys, I know this isn't going to be easy for you, or for any of us covering those highways, but we all know it's something that's gotta be done. We still have to be visibile out there. But by all means, watch yourselves! Okay?!"
"Yeah, sure," the foursome responded in unison, then they all trooped out.
Getraer kept his eyes on the younger man still standing there for a moment or two, then just before he opened the door to leave, he again tried to reassure him. "Jon, Frank is going to be okay." All Jon did was nod his head. Joe simply sighed as he figured he really didn't get through, so he simply took his leave.
After everyone had gone, Jon was left to his own morbid thoughts. 'Why would the Phantom suddenly change his tactics? How did he even know what Ponch's vehicle looked like?' With those and many other questions plaguing him, Baker began to pace again.
As time went on, he kept checking his watch. It had been over three hours since the doctor had left to operate on Ponch. It was well into the afternoon now. How much longer would it be before he learned how his friend was doing? He realized from what the doctor had said that the procedures must be complicated and it could take some time before he heard anything. He was just scared to death that Ponch wouldn't make it.
All the worrying was making him sick. He knew he had to get a hold of himself, calm down and force himself to be positive like Getraer said. So he decided he'd better sit down before he fell down as he had once again been pacing the floor. The door suddenly started to open. Thinking it was the doctor, Jon quickly jumped to his feet, a bit too quickly for the way he was feeling.
As Johnny and Roy entered the doctor's lounge, they saw what was going on with the young officer and instinctively went into paramedic mode. "Hey easy! Take it easy!" Johnny warned the woozy officer as he quickly stepped up to him and put his hand on the young man's shoulder to steady him.
Jon put one hand to his forehead and momentarily closed his eyes till the spell passed. "Sorry, guess I got up to fast. I thought you were the doctor."
"No word yet on your friend?" Roy asked.
Jon looked at his watch, "No, he's been in surgery for over three hours now."
Both paramedics wanted to try to console this young man, but as usual, at the wrong time, duty called. The HT Roy was holding suddenly squawked, "Squad 51, what is your status?"
"Squad 51 available at Rampart, LA," he replied.
"Squad 51, standby..."
"Look, we've gotta run! We'll check back with you later if we can," Johnny vowed. Both paramedics headed out the door as their dispatcher relayed their next assignment.