Charlie Horse - Part II

Cindy called ahead to let Wilson know they were coming in for a rough landing. He kept trying to ask questions, but she just hung up on him. She needed to focus on Greg's needs, not James'. She hoped the ER would be ready and waiting for their arrival. Cindy thought of another call she had to make. Within minutes she was leaving a message on Dr. Radcliffe's service to apprise him of the situation. Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital seemed like it was a million miles away and the ambulance was going about five miles an hour.

As House was rolled through the Emergency Room, he was vaguely aware that what he was encountering was more than a spasm. He tried to push the oxygen mask aside and announce that the felt weak and dizzy, but Cindy grabbed his hand as she ran next to him. This experience was new for him. Since he had become a doctor on staff here, he had been hospitalized numerous times. The various trips to the ER occurred when he was unconscious. It seemed only natural that he should wake up in a private room with Cuddy at his side.

He wished for that now as the hustle and bustle of medical personnel overwhelmed his senses. Cindy released his hand and left his peripheral vision. He half expected Cuddy or Wilson to take her place.

With is hand free again, he attempted to pull off the mask and assist with the diagnosis. "I feel-"

"You need that," Wilson said earnestly.

Greg tried to explain what he was experiencing, but the mask and the pain jumbled his words."

"Calm down before you have a stroke." James wasn't just holding his wrists to restrain his friend. He wanted to feel what the monitor was showing him.

Cuddy grabbed the chart from the nurses and glanced over the patient's vitals. "Portable X-ray is en route. We'll take him to MRI after that. If it's another clotting issue we'll do an angio and go from there." She handed the chart back to the closest nurse before leaning over her number one doctor. "House, hang in there."

He mumbled something unintelligible under the mask.

"Hang a bag of Ringer's and let's get some Atavan into him," she barked out before putting the stethoscope into her ears and listening to his chest. "Help me sit him up," she ordered Wilson. They positioned him so she could hear his lungs from the back. "Lungs sound clear."

The portable X-ray arrived, alerting most of the staff to clear the area. Wilson didn't want to leave, but Cuddy ushered him out of the curtained room. "You need to go sit down and relax while we run some tests."

"I want to stay with him." Wilson tried to look over her shoulder and beyond the curtain.

"Go wait with Cindy. She could use a friend right now."

Cindy was beside herself with worry, pacing the waiting room. She hated not knowing what was going on. Even more so she hated that she couldn't be with Greg when he needed her most.

Wilson stepped into the waiting room, expecting to find House's new friend among the people waiting for endeared ones to be seen. Instead, Cindy was pacing in front of the vending machines, biting her thumb nail. He stepped in her path.

"Any news," she said looking up. The urge to shake information out of him was barely suppressed.

"They're trying to stabilize him. We're waiting on X-rays and MRI's." James, too, was anxious and wanted to grill her on what had happened.

"Who was the last person to see him?"

He sensed accusation in her tone. "Dr. Chase."

"Is he still here? Can you page him?"

"Why, so you can blame him?" Wilson towered over her, exerting some of his own authority."

"Stand down, wonder boy. I'm not trying to find culpability. I just have a few questions for that person."

Wilson walked away from her and over to the triage nurse's desk. He called the operator and placed a page for Chase to meet him in the ER waiting room.

Chase ran through the halls, down the stairs and over to where Wilson was waiting for me. "I just go the news. What's happening?"

"Possibly another infarct," Wilson responded solemnly. He nodded in the direction of Cindy. "His new girl toy would like to talk to you."

Chase put a reassuring hand on Wilson's shoulder. "It's House. He's practically indestructible." He looked over his shoulder at Cindy. "We'll help him get through this."

Cindy had continued to pace until Chase blocked her path. He stuck his hand out. "Robert Chase. I'm one of House's Fellows."

"You were there this afternoon?"

"Yeah, at lunchtime. He was fine. In good spirits, no pain. So if you're looking to lay blame, don't look at me."

"I'm not blaming anyone," she sneered, looking beyond him to where Wilson was standing. "I just need to know if you put him back in traction."

"Of course I did! And I did it right. I even had the ortho techs here show me. I know I didn't screw up."

"Damn. He managed to get himself out."

"That means-"

"Yeah, he's done a bad thing."

"I gotta go tell Cuddy."

Lisa Cuddy assembled a team of specialists to aid in the analyzing House's test results. Dr. Woolf, Chief of Orthopedics; Dr. Brand, the vascular surgeon who removed House's first clot and assisted in the necrotic tissue debridement; and Eric Foreman, House's own hand-picked neurologist. She was going to make sure that whatever the diagnosis was, House was going to receive treatment immediately.

Eric Foreman stood in the back corner of the MRI booth. His arms were folded across his chest as the other doctors watched the computer screen. Of all the doctors House would have picked to be his medical team, he was probably the only one who would have been included.

Dr. Woolf looked at the X-ray results, comparing them to what was up on the screen. "With unstable fractures like this, his surgeon should have opted for stabilization with a medullar nail and screws. It's the best treatment option. We should go ahead with it once this issue is resolved.

"The last I knew, it was the patient's decision. House opted for a more conservative treatment," Foreman interjected.

"The patient's an idiot," Woolf tossed out.

"House is an idiot," Brand concurred. "But I understand why he did it. He's in chronic pain already. Screwing a strip of metal into his lower leg may stabilize the breaks, but the potential for pain complications from the hardware itself could cause further debilitation.

"If he was pissed after the muscle amputation, just think how livid he'll be if we crippled the leg entirely." Brand specifically spoke this last part to Cuddy.

"He's not going to be walking on the leg if the bone never heals."

Foreman sighed. "Could we focus on the problem at hand? There doesn't seem to be any further damage to the femur. Could we be looking for compartment syndrome? Do you see any vascular abnormalities, Dr. Brand?"

"From the looks of things, there's a great deal of inflammation. Conceivably pressure on the blood vessels could cause vasospasms. The creased blood flow would be painful enough. Wait, what was that?"

"An occlusion? A blockage?" Cuddy sounded like she was guessing. Within seconds it was gone.

"Back up! If it's a traveling clot we could be in for trouble."

"If it's moving, we may never find it until it's too late." Foreman wasn't feeling optimistic. "Can we angio the leg and see if there's any stenosis or other occlusions?"

"We should to determine the blood flow to the tissues. He can't afford to lose any more muscle."

Cuddy stood behind the specialist feeling a sense of déjà vu.