The First Day

by gracey97

The first day at a new job is meant to be scary for everyone, right? Especially, when you've spent 9 years training for it! Although Ellie Lawson may appear like a normal person, who has had a normal life, she is far from it. But when she starts a new job - something that she's wanted do since she was 11 - how will others react when they find out the real truth about who she is?

6. Discovery

The folder was thick, so Ellie had obviously been admitted before. The first thing I did was check when she was first admitted. What I read shocked me.

PATIENT NAME: Ellie Lawson
D.O.B: 1st September 1991
AGE: 11years 11months
DOCTOR IN CHARGE OF CARE: Doctor Adam Trueman
DATE OF ADMITTANCE: 31st August 2003
REASON FOR ADMITTANCE: Victim of house fire
INITIAL INJURIES: Burns, lacerations and bruising covering whole body. Worst lacerations are to face and lower abdomen. Worst burns are to right leg and chest. Major smoke inhalation. Comatose possibly due to head laceration or suffocation.
OTHER NOTES: Found unconscious at scene of incident and pulled out of the house by a fireman on scene. Defibrillated twice due to cardiac arrest. Many more injuries suspected but examinations are on-going.

I turned to look at Sam who was stood updating some charts at the other end of the room. "She survived all that?" I asked in amazement; Sam just nodded.

"That's not the first time she was in hospital though," Sam explained as she handed me another small file, "this was before they updated the system, so it's not with the rest of the notes."

I opened it, inside were a few pages with small amounts of information on them. They were much different to the ones I had just read.

PATIENT NAME: Ellie Lawson
D.O.B: 1st September 1991
AGE: 11years 11months
DOCTOR IN CHARGE OF CARE: Doctor Adam Trueman
DATE OF ADMITTANCE: 3rd August 2003
REASON FOR ADMITTANCE: Found alone on the street by a nurse
INITIAL INJURIES: Bruises covering various parts of her body, some old, others new. Patient says that these are from falling down the stairs, although actual cause is unknown.
OTHER NOTES: Missing from the hospital at 11:30am on 4th August 2003, not found.

'Not found'? What did that mean? Had she not returned to the hospital? Why?

I scanned through the rest of the notes looking at the various dates from when she had been admitted. '13th January 2003', '24th March 2003', '6th June 2003', '31st August 2003' and so the list went on. She had been admitted so many times, each time for weeks, sometimes months at a time. The dates started to spread out more as the years went on due to Ellie being admitted less.

Once again, I skipped to a page near the front of her notes; there was one particular word on that page that had caught my eye. "Cancer!?" I asked Sam with the little energy that still remained in my body.
"Yeah, that's what I meant by 'she's a fighter'. She's got a form of cancer that's extremely rare, 1 in a billion people get it, and no one with it has ever lived past the age of 13. She's not giving up that easily!" She smiled a weak smile at me, and I returned it.

I sat looking at the notes for another hour or so, before handing them back to Sam who added yet more information.

The silence was broken in a matter of seconds as a team of nurses and anaesthetists walked through into resus. They were followed by a doctor who, on arriving, announced to Sam that theatre was ready for Ellie and that they would page her once they'd finished.

Quickly, I moved out of their way and watched as they wheeled Ellie out of resus and into the lift in reception. Sam saw the look of worry on my face and once again assured me that Ellie would get through this and would be back working as soon as she could.

"Will you page me when she's out of theatre?" I asked Sam, who proceeded to nod and then walk away, so that she could treat other patients. I also walked out of the room, although I went to the staff room, as my shift had finished several hours ago.

I sat down at far end of the room, knowing that it would be a while before Ellie was out of theatre. I thought about her; about her past childhood, her present condition and her future career. All three were uncertain to me. For a moment I thought about how I had only just met her, and I wondered why I cared so much about her. After all, I barely knew anything about her!

Once again hours passed, and I just sat thinking about everything that had happened. It was silent in the room, as no one had yet taken their break. So when my pager bleeped, it echoed around the room.

I knew that this would be when I found out whether Ellie would survive or whether she was gone.

Sorry this is so short and took so long, but I couldn't of what I could write!
Look out for my new FanFic where we meet Ellie for the first time and find out what her life was like when she lived with her parents! Coming to a near you soon! Grace xx