A Series of Unfortunate Events

Chapter 16

Due to a very large accident involving a couple of tour buses and a tractor-trailer, the ambulance carrying the Flynn's were rerouted from Eisenhower Medical Center to Desert Hot Springs Medical Center. By the time they got to the hospital Sharon was deeply asleep. Between the adrenalin crash and the general exhaustion, as well as the effects of the sedative the paramedics had put in her IV to calm her down, she was sleeping deeply. The paramedics put them in a glass-enclosed cubicle right away, but just as they were about to be assessed there was an influx of patients from a second accident nearby where several people were injured and routed to the Desert Hot Springs Medical Center where the Flynn's had been brought. It became a very busy day for the small emergency room. Since it rarely got so many patients at one time, it was sparsely staffed. This day, however, the emergency ward was so full of new patients they ran out of cubicles and began to park the patients along the hallway wall while they waited to be assessed.

After several hours of waiting, a nurse came into the Flynn's cubicle. She was Hispanic with a reasonable understanding of the English language, but she had a very thick accent and it was difficult for Andy to understand. Things seemed to get really confused when she asked for the name of the patient. He misunderstood, because of her accent he thought she said patients and gave her both Bella's and Sharon's names. Being a bit distracted by dealing with a sick baby and an injured wife he had forgotten to clarify which was which. He had no idea that the nurse had confused Sharon's name with the baby's name when recording the information. Or that the computer, which was glitchy on a good day and was an older model, could not seem to keep up with the influx of new information, and had replaced the name Isabella Beck with Isabel Beckett because there was already another patient with a similar name already assessed but not completely processed. Between the uncharacteristic craziness of the emergency room and the glitchy computers, things that would normally have been done simultaneously were being done by hand with lots of time in between, leaving a wide margin for human error. That simple misunderstanding set off another series of unfortunate events.

Andy's POV

Andy sat beside the bed holding Sharon's hand with one of his hands while trying to feed Bella with the other. The baby was struggling to breathe through her nose as she ate. Trying to make it easier for her, Andy adjusted Bella so that she was sitting up facing him, straddling his thigh and with her cheek up against his lower chest. His wrist was bent to hold the bottle and keep her from falling backward at the same time. It was an uncomfortable position for him and not for the first time, Andy wished Rusty would hurry up.

It had been two hours since they'd arrived at the Desert Hot Springs Medical Center and Rusty was still nowhere to be seen. There was no signal within the hospital walls, so Andy couldn't call him unless he walked out of the hospital and he wasn't doing that. Andy reasoned that Rusty had been rerouted as well and would get there eventually.

Finally, a nurse arrived and introduced herself as Carmen Martinez and started asking questions. Andy let her know that both that his wife and the baby needed to be seen. He was struggling to understand the nurses' thick accent and when she asked for the name of the patient, he gave both of their names, because it sounded like she said patients not patient. Carmen had gotten started writing the names down on the computer, when her name was called over the loudspeaker. "Excuse me, sir, I will go find out what they want," and she ran out of the cubicle without completing the assessment.

Andy nodded but mumbled, "just peachy!" Then he realized how swamped the nurses and doctors must be and felt bad. "Ah, Well." They'd already been waiting several hours, what was a few more minutes? As long as his girls were comfortable. Sharon was still sleeping and he still had her hand in his. Bella was falling asleep as well. She had finally finished her bottle and was tucked up against his chest and neck, where she seemed to fall asleep the best. If not laying in Sharon's arms being rocked that is. Andy was starting to realize the baby felt a bit warm and for that matter, so did Sharon. He wondered if she was getting what Bella had, but he hoped not.

They waited for another hour, then a nurse named Maria asked Andy to come with her, she would take him to see a pediatrician for the baby. He told the nurse he wasn't comfortable leaving his wife because she'd been given a sedative and he didn't want her to wake up alone. Maria said, that since she'd been given a sedative she would sleep for awhile, and they shouldn't belong. Andy had decided to tell the hospital they were married so there wouldn't be problems with being able to stay with her. He looked at Sharon. She was pretty deeply asleep and he knew she would want him to be with Bella, so after he kissed her and put her inhaler in her hand, he whispered that he was going to go with Bella and he would be back soon. Then he and the baby went with Maria. "Please, make sure our son Rusty is taken back to sit with her once he gets here." Maria nodded.

Once Andy and Maria arrived in the examining room, she left him to wait for the doctor. It was another hour before the doctor came in. Towards the end of that hour, a young nurse came in and helped Andy strip Bella and then the pediatrician, Dr. Brandon came in and after introducing himself began immediately examining Bella from head to toe. Asking questions along the way. He looked into her ears and did a few little tests using loud sounds to see if she would startle, or react to them. She didn't. After several such tests, he told Andy she was most definitely hard of hearing if not totally deaf. He just wasn't sure whether it was congenital, or a result of the pneumonia she had suffered early on, or it was that and multiple ear infections.

He examined her nose and throat, her little nose was very stopped up, so the nurse used one of the bulb syringes to clear it out. Her throat was red and sore. He had the nurse take her temperature rectally, it was 101, and then he did a swab of her throat to rule out strep. Due to her size, age, and the fact that Bella was ill, the doctor instructed the nurse to catheterize her for a urine sample after numbing the area. He then gave her an antibiotic shot to address the sinus infection and double ear infections. Plus, a shot for pain. The poor child was miserable and he wanted to get rid of that pain for her quickly.

Since the nurse was holding the baby on the table, Andy paced back and forth in the examining room. Finally, he stopped, "I don't understand Doc, she seemed better last night. She slept four or five hours in a row. She smiled at Sharon and at me a couple times. We gave her the meds on time, we cleared out her nose. What did we do wrong?"

The doctor shook his head as he spoke, "you didn't do anything wrong, Lieutenant Flynn. Bella's just very sick. She probably slept those four hours in a row out of exhaustion. From what you've told me, she was already sick when you took custody of her. Babies born as early as twenty-eight weeks are delicate for a long time. Perhaps the people that had her before you didn't understand or appreciate that fact. There are so many factors that could lead to her getting sick like this. Being too hot, being too cold for long periods of time, not getting enough attention or not getting her needs met could contribute. In Bella's case, nutritional problems such as not being able to digest the formulas fed to her, as well as congenital abnormalities, could be the issue. Her ear canals are very narrow and so that contributed to the multiple ear infections. Being uncomfortable, not being able to hear. It puts stress on the baby and stress compromises their immune system. Then there is the possibility of a lack of bonding with the parent. They can all lead to the Failure to Thrive Syndrome."

Andy was stunned, "Failure to Thrive? Is this condition reversible?"

Dr. Brandon explained, "the answer to that is in a lot of cases we are able to reverse it. What do you know about the people that had her before you?"

"Rusty, her brother said the Lewises had strict ideas about not spoiling her. They didn't rock her or cuddle her much." Andy looked over at Bella, "if she cried they fed her or changed her or let her cry it out until she fell asleep. If she didn't stop crying they took her in the car for a ride."

"Sounds like they were taking care of her physical needs, but ignoring her emotional ones," the doctor observed.

"Her biological mother was definitely not mother of the year either, but we got the feeling she was trying to do better. However, she seemed to have missed some very important signals. From what I understand Bella's been sick off and on since she was born. My wife and I are already very attached to her. Her brother is too." His voice broke a little, "Doc, is it too late for Bella? Are we going to lose her?"

"No, I don't think it's too late. I just think you're in for a long difficult journey until we manage to figure out the exact physical problem. We do know she'll most likely have to have tubes put in her ears when she's six months old and she could be fitted for hearing aids then too. Cochlear Implants might be a possibility for the future depending on what the cat scan showed them.

Andy nodded, "We'd heard about that, from the social worker. Not the hearing aids or Cochlear Implants, but we did hear about the tubes."

The doctor nodded, glad they were aware. "It probably won't help her ability to hear but it will help to keep her ear canals free of fluid and reduce the episodes of ear infections. We also have to figure out what's bothering her stomach and try to fix it. It might be as simple as a lactose intolerance or it could be a problem with the structure of her stomach. Her premature birth could have interrupted the development of those muscles. The sooner you get her to who will be her regular pediatrician the better. I realize that you live in LA so I won't be it, but I can help to find you some answers."

As he washed his hands, Dr. Brandon mentioned to Andy he wanted to do some further testing but the baby was too young for the tests he had in mind. Also with her being sick, he didn't want to add any more discomforts to stress her out. They would have to be satisfied with a CT Scan of her head and abdomen for now but if the problems persisted her regular pediatrician would need to order the tests. While they had been talking, the nurse had changed Bella and put a yellow onesie with a bumblebee on it and a pair of black leggings with the bumblebee print all over the leggings and around the hem. Even her little socks had bumblebees on them. Then she handed her to Andy, expertly swaddled. Once he had her back in his arms he cuddled her up against his neck and chest again. He kissed her forehead and even though it had been confirmed that she was deaf, he hummed a lullaby and rubbed her back soothingly. Andy figured that since her ear and cheek were up against his throat, and chest she could feel the vibrations from his voice and it comforted her. Then he followed the nurse and doctor to pediatric radiology.

Sharon's POV

Meanwhile, Sharon was still sound asleep. She slept through having her head cleaned and stitched and bandaged. Then she was left alone for another hour or so. When two nurses came from the psych ward to pick up Isabel Beckett the patient next to Sharon. They were waved in the general direction of her cubicle by a busy nurse. They went in and found a dead woman with very similar hair and body type to Sharon. The name tag said Sharon Raydor, so they moved to the next cubicle.

Just as the nurses were coming into the cubicle Sharon was in the throes of a very bad nightmare. In the nightmare, Gary was holding Bella over the pool and threatening to drop her in, if Sharon didn't go with him. He didn't want a check and he wanted more than the paltry five hundred dollars, she had promised him for the privilege of raising Bella. He planned to take her to her bank, have her withdraw the money and give it to him. Sharon turned onto her other side and the scene in her dream changed. Gary was forcing her over to Rusty's car, allowing her a few seconds to put the baby in the backseat of the old Volvo. Then he made her drive. Suddenly they were at his car where he had left it. The dream was so vivid she could feel him pushing her in the backseat of a black sedan and tearing off her clothes. She fought him.

TBC...

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