Chapter 3- Episode 2
It takes a few seconds for everyone to realise the screen is now playing the credits.
"Let's take a 5 minute break" Richard suggests, his legs going dead from sitting for so long. Callie glares at him but he stares her out,
"It will take a few moments for the next episode to download" Derek says breaking the stalemate.
Everyone stands, refilling glasses, grabbing snacks or using the bathroom, except Callie who remains seated her eyes glued to the stationary image of Arizona on screen a small thumbnail next to the download button watching it move around until finally it downloads, everyone sits down, Derek presses play.
…..
"In tonight's episode, we find out what happened in the storm, is the clinic still standing, as Doctor Robbins struggles to operate as Malawi in a limited health service, made worse by the emergence of a mystery illness.
The screen flashes to Arizona, her hair blonder, with a light tan, she looks stressed and much thinner.
"How many ventilators do we have?" she asks Mary walking alongside her, Arizona is pacing, her voice slightly higher than normal she seems stressed.
"3"
"Okay I need them on the ward, we need to make it an ICU, if we cohort the patients, limit the staff we might stop this from spreading" she instructs,
"No Doctor Robbins, not 3 here, 3 in Malawi, total" Mary says. Everyone watches as Arizona tenses, her mind racing to work out what to do, as they sit stunned, 3 ventilators in a country of millions, only one in their clinic meant people were going to die.
"Doctor Robbins, we need you, it is Joseph" Brenda shouts from down the corridor. Arizona runs off camera.
…..
"So, what happened in the storm, they all made it?" April asked confused,
"Shut up April if you watch it you might see" Cristina lectures, April scoffs,
"You've been talking more than anyone" she says is disbelief, blushing at being told off in front of all the attendings.
"Sssh both of you" Bailey orders, nobody dares to disagree.
…
A huge bang sounds, the storm is back on, people are screaming and starting to panic.
"It's okay, it's okay" Arizona reassures, as Mary shouts the same in Chichewa. "It's just the roof, in the older parts, this is the newer bit, the roof is strong".
More bangs sound, the pastor stands up,
"We pray" he orders, "we all pray".
All of a sudden, the screaming stopped, and the voices echoed in prayer, and then hymns. It sounded magically, even if the words weren't English the tunes were, but the spirit behind the singing was powerful.
As the hymns stopped the storm was quieter,
"Okay I think the worst of it has past, we need to see the damage" Arizona says, standing up, Joseph and Brenda with her.
They left the main room the film crew following, finding a tree in what was the children's ward, and the roof caved in.
"Oh" Arizona sighs, "this is going to take some fixing" she says mentally calculating the cost, the grant had been a lot of money, could she survive with only half a clinic until the new one was built, they'd ordered the supplies, had contracted the labour, had the plans approved, now they just needed everything to arrive.
"It's okay Dr Arizona, we are very resilient, we will rebuild, and it will be better" Brenda reassures, Arizona nods, as the rain stops and almost magically the sun shines.
"I need to round on the patients, lets discharge everyone we can, we are down a clinic and a ward, until we get the roof fixed, we will be very low on space" Arizona turns around smiling at the camera, trying to put on a brave face.
The scene flashes forwards, they are standing in the ruined ward, the tree has gone and the clinic staff are trying to salvage the bricks and equipment that they can.
"We need as many supplies as we can get, the storm caused power outages, our solar panels are working to an extent, but we are using as little power as possible. Water is also a problem, a lot of sources got contaminated, here we filter as much as we can but that takes power which is also limited. Lastly is food, the storm wiped out a lot of crop and last year was a poor year. Starvation is becoming a real threat," Arizona rubs her head, wondering again if she made the right decision to come, everything she did seemed to make it worse.
"Has the clinic got enough food?" the camera crew ask,
"If our supplies get through," Arizona says staring into the horizon as if that would make anything appear quicker.
"And if they don't come through?" the voice off screen asks,
"Then we have enough food to supply us for 3 days, and enough medicine for 4" Arizona says gravely.
Arizona is standing in the treatment room listening to an extremely thin child's lungs, her face is pulled into a mask her colleagues recognise as being stressed but hiding it.
"Okay, Blessing there is going to be a sharp scratch" she says softly, the nurse next to her repeats in another language, nobody can identify. Arizona deftly inserts the needle drawing up the drip herself.
"Cholera," she says,
"What's Cholera?" the interviewer asks,
"It's an acute diarrheal illness caused by infection of the intestine with Vibrio cholerae bacteria" Arizona explained "It's bad, it means there is a source somewhere, and with the recent storms and food shortages, its likely to spread fast. Make sure you wash your hands a lot, and tell the film crew, boil all water you drink,"
"Dr Robbins, we have more" a nurse shouts, Arizona leaves the clinic room the camera following, 10 people are there, all looking dry, and thin, extremely malnourished 8 are children. Arizona sighs,
"Mary, I need you to take stock of all the fluids we have, Peter call everyone, we need all the extra supplies they can get us, and we need to get it here now, Emmanuel, call the health board, we need to notify them, we haven't got any results but this looks like an outbreak" she orders calmly two of the new nurses to help, her blue eyes studying the group in front of her picking a child at what seemed like random but was actually the result of lots of training and practice working out who was most sick to start treating.
…
As the commercial break goes, everyone in Seattle sits stunned, they had no idea there had been storms, or famine, or an outbreak in Malawi. Cristina had put the tequila bottle down, suddenly this didn't seem like fun.
…..
"Dr Robbins, we have 10 more arriving" Mary shouts, Arizona looks up, exhaustion is clear on her face, the child she is treating is clearly extremely sick, her breathing is fast, every single muscle in her chest is working hard, she places the oxygen back onto her, patting her shoulder, the child needs magnesium, and intubating, to keep her breathing but they didn't have magnesium, they did have ventilators though,
"How many ventilators do we have?" she asks Mary walking alongside her, Arizona is pacing, her voice slightly higher than normal she seems stressed.
"3"
"Okay I need them on the ward, I need to intubate Mercy, we need to make it an ICU, if we cohort the patients, limit the contact from anyone, we might stop this from spreading" she instructs,
"No Doctor Robbins, not 3 here, 3 in Malawi, total, we only have 1 in the theatre" Mary says. Everyone watches as Arizona tenses, her mind racing to work out what to do, they would have to manually ventilate this child until they were through the worst of this illness, but that was going to take man power that they just didn't have.
"Doctor Robbins, we need you, it is Joseph" Brenda shouts from down the corridor. Arizona takes off at a run. They find Joseph collapsed on the floor,
"I am okay" he says, sweat pouring off him, a slight grey tinge evident even on his dark skin. It's clear he is not okay.
"Get him on a trolley" Arizona says, "I need the ECG machine" she orders grabbing her stethoscope.
"No Arizona, you have lots of patients, leave me, I'll be okay" he insists,
"Joseph, I have 8 doctors, myself included and 12 nurses, I need my staff to be well" Arizona begs, trying not to tear up, "We have had 20 new patients in the last hour, I need you".
"Okay" he agrees, Arizona sighs, quickly running every test she can think of,
"It's your heart, you're having a heart attack, I need to operate to remove the blockage".
The camera cuts to Arizona scrubbing her hands,
"If we were in America, we'd be doing an angio, a minimally invasive procedure, but here we don't have the equipment, I'd also have dye to see the blockage and an anaesthetist, unfortunately Joseph is my anaesthetist, so I've put him to sleep, I'll be monitoring the gas mix and instructing Mary to make any changes. We are down to 12 bags of fluids and one meal for our patients and staff. If the supplies don't come today, we are in trouble" Arizona says, getting gowned and gloved. "Michael, I need you to scrub in" she orders one of the student doctors, "resources are stretched, and I need all the help I can get".
…
"Woah she is going in blind, that's insane, and so cool" Cristina gushed, Arizona was now her new surgical hero.
"Wait how is she going to know where the clot is?" Alex asked confused, she had no contrast, no dye and was looking on the outside of the vessels.
"The ECG will give some clues, but this is mostly instinct" Teddy lectures always looking for an opportunity to teach,
"It's what makes this so cool I'd love to scrub in on this" Cristina drools again, she get out her phone and starts to search for plane tickets, Webber had been on her to take some holiday, maybe she could go to Malawi and help, if she got some kick ass surgeries that could only be a huge bonus.
"I bet Arizona wishes you were there too" Bailey adds, "She could use the assist, someone more qualified than a TV director".
…
On screen Arizona has just finished the surgery, removing the ET tube from Joseph,
"Mary, stay with him, please get me if anything changes" Arizona begs, as he is settled in a bed in her office.
"Why is he here?" Lucy asks,
"We have no side rooms, with his surgery if he was to catch cholera it would kill him, at least here we can control who comes in" Arizona explains, she walks out the office, the camera following making a beeline for the little girl she left earlier, the bed now has an elderly male in.
"Where is Mercy?" she asks Brenda,
"She didn't make it" Brenda replies sadly. "She is outside now, some of the men they are digging the graves, we need to bury them as quickly as we can, so it doesn't spread."
Arizona nods, "How many have we lost?" she asks, the exhaustion back, she looks pale, draining, the camera flashes to outside where a huge pit is being dug, next to it is multiple bodies wrapped in plastic, heartbreakingly, it's clear most of them are children.
"12 today, it is going to get worse fast" Brenda adds quietly,
"The supplies should come," Arizona says hopefully, staring out the window waiting to see the truck.
"And so will the people" Brenda forewarns, looking out at the horizon, as the program ends.
Again let me know your thoughts i am so glad you are all enjoying this, i really enjoyed writing it,