Doctor Kylie Walters stretched out lazily on the couch in the doctor’s lounge, enjoying the rare moment of peace and quiet she’d gotten since she began work last night. She had been pulling double shifts - not acceptable by hospital policies - but being a resident, she needed to log the hours so she could graduate.
The trauma unit at Riverside hadn’t been been busy the night before and with it being the beginning of a new day, Kylie was planning on it being calm. As she rested her head back and closed her eyes, the crackling of the medchannel intercom sliced through the quiet of the lounge.
“Echo 103 to Riverside Memorial, how do you copy?”
“Well shit,” Kylie moaned as she sat up and listened to the trauma unit nurse answer the call.
“This is Riverside, go ahead.”
With sounds of the ambulance siren blaring in the background, Kylie could detect the nervousness in the paramedic’s voice.
“Riverside, this is paramedic Steve Warren, inbound to your facility with a twenty-two year old male, found unconscious and unresponsive this morning, do you copy?”
“We copy, go ahead,” the nurse encouraged.
“Chief complaint is possible overdose, not sure of substance.”
Kylie sighed and shook her head. “Probably upset over losing a girlfriend. Just great.”
“Vitals are: patient is diaphoretic, respirations, 8 and shallow, pulse is 50, bp is 88/52, pulse ox on scene was 88, we have an iv established tko, nasal canula at 3 liters, if there isn’t anything else further, we’ll see in approx 3-5.”
“Okay, Riverside el6298 out.”
Quickly tying her long blond hair back into a ponytail, Dr. Walters walked at a fast pace to the trauma unit, praying silently that senior resident, Dr. Martinez wasn’t too far behind.
Dr. Walters rounded the corner as the ambulance crew was guiding the gurney into trauma room 3. The nurse that was working with Kylie had been a trauma nurse for over thirty years, so she had already called for lab, radiology and cardio once the call came in. It was now up to Kylie to access the patient and start barking orders to the staff.
“How long down?” she asked as she helped transfer the patient onto the emergency room cart.
“Not sure, last time patient was seen was approximately 2:45 this morning,” the paramedic replied. “On three! One...two....three.”
Kylie glanced up at the clock on wall. “Shit, that could be over six hours ago then. Did they find anything with him?”
Another person from the ambulance crew handed over a bag that contained vials of prescription pills. “Not sure what he took.”
Kylie glanced at the paramedic. “Well, I can tell he had been drinking with whatever he took.”
She knew that this could complicate matters for the patient. She stepped back and let cardio put EKG tags on the patient’s chest and turn on the monitor. She turned to the nurse and told her to prepare activated charcoal to be admisintered through a gastric tube.
“Patient have a name?” the doctor asked as she flipped a pen light into one of the patient’s eyes.
“Nick Carter.”
Kylie hesitated with the light for a moment as she gazed at the patient’s face. “Backstreet Boy? Great, so we have a high PR case now, just wonderful,” she breathed. “Any family coming?”
“Not that we’re aware of,” the paramedic replied.
The doctor shook her head, this was something she didn’t like having to deal with - a patient with an unknown medical history. She turned to Nurse Ellison. “I need you to call where they picked him up from and have someone give me some med hist stat!”
“Yes doctor.”
The doctor sighed as she looked at Nick’s sluggish pupil reactions. “What did you take Nick?”
It was 2:00 in the afternoon before Brian, Howie, AJ and Kevin were released from the questioning about Nick. After piecing the evidence together, the crime lab determined that this appeared to be a probable accidental overdose and no crime had been committed.
Ignoring the Authorized Personnel Only signs on the heavy metal swinging doors, the foursome walked up to the nurse’s station in the ICU ward of the hospital.
“Nick Carter’s room?” Kevin asked in a quiet, level tone.
The woman looked at the men standing before her. She knew that this would be coming and was told of a private family waiting room that had been reserved for them. She got up from her chair and asked them to follow her. As she was expecting, the men balked at the result of being led to a waiting room.
“Dammit, what room is he in?” AJ snapped.
“Please wait here, I’ll send someone to talk with you,” she replied, pasting a nervous smile on her face.
This time it was AJ that paced the floor. Howie and Brian quietly took a set in the small waiting room, Kevin stood in the doorway.
Moments later, a young woman dressed in dark green scrubs appeared in the door. "Hi, I'm Nick's day nurse Jackie, since he's in ICU I can bend the rules and only allow two of you to follow me at a time and you can stay for a few minutes and then you have to leave."
Kevin gestured to AJ and Brian as the first to go to see Nick. He wanted to go in first himself, but he knew that AJ was clearly adgitated and felt guilty about what had happened to Nick.
"Is he awake?" AJ questioned as he followed the nurse down the hall.
The nurse hesitated and then stopped, turning to face the two men. "Oh, I'm taking it you haven't spoke with a doctor about him yet?" She could literally see the color drain from Brian's face. "He's in a coma."
Brian swallowed nervously. "For how long?"
Jackie placed a hand on Brian's arm and lightly rubbed it, hoping to calm him down. "We don't know for sure."
