"Do you know what happened to him, sir?"
"We were in the middle of practicing. I...I looked over at him and he just started to fall."
"Did he hit his head at all?"
"No, I caught him nad then we put my sweatshirt under his head."
"What do we have, Tyner?"
"Male, mid twenties, unknown cause of collapse, blood pressure is a little high for my liking."
"Dehydration?"
"Maybe. Sir, do you know how much your friend weighs," Tyner asked.
"I...I don't know...160 lbs maybe?"
"How much has he had to drink since you guys started working out?"
"Two or three bottles of water. Why are you standing here asking me this when you should be putting him into the ambulance and helping him?" He watched as an oxygen mask was placed over his friend's nose and mouth.
"We're just trying to figure out a cause. We don't want to give him any unnecessary treatments if we know they aren't needed," the medic said as the prone man was placed on a gurney and taken to the waiting ambulance.
"Tyner, what do you really think is wrong with this kid?"
"I can't tell right now, but I do know he isn't 160 lbs. We're lucky if he's 130. He looks like he hasn't eaten a real meal in days."
*****
"Rhianna, we need you down in the ER, trauma one. Subject collapsed while exercising, no known health problems, looks malnourished, possible eating disorder."
"How old is she?"
"He's twenty-five, caucasian male."
"Well, that's certainly a change. I'll be right down." Rhianna hung up the phone and grabbed her lab coat. She worked in the mental health department, mainly counselling patients with eating disorders. A male patient wasn't completely unheard of, but it was definitely less common. She pulled back her mahogany curls and secured them in a large clip before stepping into the elevator. The ER was relatively quiet as she walked to the trauma bay.
"Well, what do we have, Delgado?"
"Male, twenty-five, severely underweight for his overall height and build."
"Does he have a name?"
"His friends says it's Josh."
"What's with the man-mountain in the corner?"
"That would be the patient's bodyguard. Why do you always get the famous ones, Montgomery?"
"It's hard to avoid them in LA, Delgado. So he collapsed? Any possibility of head trauma?"
"No, Tyner says that one of his friends caught him before he could hit his head." Rhianna grabbed a syringe from a nearby countertop and turned her new patient's arm over.
"Shit! How the hell did you guys miss these??"
"Miss what, Montgomery?"
"Excuse me, sir, you are this man's bodyguard?"
"Yes, why?"
"Do you know how long he's been shooting whatever he's shooting," Rhianna asked pointing to the almost invisible needle marks on the inside of his left wrist.
"Oh my God...but, he hates needles..."
"It's always the ones you least expect, sir. Okay, get him admitted." She went over to his chart to make a few notes before looking back up at him.
"Joshua Chasez, welcome to Cedars-Sinai...next stop detox and rehab."
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