Chapter 28

Joey was oblivious to the fact that he had been led from the nurses shower and changing room into a small examination room by the two nurses that Chris had sought out just minutes earlier. He was more concerned about the blood…Lance’s blood…that just wouldn’t come off his hands. No matter how hard he had scrubbed his hands in the shower, he had been unable to rid his hands of the crimson stain. Even now, he could still see traces on his hands. He turned his hands over as he looked at them with an almost haunted gaze.

“Can you help me get this off my hands?” he quietly asked as he looked up and gazed at Mike, the male nurse.

“Sure, Joey…no problem,” Mike said as he gently helped Joey to sit on the small examination table while Charlotte opened a cabinet and began to pull out several items.

“Mike, I want you to clean and wrap his hands. I’m going to call the doctor to let him know what’s happening.” Charlotte placed the bandages and antiseptic cream on a rolling tray then left the room.

Mike turned his attention back to Joey and reached for the young man’s hands. After giving them a quick look, Mike spoke in calm tones. “Let’s get your hands cleaned up, Joey.”

“Okay,” Joey quietly replied as he watched the man move about the room.

Mike crossed the room to the sink to fill a shallow basin with warm water then returned to Joey’s side with it. He then began the task of cleaning and dressing Joey’s raw hands. He had seen this same reaction in police officers, firefighters, paramedics and soldiers…even fellow physicians and members of the nursing staff. They had all been hit hard by a sudden shock…the shock of having an emotional, medical overload.

“Hey…look, Joey,” Mike said in hushed tones, pointing down at Joey’s hands, which were resting in the water basin. “It looks like you’re cleaning up really well. I don’t think I see any more blood on your hands.” He continued to speak to Joey in hushed tones as he gently cleaned the young man’s hands.

Once finished, Mike looked up to give Joey a small smile and was relieved when he saw the smile returned. Joey lifted his hands from Mike’s and winced as he finally began to feel the discomfort and pain from the damage that he had unknowingly inflicted upon himself.

“They’re kinda starting to hurt.”

“That’s okay,” Mike said with a smile. “I’ll get you all fixed up.” With a small sigh of relief, Mike worked quickly to apply the cream, which would temporarily help in dulling the pain that was being experienced, then bandaged Joey’s hands. Once finished, he had Joey lie down on the table.

“I want you to try to get some rest while we wait on Charlotte to return…okay?”

“Okay,” Joey answered. He held up his hands and looked back up at Mike. “Thanks for taking care of my hands.”

“No problem, man. Now try to get some rest,” Mike replied. He gave Joey’s shoulder a pat and then went about in filling out paper work while Joey fell asleep. After several minutes of silence, Mike looked up from the chart and saw that Joey was resting comfortably. With a small smile, Mike returned to the paper work knowing that Joey was going to be okay.

Dr. Shannon and x-ray technicians Tim Masterson and Wendy Bentliff sat quietly observing the images flashing on the computer screen before them.

“Everything looks good, Dr. Shannon,” Tim commented as he turned the CT machine off and signaled to one of the attending nurses in the next room to pull the rolling gurney from it’s fixed position inside the machine.

“Yeah,” Dr. Shannon replied as he watched the activity in the next room. He concentrated his gaze on the prone figure lying on the gurney and thought he saw slight movement.

“If you’d like, I can…” Tim began but was interrupted by the doctor.

“Excuse me, Tim,” Dr. Shannon said as he quickly rose from his chair and opened the door leading into the next room. “I’ve got a promise to keep.” With that, Dr. Shannon closed the door behind him and quickly made his way over to the gurney across the room.

“What was that all about?” Tim asked his partner.

“Beats me,” Wendy replied. “Let’s go ahead make the extra copies of these films for the doctor,” she added as she pushed several buttons on the panel before her.

Tim turned his attention away from what was going on in the next room. “Yeah…okay,” he replied.

Lance could hear someone in the distance, calling his name in an insistent tone of voice. He wanted to comply with the voice’s commands, but the effort to do so was almost too great for him.

“Lance…Lance…I want you to open your eyes for me,” Dr. Shannon urged. He picked up Lance’s limp hand and felt slight movement against the palm of his own hand. He carefully placed the hand back onto the gurney and shuffled through his pockets for his stethoscope, B/P cuff, and penlight.

“Sarah,” he quietly called out to the nurse standing a few feet away. “Would you mind jotting some numbers down for me and adding them to Lance’s chart?”

“No problem, Dr. Shannon,” the older nurse answered as she pulled out a pen and small notepad from her jacket pocket.

With a small smile, Dr. Shannon set about the task of checking over Lance and getting his vitals, all the while watching the young man struggle to regain consciousness.

“Okay,” Dr. Shannon said, as he grasped Lance’s left wrist lightly and glanced at his watch. He could feel light twitching in the arm as he counted the heartbeats…that movement made him smile. “Sarah…pulse rate is 50 and regular.”

Sarah quickly noted the rate on her pad of paper and watched patiently as Dr. Shannon laced the blood pressure cuff around Lance’s limp left arm. This was usually her job, but she understood, through the grapevine, that this young man, and the others with him were Dr. Shannon’s boys and she knew that the doctor needed this contact just as much as the figure lying on the table.

Dr. Shannon kept a close eye on Lance as he squeezed the small bulb that forced air into the cuff wrapped around Lance’s left bicep. The tightening of the cuff elicited a small groan from Lance and some movement…he was working hard to wake up and this pleased Dr. Shannon. “Sarah…b/p is 95 over 60 and rising.”

“Yes, sir,” she replied, jotting down the information.

Dr. Shannon pulled the sheet down from Lance’s bare chest and placed the head of the stethoscope on his pale skin. He watched the small jerk that Lance made when the cool object touched his skin and heard him give another small moan as he moved his head.

“Heart rate is good as are lung sounds, Sarah. Heart murmur was detected…a little more pronounced than normal,” Dr. Shannon said with a slight frown. The doctor put the stethoscope in his coat pocket and bent over Lance’s form.

“Lance…Lance…” Dr. Shannon said as he ran his head over the top of Lance’s head. “I need to flash a light in your eyes,” Dr. Shannon warned, knowing that the next part of the exam would be the most bothersome for him.

Dr. Shannon placed his left hand on the right side of Lance’s face and pushed his right eyelid slightly open then flashed the light into the opened eye. The flash caused Lance to feebly bring his right hand up to the doctor’s arm.

“I know that this isn’t comfortable, but it’s necessary, son,” Dr. Shannon said quietly as he flashed the light one more time into the right eye and watched the sluggish movement of its pupil. Dr. Shannon allowed Lance’s hand to remain on his arm and he made sure that his own movements were slow enough that the hand could remain there.

“Right pupil sluggish, but responsive, Sarah,” Dr. Shannon said over his shoulder as he switched the pen light into his left hand and gently pushed Lance’s left eyelid open before once again, flashing the light into his eye.

That flash earned the doctor a slightly tighter squeeze on his arm.

“One more time, Lance,” Dr. Shannon said quietly as he finished the task with one more flash of light. “Left eye is sluggish also, Sarah…probable mild concussion.”

Dr. Shannon slipped the penlight into his pocket and looked back down to see that Lance’s eyelids were fluttering open.

“Well…it looks like this is becoming too familiar…” Dr. Shannon said quietly as he watched a look of confusion cross Lance’s face as he looked up at him.

“What…happened…how long?” Lance asked in a whisper while trying to shield his eyes from the glare of overhead lights with one hand while maintaining his grip on the doctor’s arm with the other. The throbbing pain in his head was making him slightly nauseous and the room was slowly spinning about him.

Dr. Shannon placed both his arms on the bedrails of the gurney and covered Lance’s hand with his own as he decided to choose his words very carefully.

“You’ve been unconscious for almost an hour and a half,” the doctor answered. “You have a mild concussion and we put in 10 stitches in your forehead, right above the hairline.”

He allowed Lance to digest that news before continuing. “Now, as far as what happened, I wasn’t there when you had your mishap, but Joey said that one minute you were asleep with your head on JC’s bed and the next you had stood up and then fell, hitting your head on the nearby nightstand.”

Dr. Shannon watched as a look of confusion crossed Lance’s face.

“What’s the last thing you remember, Lance,” he asked

“Mmmm…I remember Joey, Jan, and Chris saying goodnight to JC and…then…I…” his voice trailed off as he rubbed his hand gingerly across his face.

“Are you drawing a blank?” Dr. Shannon asked as he pulled Lance’s hand away from his face. “Don’t do that, son,” he quietly admonished.

“Oh…sorry,” Lance apologized with a slight grin that slowly turned into frown. “I don’t remember anything after Chris told me not to stay up late. What time is it anyway?”

Dr. Shannon glanced up at a wall clock and saw that it was almost 4:30 in the morning.

“It’s 4:30.”

“How’s JC doing?” Lance asked. He gingerly touched the bandage wrapped about his head and, once again, Dr. Shannon gently pulled Lance’s hand down. “Lance…don’t touch that,” Dr. Shannon quietly chided.

Lance gave a sheepish grin and then winced as a more pain raced through his head.

“It really hurts and I’m dizzy,” Lance quietly complained as he closed his eyes.

“I’ll give you something for the pain once we get you upstairs, but the dizziness will go away with time,” Dr. Shannon said. “Why don’t you try to rest for…” his words were interrupted by Tim in the CT scan’s control room.

“Doc, phone call. It’s Charlotte from upstairs in ICU,” Tim called out, holding the phone against his chest.

“Thanks, Tim,” Dr. Shannon answered. He looked down at Lance and saw that he had fallen asleep and he made a quick mental note of the time before leaving Lance’s side to head over to the other end of the room.

The doctor took the phone from Tim’s hand, slumped down into a nearby chair and spoke.

“Charlotte…is there a problem?”

“Yes sir,” she answered. It’s not one of your patients though. It’s Joseph Fatone.”

Dr. Shannon quickly sat up in surprise. “What’s wrong with Joey,” he asked in an anxious tone of voice. He quickly motioned at Tim and Wendy to hand him a pen and pad of paper. Wendy handed him her paper and pen and shrugged at Tim as Dr. Shannon rapidly began jotting down information.

“Okay…put him on one of the cots in JC’s room and give him 2.5 milligrams Valium, IV drip, keep him warm and put him on 4 liters oxygen. Monitor his vitals every 30 minutes for now.”

Dr. Shannon sat back and briefly listened to the nurse on the other line. Tim and Wendy watched the doctor stand up and run a hand through his hair as he began to slowly pace in the small room.

“No…no…let’s not do that yet. It sounds like he’s in shock right now. We’ll discuss the rest of that later.” The doctor stretched the phone cord as far as possible and walked back into the CT scan room to Lance’s gurney as he listened to what was being said.

“Alright…tell Chris and Jan that I’ll be bringing Lance back up in about 15 minutes. We’ll put him on a cot in JC’s room also…okay…right…bye.” Dr. Shannon walked back to the control room and handed the phone receiver to Wendy then grabbed her pad of paper and tore off the top sheet that he had written on.

“Thanks guys. Send the films upstairs to ICU step down.” Dr. Shannon shook hands with both technicians and then met two orderlies by Lance’s gurney. The orderlies pushed the gurney out the door and headed toward the elevators, which would take them back upstairs to Jan, Chris, and the others.

Jan and Chris watched as one nurse adjusted the flow of the IV dripping into the port in Joey’s left wrist while another placed a nasal cannula under his nose.

“What’s in the IV?” Jan asked knowing that Joey was beginning to look very relaxed…almost drugged.

“Valium…2.5 milligrams,” Charlotte answered. “Dr. Shannon said that it looks like Joey is simply suffering from shock and the Valium will help him to rest.”

She looked up from her seated position on the side of Joey’s cot and saw that Jan and Chris looked beyond tired…they looked very drained.

“Why don’t you two lay down for a few minutes,” Charlotte quietly urged. “Dr. Shannon will be up shortly with Mr. Bass.” 

She watched as Jan and Chris looked about the room at the sleeping figures…JC…Joey…Justin. She could see that neither Jan nor Chris were going to give in to rest until they saw that everyone was doing okay. With a small shake of her head, Charlotte spoke in an understanding tone of voice.

“I know, would either of you like a cup of coffee while you wait for the doctor and Lance to arrive?”

“That would be nice,” Jan said with a small smile.

“Susan…could you show Jan and Chris where they can get their coffee?” Susan nodded her head and motioned for Chris and Jan to follow.

“If we hurry, you can be back in the room when your friend gets back,” the young nurse said with a smile.

“Thanks,” Chris said as he and Jan followed her out into the hallway toward the nurse’s break room.

Charlotte turned her attention back to the young man lying on the cot that she had sat upon. She checked the bandages that had been wrapped about his hands where he had scrubbed his skin raw in an effort to rid them of the phantom blood then she stood up and checked the IV flow once more before moving to Justin’s cot.

Charlotte looked down at the sleeping figure and sat down on the edge of his cot then carefully reached for his right wrist to check his pulse. After finding it to be strong and regular, Charlotte smoothed the blankets covering Justin’s lax body then stood up. She moved to one of the empty cots and readied it for the young man that Dr. Shannon would be bringing to the room very shortly. Just as she finished preparing the cot, the door was swung open and a gurney was pushed into the room.

“Everything ready, Charlotte,” Dr. Shannon asked as he followed the bed into the room.

“Yes…the cot beside Mr. Fatone’s is ready.” Charlotte pointed to the cot and moved out of the way of the orderlies who were lifting a groggy Lance from the gurney to place him on the indicated bed.

“How are the others doing, Charlotte?” Dr. Shannon watched the orderlies gently lower Lance onto his cot and cover him with a blanket.

“Everyone seems to be resting well.”

“How are JC’s vitals?” Dr. Shannon asked. He stood at JC’s bedside and saw that he seemed to resting quietly.

“I was just about to check them, doctor,” Charlotte answered with a smile. “But things got a little busy around here.”

Dr. Shannon gave a small chuckle before bending over JC and placing his hand on JC’s head. He was pleased to see that JC stirred under his touch. The doctor stood up and looked about the room. He saw Jan and Chris sitting on a cot looking quite overwhelmed by the scene before him. He saw Justin sleeping peacefully in the cot nearest to the far wall. In the next cot, Joey was also sleeping, his bandaged hands lying on top of his covers. Next, the doctor looked over to see that Lance was slightly stirring on his cot, seemingly in an effort to find a comfortable position. He watched as Chris placed his coffee cup on the floor and made his way over to Lance’s bed. Chris knelt down beside the small bed and spoke to Lance in hushed tones. Dr. Shannon glanced over at Jan and saw that she was staring at the coffee cup in her hands. ‘Will Jan be able to use her magical touch for this?’ he thought. ‘Hopefully, Jan hasn’t met her match with this.’ Jan seemed to know that she was being stared at. She looked up and met the doctor’s gaze. She gave him a smile and the look on her face gave the doctor the feeling that Jan Scott was not down for the count…not yet. Dr. Shannon returned her smile, then brought his gaze back down to JC and saw a pair of wide, blue eyes staring back up at him.

“Doc…what’s going on? What happened?” JC asked in a voice full of confusion.

Dr. Shannon closed his eyes for a split second, took a deep breath then opened his eyes to see the questioning look on JC’s face.

“Well…a lot has happened since our little meeting in my office,” Dr. Shannon said quietly as he ran his hand over JC’s head. “A whole lot has happened around here since then.”

Twenty-Nine