Page 36 of Fractured Reunion

Disheartening to realize he still had trouble reading Maggie’s feelings, much like when they were married. He shook off the troubling thoughts as he waded into the chaotic environment of the emergency department.

He found Oliver Chism’s room without difficulty. To his surprise, the guy was awake but appeared groggy. As if he still had drugs in his system.

Aaron hovered in the doorway, hoping the team was aware of the possible rebound effect of a narcotic overdose. There had been cases where the Narcan wore off and the drugs still in the patient’s system rebounded to previous levels.

Some patients didn’t survive the second overdose.

When he saw the nurse hanging a Narcan drip, he realized there was no need to be concerned. The medical team were experts in pediatric care, not necessarily for adults, yet he was glad the doc at the bedside had the situation under control.

Despite his apparent overdose, Oliver Chism would not die here today.

“Dr. Aaron Monroe?” He turned to see a uniformed cop walking toward him. He recognized Officer Thomas from his earlier visit. “What’s going on?”

“Thanks for coming.” He gestured to the skinny guy stretched out on the gurney. “I believe you know Oliver Chism.”

Thomas’s eyebrows shot up. “Yeah. What happened?”

“Maggie can probably tell you more than I can; she was standing outside the room when he showed up. I came upon them as he collapsed to the floor. His pupils were dilated, so we treated him as a narcotic drug overdose.”

Thomas’s expression turned grim. “Any idea what he took?”

“No, but I’m sure they’ll run a tox screen.” He nodded to the medical personnel in the room. “Maggie performed CPR while I administered the Narcan. The antidote worked; he started to come around after the second dose.”

Thomas sighed. “There are days I wish I wasn’t so good at my job. At least this latest stunt should prevent Chism from obtaining custody of Joey.”

“I hope so, but that’s why I wanted you to be aware of this latest incident.” He scowled. “Especially since this is the second time Chism has shown up here at Children’s Memorial. The previous attempt to see his son he mentioned having a lawyer.”

“How did Chism get a family lawyer on the weekend?” Thomas asked.

“We suspect Chism has a personal injury lawyer; he mentioned getting money because of the truck that plowed into the bus, causing Joey to require surgery on top of losing his mother.”

“Chism can probably recover some money on behalf of Joey,” Thomas admitted. “But I would like to think the judge would find a way to make sure some of that money would be held for Joey’s future, not for Chism to buy drugs.”

He was no legal expert, but that sounded good to him. “Anything you can do to help with that would be great.”

“When can I interview him?” Thomas asked, jutting his chin toward Chism.

“Let me check with the medical team.” Aaron eased into the room, listening to the brief conversation between the nurse and the resident.

“His vitals are stable, but his pulse oximeter readings could be a little higher,” the nurse said. Then she leaned in closer to her patient. “Mr. Chism, I need you to take a deep breath.”

Chism’s eyelids fluttered open, and he tried to do as the nurse asked. On the monitor over the patient’s bedside, Aaron could see the pulse oximeter reading was hanging in the low eighties.

“Again,” Aaron ordered in a strong, firm voice. “You need more oxygen going to your brain, so take another deep breath.”

Chism did so, and his oxygen reading improved. The nurse shot him a look of exasperation, but then continued speaking to her patient. “Mr. Chism, I need you to keep taking deep breaths.”

Chism nodded, his eyelids drifting closed.

He turned away and caught Officer Thomas’s gaze. “Not sure he’s in any condition to talk yet.”

“I understand.” Thomas glanced at his watch. “I can hang around here for a while.”

“Great.” He was relieved to hear Thomas wasn’t giving up so easily. He was humbled by how people had stepped up to rally around Joey. “Would you like some coffee? I can get decent stuff from my office.” He knew the emergency department had a coffeepot in the break room but figured it was old and stale by now.

“I’d appreciate that, thanks,” Thomas said.

After brewing a cup of coffee from the machine in his office, he returned to the emergency department to hand the mug to Thomas. Then he debated the wisdom of heading back up to the seventh floor to talk to Maggie.

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