Page 16 of Axel

Kahana kept up with the compressions while doing CPR on the woman. He was about as pissed as he’d been in a while and had to make sure that he wasn’t pushing too hard on her small chest. Trading off with one of the medics that had come on the ambulances, he watched as the paddles were being warmed up to shock Debra again. They’d lost her three times already.

The very fact that she could speak made him think that she was in better health than he was. When he’d been in college, they had simulated a heart attack for the med students so that he’d know what they were dealing with. After the first trial, he was ready to give in. She had had three yet terribly small heart failures in a row and still had the energy to speak to him.

As soon as the ambulance pulled up in front of the ED doors, he was off the thing and barking orders. His temper over Debra being mistreated pissed him off, and he knew that he was taking it out on the others around him. As soon as she was hooked up to a monitor, he knew that if he’d not been there when she’d fallen, Debra Author would be dead. As it was now, it was touch and go.

With the right type of meds and someone monitoring her, she was going to be all right if she could make it past the next twenty-four hours. His head was hurting with his anger, and he had to take several deep breaths before he could call Mac and then his parents. Dad would calm him like no one else did, and he needed him nearby. Pulling Debra’s hand up to feel her pulse, he kept holding onto her hand when she seemed to have the same effect on him that his father did. Calming of his mind and stress.

After telling his dad and mom what was going on, he was glad that Axel had told his wife. Mom was upset more than he thought necessary for a woman they barely knew, but he knew enough to keep his mouth shut when she asked him if there was any family.

“I don’t know, to be honest. When we got to the apartment, she was already speaking to someone. She made it sound as if someone had died and that her cousin, I didn’t catch his name, was telling her that she had nothing to do with the person who had passed on.” Stretching his neck now that he was calmer, he told them what had happened in the ED when she’d come in the last time. “She actually told a person having a heart attack to go home and not return. I know we’re only getting one side of the story, but Christ, even if she came in and they sent her on her way without checking her, the hospital would be looking at a big lawsuit. And if she had died…I don’t even want to think about the repercussions of what that might have done.”

“What do you have planned for this? You said that you know the nurse. Are you planning to report her?” Kahana told him that he was. If for no other reason than for her to learn what the consequences of her actions had happened. “You’re right. And I’ll back you as a board member. But I will tell you that this is not the first time her name has run across my desk as a board member. I hate to say this but I’m betting that they fire her for this one. And more than likely serve some serious jail time. Not to mention her losing her nurse status.”

“Good.” He didn’t like to see anyone lose their job, but this woman could have killed Debra by being tired at the end of her shift or even, as he thought, thinking that Debra was faking her symptoms. “I’m going to be here awhile to make sure that she’s treated. I think that Axel is looking into something for her about the death I was telling you about. Dad, I just don’t understand people. Do you?”

“Not for a very long time, son. I’ll come by later and bring you something to eat. You take good care of that girl. Your mom and Mac got along great with her.” He told his dad that he would and thanked him for bringing him in something to eat. It was going to be a long night, and once Debra was put in the cardiac unit, he did rest a bit better.

Pulling up Debra’s file told him several things at once. She’d been in the ED six times, but when she’d been told to go home, the nurse on duty said that she’d left against medical advice. An AMA was a way for her to get out of not treating her. And he no more believed that she’d left that way on her own. He was still looking over the files in Debra’s room when she woke up.

“How are you doing?” She looked at him, confused. “It’s Doctor Hathaway, Kahana. I was the one that brought you in here by ambulance.” She struggled to speak, and he told her not to stressherself out.

“Where?” He told her where she was and why. After having the nurse check her blood pressure, he wasn’t happy with how high it was. “Hurt.”

“I’m sure you do.” He checked her for numbness as well as a droopy left side. When she seemed to be better than she was at her home, he sat down in the chair that was next to her bed. “Do you remember talking to me at your apartment?”

She started to shake her head and stopped when it was obvious that it hurt too badly. He again told her to rest and that there wasn’t anything she could do right now that would help her. Just for her to relax.

“I have a headache.” He told her that was more than likely a side effect of the meds that she’d been given. Mostly the nitroglycerin. “You said that I’d had a heart attack. How do you know?”

He didn’t care to be questioned about what he’d said or done while working but he did tell her that he’d seen her type of symptoms before. Then he told her about her dying several times, and without having a crash cart nearby, she wouldn’t have made it. Nodding, Debra closed her eyes.

Kahana knew that the next time she woke up, he’d have to tell her again what had happened. This was the second time that she’d woke, and he’d had to remember everything that he needed to tell her without getting her upset again. She was doing much better than he thought that someone might have been doing while in the condition that she was currently in.

After pulling up the file on Ronda West, acting head nurse for the third shift ED department, he was also able to pull up her disciplinary file as well thanks to his dad for giving him access. As early as five days ago, she’d been written up for mishandling of medications. It was the fifth such one in her file. There were others, too, that were fairly new. One that she’d been very rude to a staff member and also once to someone who had come in for help. She’d sent that person home as well. It worried him that she was getting away with so much until he got to the back of her file. The personal file. He called his dad back.

“Ronda West is Ben Wests wife.” Dad told him that he’d not known that. “I’m betting that a great many people didn’t know that. Her wage isn’t in here, but she is being paid as much as a surgeon tier two it says here in her file. That’s about as much as I make now. Something is fishy with this, and I don’t know who to turn to about it.”

“It’s a bet that Ben knows what’s going on. It is his wife…hang on a moment, son. I want to ask your mom something.” He looked over at Debra and watched as the machine took her blood pressure. It was down a great deal than what it had been when she’d been at her home. Even coming into the hospital, it was down. He was glad for it. He didn’t want anything to happen to her when she’d been a victim of someone in the medical field. “They’re divorced. Ben and Ronda divorced about a year ago now, your mom told me. Tell me how far those disciplinary write-ups are.”

He told his dad. “I thought so. About the time he started having an affair with his secretary, and Ronda found out. I’m betting that he’s going to stay married to her so that there isn’t this huge mess of a scandal about his job being head of surgery. He’s keeping her quiet by letting her get by with…do you suppose he’s keeping track of things hoping that someone else gets into her records and he’s off the hook?” He told his dad that it made sense. “Yes, I’m betting that’s just what is going on. Christ, son, the shit is going to hit the fan for all of them once this gets out. And I know just the place to let it happen, too. I have a buddy at the newspaper who would love a scandal like this one to add his name to.”

He loved the way his father’s mind worked. No one in his family would be in the article, and the woman and her ex-husband would get what they had coming to them. As soon as he was able to tell his dad about the other things in the file, he hung up and felt better about it.

Still going through the file, he found other things that he’d bet would help the man that his dad knew. He’d never been as proud of his parents as he was right now. And the great part of it was, it wouldn’t come back to bite any of them in the ass. That he loved more than anything.

He was glad that he was with Debra all night. It made him feel better knowing firsthand that she hadn’t had any more episodes like the one she’d had at home. Every time he thought about it, if she’dbeen alone, it made him all the more angry about the way that West, both of them, had gotten away with things.

When she looked at him, he decided to wait until she spoke. Her speech wasn’t slurred, and her facial muscles seemed to be intact. Telling her for the fourth time what had happened, she didn’t fall asleep right away but asked if she could have a drink of water. Her mouth was dry.

“I can give you some ice chips. You’ll like them better anyway. Also, as I said before, don’t let your pain overwhelm you. If you hurt then take something now rather than letting it get the better of you.” She nodded and closed her eyes. He thought that she’d gone back to sleep when she spoke again.

“I had a heart attack. What happens to me now?” He asked her what she meant. “I mean, do I have something that I’m going to have to deal with for the rest of my life? Will I have to, I don’t know, learn some things that I’ve known most of my life. To be honest with her, I don’t feel too bad right now, and I think this is the first time in longer than I can remember that I didn’t feel like my head was going to explode and my heart to be pounding out of my chest. What happens to me now?”

“You’ve had two mild heart attacks. Not to say they weren’t serious, but they were mild enough to not have you have paralysis to your body. You seem to have your memories intact as well.” She asked him about medications. “Yes, you’ll be on a few that I would like for you to take for the rest of your life. But you’re young and healthy, so I don’t see you having any more ill effects from this. You will have to deal with stress a little better. Other than that, I think you’ll have a long life so long, as I said, you take care of yourself.”

She looked at him. “I had to go home. I mean, I have nothing here, and since I more than likely didn’t get to go home, I’ve lost everything.” Kahana told her that his brother and father took care of things for her. “I don’t know what that means. How did they take care of me not being there for the reading of the will.”

“I don’t know all the particulars but Axel has your phone and has been to Tennessee and back for you. The will that was being read isn’t the original, it was figured out but a forged one that Phillip Author made taking you out of the will. Apparently, he showed up with his will and expected since he was the one who was getting everything in his will, no one would question him. By the way, he’s in jail right now.”

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