Page 3 of Code Love
The girl nodded as Jade put the remote into her hands.
“We will let you know any updates we get on your family, but you can be sure that they are being taken care of.” Jade squeezed her shoulder again and walked over to the nurses’ station. A few quick hand motions and all the available staff were standing around her.
“This wreck happened on the I-5,” Jade said quickly, her face taking a more serious expression. “Given the weather and the current situation, expect that we will be getting an influx of patients, the route to the Johnston Mercy will be blocked for a while so we need to make sure we are staying on top of things until the road is cleared.”
The staff nodded, focused expressions lining their faces as they turned to quickly prepare for the onslaught. Pride swelled in her at how her staff responded. The official call would come over the radio in a few minutes to confirm what she had said, but the staff was quick to trust her judgement regardless.
Jade looked up to find Lillian crossing the room likely to report on the OR.
“Is the Howard man in surgery, Lillian?” Jade asked. She knew it bugged her not to refer to her by her title, and she had to hide a smirk.
“Yes, Doctor Lin,” Lillian answered, but Jade noticed the slight tightening of her eyes as she emphasized her formal title. “It should be pretty quick, just some basic reconstruction, Doctor Hu has done several like them before.”
“Noemi wasn’t able to make it in?” Jade asked, referring to Noemi Watson, their top plastic surgeon.
“No,” Lillian answered with a tight expression. “Doctor Watson is in Oregon for vacation, all the flights have been suspended until the storm passes.”
Jade nodded; she should have guessed that, up until the last moment, the meteorologists had predicted that the storm would lose its strength before making landfall, leaving not much more than some rain and gusty winds, but it had turned in at the last moment, so flights in and out were not going to be possible for a while.
The radio crackled from the nurses’ station behind them, and Jade could hear the emergency responders informing the hospital that there would be several more patients headed their way from traffic incidents on I-5, and Jade couldn’t help the smile that curled her lips.
“I supposed you’ve already prepped the staff for this?” Lillian asked. Jade’s eyes twitched down to Lillian’s full lips that were tightened almost into a pout. Her pulse quickened at the sight, but she forced herself to look back up into Lillian’s sharp green eyes.
“Yes,” Jade said with a slight smirk. It was so fun to get under Lillian’s skin. Jade knew she needed to be careful though. As much as she enjoyed it, she knew she needed Lillian to be at her best tonight. There was no room for mistakes when the potential for so many lives were on the line. “If you find yourself in need of another trauma surgeon, page me,” she finished with a nod of her head.
“I will keep that in mind,” Lillian said, though her eyes tightened at the implication that she may need help. Jade turned on her heel and went to the trauma station to don a new gown over her scrubs, her hair was still damp, but that didn’t matter at the moment. She smiled despite the situation, she had beenthrough storms like this before, and she knew that before the night’s end, Lillian would be forced to reach out to her for help—the thought exhilarated her. Jade had watched Lillian in the OR before; she was amazing. Quick-thinking and organized, she never made a rushed or snap decision, and rarely, if ever, made mistakes. On the occasion that she made a bad call she would throw herself into it, studying every facet of the situation to make sure that it never happened again. Since Lillian had been employed in the hospital, Jade could count on her fingers how many patients Lillian had lost as a lead surgeon, and none of those patients had been expected to survive the surgery in the first place.
Jade stepped up to the edge of the doorway; she could hear the ambulances over the howling winds, so they had to be close. She took a step back to allow space for the rest of the team to take the lead, waiting for an opening where she would be needed.
Three ambulances came in back-to-back, lights flashing as the paramedics jumped from the cab to assist in getting the passengers out and shouting stats over the wind and rain. The first one was a middle-aged woman with a broken arm and facial lacerations. The second seemed much worse when they pulled him out of the ambulance, a male in his mid twenties had blood that seemed to be pouring out of his face and chest, and Jade almost jumped in until the paramedic informed them it was ketchup. Apparently, he had attempted a last-second grocery run and the bags had been in the passenger seat when his car had been hit from the side. Jade struggled not to laugh.
The last patient was an older woman in her mid sixties who had slipped on the sidewalk and seemed to have broken a hip. Jade’s eyes tightened on the patient, something didn’t feel right about it so she jumped in listening to the report of the paramedic. Her daughter had called it in, she was just climbingout of the ambulance as they wheeled her mother inside. Jade helped to push the gurney inside looking over the vitals as they went in. She started asking the daughter details about what happened, learning that the older woman’s name was Sheila, her daughter, Ariella.
“Sheila? Can you hear me?” Jade asked, checking her head for signs of injury. The woman didn’t respond, just thrashed her head side to side. “Page Doctor Holder,” Jade said to the nurse hurrying next to her. The nurse immediately did as she was asked and they wheeled Sheila in and transferred her to a hospital bed.
As Jade hooked up the machines to monitor Sheila’s vitals, Lillian came quickly to the bedside. She looked over the patient and then back at Jade. “We need to get her down to X-ray,” Lillian said, a hint of consternation in her voice.
“No, we need CT,” Jade said quickly. “This woman’s having a stroke.”
“A stroke?” Ariella gasped behind them. “Mom!” she shouted at her mother, trying to push past Jade and Lillian.
“I don’t see…” Lillian started as she examined the woman’s face and eyes.
“Look at her hands,” Jade said, “and underneath her left eye.”
Lillian’s eyes widened almost imperceptibly as she realized that Jade was right. She immediately put in the order for the CT scan and they rushed the woman down the hall. Jade watched them go, her heart twisting. She had a feeling that the poor woman would not survive this.
“I thought… I thought she just fell…” Ariella was standing in the emergency room watching as they rushed her mother down the hall. The daughter was younger, maybe late twenties, and was wearing comfortable clothes. It was obvious that they had settled in to ride out the storm together. Fuzzy blue pants and aloose-fitting, white T-shirt covered her, on her feet were hastily thrown on sneakers with mismatched socks. Though given the condition of the clothes and the shoes, she guessed that Ariella was some sort of professional, possibly a teacher or professor. A sharpness to her eyes gave Jade the indication of intelligence, though they were dulled with shock.
“I know,” Jade said and touched her arm. She led Ariella into the waiting area and gently prodded her to take a seat. “What was she doing outside?” Jade asked gently.
“She said she wanted to make sure there was nothing in the mailbox,” Ariella said, her voice tight against tears. “I tried to stop her. I told her there was nothing that could be that important, but she insisted, so I went with her. But the wind, and the rain… when she fell, I panicked and called 911.”
“You did the right thing,” Jade said. “You were looking out for your mom; she’s lucky to have you.”
“But I just said that she fell, I didn’t know anything about a stroke,” Ariella broke into a sob and put her face in her hands. “Maybe if I had known they would have gotten there faster.”
“It wouldn’t have changed anything,” Jade said. “The paramedics are working as hard and as fast as possible in these conditions; this is not your fault.”
