Page 22 of Crushed Promises

At that moment the pager app on her phone dinged. She raised a brow.

“Yeah, we're having some trouble with our paging system,” Lacy admitted. “Don't worry, someone's here from IT, looking into it.”

“Good to know. Thanks.” She read the message on her display. Fifty-two-year-old white male being admitted with blunt trauma to the chest and head from an airbag deployment secondary to a car crash. Vitals stable. It didn't sound too bad, for a trauma call.

“We're putting him in trauma bay one.” Lacy gestured to the large electronic board where a man's name had just been populated into the assigned slot. “If he's stable, we can always move him into a different room.”

“Great. If you need anything else in the meantime, let me know.” She glanced back toward Rafe and Alec. “I'm sorry, I need to get back to work. Is there anything else you need?”

“Just a quick question.” Alec frowned. “I noticed you used a password to get into the machine. I assume you changed it recently based on the meeting we had the other day. But I could see what you entered while standing behind you.”

She flushed. “Yes, it's not the most foolproof system in the world. I confess, I didn't try to hide my password from you as I didn't think it was necessary. Typically, I do better. And we have recommended that all staff change their passwords every week for the interim. Or more often if they think someone else may have seen it.”

“I understand.” He and Rafe exchanged a glance. Alec continued, “Do you think they’re really going to cooperate by changing their password each week?”

She grimaced. “I don’t know. I would like to think so, but you know how it is. We need passwords for everything. Making up new ones and keeping track of them is a pain in the behind.”

“Yeah.” He nodded thoughtfully. “I think we'll hang around for a while, if you don't mind.”

She shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

Within minutes she heard the doors to the ambulance bay open, announcing the arrival of their blunt force trauma patient. She hurried over to the first bed in the trauma bay.

“Vital signs are good, although his blood pressure is on the high side, not sure what his baseline is,” the paramedic announced. “Glasgow Coma Score of 20, responding to verbal commands. He has an eighteen-gauge left peripheral IV placed in the field, 500 cc's of normal saline infused.”

William Patterson, one of the emergency department nurses working in the trauma room connected the patient to the heart monitor.

She remembered seeing his name on the electronic board as Barry Cox. She approached his bedside, leaning over the gurney to examine him. Barry was an extremely large man with a bloody gash across his forehead. A strong odor of alcohol emanated from him, which she tried to ignore as she assessed his neural status for herself. “Mr. Cox? Can you open your eyes for me?”

Her patient opened his eyes, saw her leaning close and suddenly went wild. She reared backward when he bolted upright on the gurney, the abrupt movement yanking the IV out of his left arm. Barry grabbed the heart electrodes William had connected, yanking hard and dropping them on the floor.

“I’ll get you for this!” Barry shouted, swinging his arm toward Jillian with the intention of hitting her. “I'll get you!”

She tried to duck away from the blow, but his fist connected with her right shoulder, causing a sharp pain to zing down her arm. Before she realized what was happening, Alec was there, placing himself between her and the wild patient.

“Mr. Cox, you better calm down.” Alex 's tone was even although his eyes flashed with a glint of anger. William, the paramedics and Alec tried to surround the patient, but they couldn't get too close. He was still waving his arms in a threatening manner. “The staff here want to help you, but not if you're going to fight against them.”

“I don't need any help!” Barry jumped out of gurney and stood swaying on his feet. Jillian suspected his head and chest, both which had been hit by the airbag from the steering wheel, hurt like the dickens. Or maybe he didn't feel any pain through his alcohol haze. “Leave me alone!”

She tried to step around Alec, but he frowned and moved so his body remained between her and Barry. She stifled a sigh and captured Barry's gaze, imploring him to listen. “Mr. Cox, please, sit down. I need to make sure you don't have a head injury or any cracked ribs. Does your chest hurt?”

As if on cue, Barry rubbed the center of his chest. “Yeah, it hurts a little.”

She managed to edge around Alec, whose gaze was trained on their patient. “My name is Dr. Davis. I'd really like to examine you. What if you have other injuries?”

“I'm fine.” He took a step backward and Alec followed. Barry frantically searched for the door. “I just want to go home.”

Boy, he was stubborn. “Mr. Cox, you can't go home until I examine you.”

“I can go home if I say I'm going home.” Barry took another step in the general direction of the ambulance bay doors. “You can't stop me. I have rights.”

“You do have rights, but I think we need to make sure you don't have a head injury that might be clouding your judgment.” As much as she wanted to let Barry walk out the door, she was medically liable for his care. She could not let him go until she saw the CT scan of his brain. If the scan was negative, she'd be more than happy to discharge him. “Why don't you just cooperate with us? Once we make sure you don’t have a head injury, I'll discharge you home.”

For a moment she thought she had him, but he turned and bolted to the door. Before anyone could move to follow, he stumbled and fell, his head bouncing off the linoleum floor.

Alec and the paramedics went over and secured his arms and legs so he couldn't hurt himself or others.

“Give him 5 milligrams of Haldol intramuscularly so we can get his IV replaced,” Jillian ordered. William dashed over to get the medication.

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