Fanfiction : Earthcquake and Consequences - Chapter 4

Chapter 4 – A long night

Before joining Andrews in radiology, Claire went out of the ER for a few minutes. She needed to clear her mind. What she had just lived was crazy! Neil had almost died and she was the one who resuscitated him. It was huge and it was scary at the same time. Claire really needed to find a place to hide, to let her feelings go out, to break for just a moment before she joined her chief in radiology.

She sat on the emergency stairs, away from the entrance door. And she cried, she cried a lot. She was afraid. The man she loved was close to death and she couldn’t lose another person again. She won’t get through it. Not this time. Not after all the loss she went through this year. Neil was the person who saved her, who prevented her from falling, from crashing. And she wanted to be the one who’s gonna save him. She had to.

“What are you crying?”

She looked up. It was Shaun. “Oh… That’s just …um… I had a rough day and It’s not over yet..; I just need to cry to make me feel better…”

Shaun looked at her puzzled. “That’s really weird. You cry when you are sad, not to get better. “

She got up. Shaun in his own special way, tried to comfort her. “Thanks for being here, Shaun. You’re a good friend”. She pressed his shoulder. He let her do it. She was one of the only people in the world who could do that.

She joined Andrews in radiology. Her eyes had dried. She didn’t want to show him she had cried. She had to remain professional. Neil was lying on the table unconscious but alive. Andrews was sitting in the cabin where he monitored all the scans he was doing.

“His right leg is broken like his left hand. He has a commotion. But what I fear the most is his abdomen. He’s bleeding internally… But I can’t find where all this blood is coming from…”

Claire looked at the scans. She had to find the solution, she had to fix him, she had to know why he was so bad.

“Dr. Browne, are you listening to me?”

“Sorry, Dr. Andrews. I was looking at the MRI… Did you see this point just above the pancreas?”

He looked at her and came closer to the screen.

“What an eye, Dr. Browne. I think you have found the origin of the bleeding. Prepare to scrub in, we’re going to surgery right now.”

She ran to the prep room and changed in less than two minutes. Before Andrews was in the room, she was already checking Neil’s vitals with the nurses. She was determined to fix him as he had fixed her after her mother and Kayla died. At this moment, Andrews came in and nodded at her. It was time. Time to save Neil.

The surgery lasted hours. There were complications, a lot of complications. His heart raced, almost stopped many times. But he held on. The bleeding was worse than they expected. The liver and the kidney were also touched. But neither Andrews, neither Claire could stop. It was not fair, not right for the patient. Even more when the patient was one of their friends and colleagues. The first thing she learnt when she entered medical school was “you never give up a patient, even if it seems desperate”. She could hear her biology teacher in her ears right now. This same teacher who had told her she could be anything she wanted, she had just to believe in herself. That was when it hit her:

“And what if the kidney was not hurt ? What if it was only a bad scratch? “

Andrews looked at her puzzled. A simple scratch, it seemed so easy…. So easy they didn’t even think about it. At this moment, he chose to believe her because it was bad, really bad. He found out that the liver had just been cut by a broken rib they had not seen before. He looked at her and nodded.

“Well done, Dr. Browne. One problem is solved. Now let’s take care of the others!”

She nodded. It was the first step to save Neil. Many were still to do. But it was something, something encouraging.

Dr. Lim joined them later. She had finished all her surgeries of the day. She helped to stitch all the damage in the abdomen. Five hours after he entered the OR, Neil Melendez was taken into the recovery room. Claire removed her cap. She was sweating. Audrey came by her.

“You should get a drink sometimes..”

“With pleasure.”

Andrews joined them. He was exhausted too. “Now go home and sleep, Browne, that’s an order!”

She was awake for more 36 hours. But she couldn’t sleep, she couldn’t sleep…

She remained alone in the locker room for a moment. She needed this moment by herself, to think, to breathe, to understand what had just happened. When she got out of the room, she was like a robot and directly went to Neil’s room. As she entered, she saw him. She felt sad, angry, and uncomfortable. It was not pretty. He was connected to many machines. He couldn’t breathe on his own. He was intubated. Cannula were all over his body. A big Band Aid was covered his abdomen and all she could hear was the beeps of the heart checking machine. And it reminded her that his heart was still beating and it was all that mattered.

She came closer and dared to put her hand on his. She didn’t know if he could feel it. She was not a true believer. She should have been to church maybe twice in her life. But right now, she needed to hang to something, she needed hope and support. He saved her and she couldn’t lose him. She pressed his hand as to send him a message. She whispered in her ear, she couldn’t cry, she had to be strong for both of them. She had to be the one who will save him now. She had to be his rock.

She remained here for hours. Nothing changed but she wanted to be there in case anything happened. She fell asleep for a moment. The hospital was so calm. Almost all the nurses were working in the ER to heal the victims of the earthquake, the doctor were there too. Only one of them remained at each floor to take care of the patients.

While she was dreaming, she heard a noise. She couldn’t take care of it at first. But as it was becoming much stronger, she opened her eyes. Neil was on cardiac arrest!

She jumped from the chair. “Code blue, code blue”

But no one answer. She was alone. The nurse was not there or at least not in the area at the moment. She was on her own. She had to do it by herself. She started compressions. Not matter how long she had to do it, she won’t let him down. She did compressions for long minutes when she finally heard a noise. The nurse was back.

“Hey I’m here! Could I have some help, please, he’s crashing!!!”

Before she could think, Nurse Petringa ran to the EDA and brought it in the room. Claire stopped the compressions and connected Neil to the device. As it was loading, she started compressions again. Her arms ached, her hands were red as hell but she kept doing it. The nurse gave her the go to use the EDA. As she pressed the button, she was scared. What if he didn’t respond? What if she didn’t manage to save him? What if… Nurse Petringa pressed her shoulder.

“He’s gonna be OK.. Look his heart, it’s beating again…. Take some rest, Dr. Browne, you really need it…. What you have just done, it was awesome…. You made compressions for more than 10 minutes and never stopped….”

She left the room. Claire remained once again alone, lost. Did she really make compressions for so long? She could not even remember. All that mattered was Neil’s life. She was like in a dream when it had happened. And now she was so tired, she needed to sleep. But she didn’t want to go away, leave this room, to let him alone, to be away from him. Her body refused to spend another minute away from Neil Melendez.

She sat on the edge of Neil’s bed and lay on him. Her ear was against his chest and she could hear his heart beating. It was peaceful. It eased her pain. She grabbed his arm in her hand and squeezed it just for him to know he was not alone in all this. She was standing by his side. And then she felt deeply asleep…