Come and Go

It’s winter in Chicago, there’s some snow, but the heavy stuff is yet to come. It’s a quiet day in the ER; there are a few patients on the board with mostly minor problems. The biggest emergency of the day has been a 76 year old with chest pains, who is occupying Trauma 1 while Kerry is waiting for the results of several tests. In the meantime, Doug is seeing to a 12 year old with a twisted ankle, Mark is signing off on a whole heap of charts and the nurses are sitting in the lounge gossiping.

Carol arrives, coming through the ambulance entrance and letting in a cold draught and some snowflakes. Mark, sitting at the main desk shivering in his white coat, asked, “Did you have to come in that way? I was sitting here, trying to get through this mountain of charts and thanking God that the heating was working for once, and then you opened those doors.”
“Well maybe you’d be better off in the lounge! Why are you out here doing this anyway?”
“Actually I was there, but then Haleh came in and told me that ‘the lounge was required for the nursing staff’ as they had an important meeting or something…”
Carol begins to laugh. “Mark, they’re not having a meeting! They’re just gossiping! Probably about you, which is why they didn’t want you there!”
Mark looks at his feet and starts to laugh too. “You’re right, I did wonder why they were having a meeting without you!”
“Actually Mark, do you know where Doug is? I’ve got some hot gossip I have to tell him, but it’s not about you, really it’s not!”
“Urrrr, I think he’s in Exam 3 with a patient. What’s the gossip?”
“Oh, nothing.”
“No, come on, you have to tell me.”
“No, I can’t, really Mark, I can’t.”
“Come on, you can tell me! It can’t be that bad, after all, you said it wasn’t about me. It isn’t, is it?”
“No Mark, it’s not about you, it’s Kerry, okay?”
“Kerry?”
“Yeah, Kerry.”
At this point Doug saunters up, chart in hand. “Did I hear that correctly? Gossip about Kerry? Is it about how her leg was bitten off savagely by a Paeds Attending in Africa ten years before she came here and now he’s returned to haunt her?”
Carol hits Doug, who has that smile on his face, while Mark is chuckling as he continues to work on the charts.
“Yes, it’s about Kerry, no it isn’t about her leg being bitten off, and keep your voice down! You never know when she might just creep up!”
“Well, with that crutch…” Carol hits him again before he can continue.
Mark stops writing “So come on Carol, what is the gossip?!”
“Okay, well, I’m trusting you two to keep this under wraps – especially you Doug – but rumour has it that she’s having a fling with Carter!!”
Both doctors come in close and say in unison “Carter?????”
By now they are all in a close, whispering huddle by the desk “Yeah, apparently he’s moved in and everything!”
“Whoah!”
A strange grin is appearing on Doug’s face “Seems like Carter has interesting taste!”
“Doug Ross, you’d better keep your trap shut about this or I am going to be in major trouble. I promised Jerry I wouldn’t tell anyone, especially you!”
“Me?” asks Doug, all innocent, but still with that mischievous grin on hisface.
“Hey guys, what’s up?” All three spin round to see Carter standing there.
“I was just wondering if any new patients had come in, y’know, it’s pretty boring around here at the moment.”
All three look a bit startled still, then Mark says “So you finished with the stomach ache in 1 then?”
“Yeah, simple case of indigestion. What’s going on here anyway?”
Mark suddenly starts scribbling furiously, and Carol and Doug begin to wander off down the corridor hand in hand, heads down, desperately trying not to laugh.
“Just talking about, oh, how attractive shrivelled legs can be, that sort of thing” Doug calls down the corridor as Carol digs her elbow into his side, and they disappear into an exam room, play wrestling. Carter stands confused for a moment, then goes round the desk to the computer.

A couple of hours later, and still nothing is really happening. The chest pain in Trauma 1 has been transferred to the cardio ward, and there are still a couple of minor patients around. Doug and Carol are sitting at the main desk chatting, Carter is seeing to an eye lac, Mark’s in a meeting with Kerry, and Jerry, Conni, Chuni, Malik and Yosh are playing a pick up game of basketball with a kid’s miniature set stuck to a wall. Suddenly the Ambulance bay doors fly open and a gurney thunders through with an EMT shouting the bullet. A second gurney follows with two other paramedics, and one of them shouts over to the main desk,
“Hey, your intercom is down, we couldn’t get through to tell you we were on the way.” The doctors and nurses rush to their positions around the gurneys as they head for the Trauma rooms.
“What do you mean, the intercom’s down? Didn’t Jerry check it this morning?” shouted Carol above the noise that had suddenly descended upon the department.
“Yeah, I’m sure I saw him check, he didn’t mention any problems,” replied Yosh, “Could it be the weather?” “Well, it’s never happened before and we’ve had much worse weather thanthis.”

In Trauma 1, Mark, Carter, Carol and Yosh work on the patient, a girl who’s wearing very little.
“Give me the bullet guys” called Mark to the EMT’s who were standing by the doors.
“Nineteen year old female found dumped in Grant Park under some trees, resps not so good, blood pressure 120 over 80, pulse thready, slipping in and out of consciousness. Looks like she’s been raped. You have to sort that intercom out, we thought you were closed.” Mark and the nurses get to work while this is going on, hanging IV’s and blood and taking vital signs.
“You thought we were CLOSED? Do the other EMT’s know we’re not? I bet that’s why it’s been so quiet…. okay, you have to go and transmit from your rig that we’re definitely NOT closed, and open to all emergencies but the intercom’s down, okay?” shouted Carol to the paramedics, as they left.

In Trauma 2, Doug, Haleh and Conni are working on a very small boy. Carter comes in, as Mark has the woman in 1 under control. “What’s the situation here?”
“We have a boy of about two or three, found with the woman, unconscious, appears to be suffering from malnutrition, slight hypothermia and possible exhaustion.”
“What has a kid this small been doing to end up like that?” Carter asks incredulously.
“Who knows, Carter, who knows.”

In Trauma 1 fifteen minutes later, the woman is regaining consciousness again, although this time she has been intubated, and appears alarmed and distressed.
“Hello, ma’am, can you hear me?” Mark leans over her as she tries to sit up, but he gently holds her down. “Ma’am, you’re in hospital, you were found in Grant Park. I’m going to take that tube out of your throat now, okay?” The woman still seems scared, but nods her head, suddenly appearing very young. “ I need you to take a deep breath in and then blow out as hard as you can when I say, okay? Right, now.” He pulls the tube out, and the woman coughs briefly and then tries to sit up again. This time Mark consents and helps her up, lifting the gurney half up so she can lean back. He pulls up a stool and sits down next to her, resting his arms on the bed. “Ma’am, firstly I need to know what your name is so we can contact your family to let them know you’re okay. Can you remember your name?”
“Yeah, it’s not something I tend to forget,” she says back, as if she’s trying to be tough, but not really succeeding. “My name’s Caroline. Caroline Gilbert. You don’t need my middle name or anything do you?”
Mark smiles, “No, we don’t need that. But we do need to get on to your parents, do you have their phone number?”
The woman looks down again, “No, I don’t. And you don’t need to contact them. I’m fine.” This time, her voice is firm, and it has a certain edgeto it.
“Caroline, paramedics just found you lying in the mud under a patch of trees in Grant Park unconscious. If that was my daughter, I’d sure want to know that she was okay.”
“Look, okay, I don’t speak to my parents, they don’t speak to me. It’s an arrangement that works well for everyone. They wouldn’t know or care where I’ve been, okay, so just leave them out of it. If you have to contact anyone, call my friend Karen on this…” she reaches to go into the pocket of her jacket, which is hanging from the corner of the gurney, but pulls out nothing as a distant look comes over her face. Tears come to her eyes as she stares into the distance, and her lips begin to move, saying words that no-one can make out until she really starts to sob, muttering “oh god, no” in between breaths. The look on Mark’s face says that he knows that she has just realised what has happened to her, that she is remembering the rape. He has seen the evidence of it, the bruising, the gag marks, the lump on her head where she was kicked afterwards, and the lack of ID, which suggests that she was robbed too. He bows his head.

The little boy in Trauma 2 begins to wake up after about half an hour. He is wrapped in heated blankets to ease the hypothermia, and two IV bags hang from a nearby stand, one of heated saline solution to warm the bloodstream and one to feed him. Doug comes in from where he was standing outside the doors watching, and goes over to the bed as the boy twists and turns, trying to pull himself up before opening his eyes. Doug places a hand on his back to keep him lying down for the moment, and the boy’s eyes open and look straight at him. They are a startling bright blue colour and seem to penetrate Doug, who crouches down by the bed, temporarily speechless, as the boy just looks straight at him. The boy breaks the gaze to look around himself. “Hey, buddy, hey. You’re in the hospital. You know what that is?” The boy’s gaze returns, although less penetrating this time, more confused. He shakes his head, his eyes not leaving Doug’s face. “It’s where people go when they’re not very well or if they’ve had an accident, like if they fall over. Did you fall over?” “No,” suddenly the boy pipes up, in a surprisingly strong voice, Doug appears to be a little taken aback. “Well well! You speak! Can you tell me your name, buddy?” “Ben” “Okay Ben, my name’s Doug, okay? I work here, I’m a doctor. I have to look after all the people who get hurt…” The little boy suddenly interrupts, “Did I hurt?” “Did you get hurt? I don’t know Ben, does anywhere feel funny?” “No, don’t think so,” the boy replies. “Can you remember what happened Ben?” There is a short silence. “Do you remember? Two people found you in the park, you were with a lady….” “Ca-line?” said Ben, interrupting again, this time with a gleam of something similar to hope and recognition. “Caline? Caroline?” Doug leaned forward at this piece of information. “Is that the name of the lady?” “Yeh. Where is she? Is she here? Did she hurt?” “Yeah Ben, she’s here…. Haleh, can you wait here with Ben… Ben, I’m just going to go and find out about Caroline for you, okay? This is Haleh; she’s going to stay with you. I’ll be back in a moment, okay?” Ben nodded and watched Doug go through to Trauma 1.

“Mark, can I have a word?” Mark was talking to Caroline, who had stopped crying but was still looking tearful, clutching a paper towel. “Sure. Caroline, I’ll be back in a sec, I’m going to have to get someone to call Social Services for you and Ben, and you’ll have to talk to the police” Caroline looked alarmed at the prospect of all this. As Doug and Mark walked out of the room, Doug said “You know about Ben?” “Yeah, I don’t know how much you know, but you may want to have a seat. I sure did.” replied Mark. They made their way out to the main desk, where Mark asked Jerry to get Social Services, DCFS and the police on the line. “Caroline is a prostitute, and she was raped and beaten sometime between Thursday and last night. Ben is of no relation to her, but is the son of another prostitute. Unfortunately, this woman disappeared about a month after he was born and left Ben with the other women who worked her area. He gets passed around the women to look after because watching him means that they will lose working time. Having a kid tag along is not what pimps want, it seems.” “You mean to tell me that that kid in there lives on the streets? He isn’t any older then three Mark.” Mark shrugs his shoulders. “It sounds like that’s the way he’s always lived Doug, most of the hookers live on the streets. Caroline said he gets fed okay, there’s a soup kitchen twice a week, and the women use their pay to buy food for him.” “Well it’s obviously not the right stuff Mark, that little boy has a severe case of malnutrition!” Jerry comes up to the two, “Dr.Greene, Social Services are on the line.” “Thanks Jerry. Okay, look Doug, I’m going to get Social Services in and we’ ll see what happens.” “Unbelievable. A kid lives on the streets with a bunch of hookers from birth and no-one notices for three years.”

Doug walks back towards Trauma 2 to go and check on Ben, and he is just about to go and see if Caroline’s okay when he sees Carol watching Ben through the door of the trauma room. “Hey,” he says, “Wait till you hear that kid’s story. It really makes me mad.” Carol looks at him with the expression of one who has just snapped out of a deep thought “Hmm?” “You okay? You look stressed.” “Yeah, I’m fine, I’m just waiting for Kerry to come and yell at me for not checking the intercom enough.” “Did you find out what was wrong?” “Yeah, a fuse blew is all. But the point is that it should be checked more frequently, and I’m responsible for that. We were lucky today Doug, it was quiet, we hadn’t missed any major incidents. But if the intercom had gone down on a busy day, well, I don’t want to think about what would’ve happened, I mean, a high risk patient could’ve been diverted to a hospital further away and died because of it. Then I could have been facing much worse consequences than just Kerry Weaver blowing her top at me.” “I don’t know. I think that’s a pretty bad punishment if you ask me…” Doug said with a slight grin. They both look back into the trauma room where Ben and Haleh are sitting, Haleh watching the boy play with a latex glove. “I heard about the little boy, Ben. It’s awful. What do you think will happen to him?” “He’ll probably end up in foster care, move around so much that he’ll end up on the streets again, and probably end up like Charlie. I hate it that it’s like that Carol. It’s not fair on him, he deserves to have a good a life as the next person.” “DCFS could come through with an adoption place for him, he’d be okay then. Have you seen his eyes? I don’t know of many people who would turn himdown.” “Face it Carol, DCFS hardly ever succeed in rehoming kids like this forgood.” They stand there watching Ben in silence for a while longer. “I’m going to go in now and see him, I promised I’d go and find out about Caroline for him. Do you want to come?”“Yeah. Those eyes are calling me….” “Hey, what’s wrong with mine?!”

Doug, Carol and Haleh can be seen playing with Ben as Caroline walks past. She takes a look into the room, and then walks off down the corridor. The End Home