Softly Awaken

 

 

Chapter Eleven

 

*****

Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.

                       Luk. 22:43

*****

 

“Yeah, Stephen.  No.  I don’t need you guys to pick me up.  Really.”  Jing Mei twirled the phone cord around her index finger.  “I’ll see you tomorrow okay?”

 

As she hung up the receiver, Jing Mei couldn’t believe that this was her last shift at County General.  It was about one in the morning and it was dead as a morgue.  Turning around, Jing Mei asked Randi, “Where’s John?”  The dark-haired clerk blew a bubble, which popped and was sucked back into her mouth.  She shrugged.   “I think I saw Dr. Carter in Trauma 1.”

 

Jing Mei put away her last patient chart and made her way to the staff lounge.  As she stuffed her lab coat, stethoscope and personal effects into her backpack, Jing Mei couldn’t help but take one last look at the room.  She would miss it.

 

Mercy hadn’t offered her the position yet, but Stephen felt confident prior to her interview, which was scheduled for the day after tomorrow, Jing Mei would be hired for the position.  She wasn’t as confident, but Henry also was confident that she would get the position.  As she made her way to Trauma 1, Jing Mei couldn’t help reminisce over the good times she’d had at County.  The bad could never overshadow the good that happened during her stint in the busy hospital.

 

As she pushed open one of the doors, Jing Mei found John sitting behind a pile of charts.  “So you’re slacking off I see!” Jing Mei teased, as she readjusted the strap of her backpack on her shoulder.  John looked up at Jing Mei with those brown eyes that made her smile every time.

 

His lips turned up into his trademark grin.  “Me?  Never.  As Chief Resident, I’m always busy,” spouted John.

 

Jing Mei shook her head and rolled her eyes.  “I just wanted to drop by to say goodbye.”  As the words left her lips, Jing Mei noticed John’s grin smoothed into a straight line.  He sighed and then after writing something down in a chart, John put the pen down and stood up.  “Okay,” he replied.

 

She folded her arms across her chest and tilted her head.  “Don’t be too upset that I’m leaving John,” she said sarcastically.  John made a face and scratched his head.  “I left something in Trauma 2, do you want to come with me for a sec?” asked John.

 

Jing Mei shrugged.  “Sure.”

 

John pushed opened the unusually darkened Trauma room.  As Jing Mei walked in, the lights suddenly flickered on and she was faced with a white frosted cake, surrounded by some of the ER staff.  Jing Mei felt tears beginning to form in the corners of her eye.  Her mouth opened in an ‘oh’ and she pressed her left hand to her chest.  “You guys!”

 

Luka, Kerri, Haleh, Wendy, Malik, and Abby were there, followed by a loud entrance by Randi, who apparently had been in on the surprise.  “Surprise!” shouted Randi, with a big grin on her face.  “Now let’s have some cake!”

 

The large 11” x 14” cake had writing on it.  With pink frosting, someone had put ‘Good Luck Deb’ in the middle of the dessert.  Jing Mei turned around and looked at John whose grin had returned to his face.  Abby interrupted the moment, handing Jing Mei a piece of cake on a white napkin.

 

The small group mingled for a bit, and finally the party began to end.  Kerri was the first to leave, going back to her rounds.  But before her departure, Kerri held out her hand.  “I wish you luck Dr. Chen.  You may not believe it, but you’ll be missed around here.”  And with that, the fiery red-head left.

 

Wendy, Malik, and Haleh smiled and hugged her good bye.  Jing Mei felt her breath caught in her throat.  She never expected any farewell party.  Jing Mei thought that everyone was upset that she was leaving in a time of uncertainty.  Luka gave her a warm hug.  “You’ll have to drop by from time to time you know?” he warned, pointing seriously at her.  Jing Mei grinned and nodded.  “I will.”

 

Finally John, Abby, and Jing Mei were left to clean up the leftover napkins, and Styrofoam cups.  When everything seemed to be disposed of, Abby came up to Jing Mei and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.  “I just wanted to wish you luck.  I’m sure you’ll be happy at Mercy.”

 

Jing Mei nodded.  “Thanks.”  The three walked out of the trauma room, and just as John was about to say something, a call came over the radio.  Jing Mei caught most of the call.

 

‘County you’ve got an MVA coming… One driver with possible internal bleeding.  The female passenger sustained head injuries.  ETA, 5 minutes.’

 

John looked apologetically at Jing Mei.  “I’ll catch you later?”  Jing Mei smiled and nodded.  She took one last look at the place where she’d learned so much, when the paramedics came crashing in.  “Male, 30.  Driver of the car.  He’s stopped breathing once, possible internal bleeding.”

 

Jing Mei watched John and Kerri take the patient into the trauma room.  She walked out through the ambulance bay.  It had started snowing; the first snowfall of the year.  Jing Mei was about to leave, when she heard her name.
Jing Mei!”  She thought it might have been one of the nurses.  Jing Mei turned around and saw a blonde woman standing with a couple of nurses hovering beside her.  Jing Mei frowned.  She looked familiar.

 

“Jennifer?” whispered Jing Mei.

 

~~~

 

John didn’t realize that everything would seem like a blur the last shift of Jing Mei’s last day.  He felt like he had so much to say, but didn’t have the time to say it.  But John had been glad the staff had decided to give her a farewell party.  It didn’t seem right, not to.

 

He’d planned on at least giving her a hug good bye, but then the MVA call and the victims had arrived.  John hadn’t seen a trauma this bad in a while, and he knew he had to focus.  The driver was unconscious and had shallow breath sounds on his left.  He ordered a chest film and a CT scan and C-spine.  “He’s unresponsive to command.  What’s his BP?” demanded John.

 

“It’s low.  Pulse ox 85.  BP 90 over 50!” Abby stated.

 

Suddenly the victim began coughing.  John let him have some space, but then noticed blood coming from the patient.  Suddenly he stopped breathing.  “Chest tube tray.  Intubating!  Give me 3 unites of O-neg.  Hang 2 on the rapid infuser.” cried John.  As he opened the victim’s mouth and tried to lower the tube in, he realized that there was too much blood. 

 

Kerri looked up at John and nodded.  “His belly’s decended.  Probably intra-abdominal bleeding.  We need an ultrasound.  We need to get up to surg…”

 

Suddenly Deb burst into the trauma room with a distraught look on her face.  Her eyes widened and she let out a strangled cry.  “Stephen!”

 

John looked down at the patient.  He was confused at Deb’s distress. John looked at the patient’s face again.  It was covered in blood, eyes closed and a face mask over his mouth.  But there was something familiar about him.  Suddenly John recognized him.   It was Deb’s brother, Stephen.

 

Deb moves closer to the gurney.  Kerri yells at the staff in the trauma room.  “Someone get her out of here!”  Unexpectedly, Deb collapses.

 

“Oh no.  Not Stephen!  Please God, not Stephen.”  Haleh pulled Deb from the trauma room and into the hallway.

 

John felt Abby tug on his sleeve.  He opened his hand.  “Scalpel.”  Abby placed the cold narrow length of steel in his hand  He refocused on Kerri and her order to take him up to surgery.  “We don’t have time.  If we don’t find where the internal bleeding is coming from he’ll never make it through to the OR.” 

 

He made an incision down the man’s chest.  There was a massive amount of blood surrounding his organs.   Quickly but carefully John searched for the reason for all the bleeding.  Finally he found a tear in the anterior lining of the stomach.  He plugged that, but found that there was still a problem.  Kerri put pressure on the tear, stifling it with gauze.  With that found, John took a look at his lungs.  He found a puncture, a millimeter long.  “We’ve got a collapsed lung…”

 

“Carter, he’s in v-fib,” Abby announced, while she was holding a mask over the patient’s mouth, trying to help him breathe.

 

John took a look at the heart rhythm.  As quickly as he could, John made an incision into his trach and inserted a tube, attaching the plastic bulb onto the tube John yelled,  “Bag’em!  I need the internal paddles.”

 

Wendy pulled the cart holding the heavy machine to the gurney.  Carter took the paddles and placed them on his heart.  “Charge to 30.  Clear!” John called.  All hands pulled away as he shocked the warm red muscle.  John waited for Abby to announce if there was a rhythm.  The high pitch of the heart monitor said it all.  “Charge to 30 again.  Clear!” John called.  Finally a rhythm appeared on the black screen.

 

All breathed a sigh of relief when his vitals became somewhat stable.  Stable enough for the nurses to move him up to surgery and begin repairs on his major injuries.  John pulled off his gloves and gown and headed out into the hallway.  He looked for any sign of Deb, but she was nowhere to be seen.  However a petite auburn-haired woman stood looking towards the elevator, hands stifling the sobs that wracked her body.  “Excuse me?” John called.  The woman turned around.  Her eyes were red and puffy.  There was a band-aid over the left brow.  “Are you related to the patient?”

 

She nodded.  “I’m his fiancée,” she stuttered.  Swallowing hard, the woman turned back to stare at the elevator doors.  “Is he going to be all right?”

 

John led her over to a nearby chair.  He set the goggles that were still on his face on the crown of his head.  “What’s your name?” John inquired.

 

Sniffling, the woman hid her face into the palms of her hands.   Finally, wiping the free-flowing tears she managed to choke out, “Jennifer.  And that was Stephen.”

 

John sat down beside her and held her.  “His vitals are stable, but we’ve just sent him up for surgery.  He’s got a collapsed lung and a tear in his abdominal walls.”

 

As he explained what process Stephen would go through, John could feel her body shudder from the overwhelming sobs.  “But is he going to be okay?” she repeated her previous question.

 

John looked sympathetically at Jennifer.  “I’m not sure at this point.”  He caught Wendy’s eye and motioned her to come over.  When the perky and petite nurse arrived at Jennifer’s side, John stood up.  “Could you show Jennifer the waiting room up in surgery?”  Wendy smiled sincerely and began to lead Jennifer towards the elevator.

 

Suddenly Jennifer stopped.  “Uh, doctor?  Do you know where Jing Mei went?  She talked to the red-headed doctor who went up with Stephen and I haven’t seen her since.”

 

John shook his head.  “I’ll look for her though, and tell her you’re looking for her.”  When Jennifer finally followed Wendy to the waiting room, John turned around to find Abby.  He made his way over to the admissions desk.  Randi stared at John for a moment, then continued to chew loudly on her bubble gum.  “So how’s Dr. Chen’s brother looking?”  He shrugged. 

 

“I don’t know,” replied John. 

 

Spotting Abby, he grabbed her to the side.  “I’m going to look for Deb.  If I’m needed in the ER, you can page me, okay?”

 

Abby studied him for a moment and then sighed.  “Yeah.  Of course.  Go.”

 

~ * ~

 

John looked throughout the surgery wing and couldn’t find hide nor hair of Deb.  Finally in a last ditch attempt, John made his way to the roof.  As he opened the door, John could see a thin layer of snow form on top of the ledge of the roof.  It was dark and empty.

 

Just as John was about to turn and leave, he heard a soft sob in the corner of the roof.  He walked towards the whisper of a sound and squinted his eyes to make out a small huddled figure, curled up in the corner of the roof.  “Deb?”

 

Deb peered up at him, her rosy cheeks stained with tears.  John kneeled down to her level and grabbed her hands, pulling her up to standing.  Deb wrapped her arms around his neck and as John felt weight of her body on his, all he could do was wrap his arms around her, comforting her.  “It’s okay Deb.  I’m right here.”