A Prescription for Love Teaser

Alice and I were called in with Felix, Dr. Denali, to work on a young teenage girl who was caught in her apartment. She had burns on her legs, arms and face. Nothing too severe, but enough to char the skin and perhaps garner some skin grafts. Unfortunately, it was her lungs that were causing our concern. She was not getting enough oxygen to her body and her pulse ox was dangerously low. To make matters worse, her airway was swollen. We couldn’t intubate her due to the swelling and Felix was talking of performing a tracheotomy.

“Dr. Denali,” Alice said as she read the girl’s lab report. “She’s pregnant.”

“How far along, Alice?” he asked.

“Not far. Two months,” she replied. “Will this affect the baby?”

“The distress could cause her to miscarry,” Dr. Denali said. “We’ve got two lives to save now. Get OB down here to come down and do a consult.” Alice nodded and made the call. I was standing, pumping air into her lungs through her mask. “Bella, we may have to trach. Get the tray ready.”

“Yes, sir,” I said as I passed of the breathing to one of the nurse techs. I quickly prepped the neck and waited for Dr. Denali’s instructions. He looked at her monitors and she was clearly not getting enough oxygen.

“We need to trach her,” he sighed. “Are the meds on board?”

“Here,” I said as I handed him the syringes with the necessary medications to sedate the patient. Injecting the medications into her IV, she was rendered unconscious and paralyzed.

“Scalpel.” I handed him the scalpel and we worked quickly to open up her airway, placing the trach. Once it was in, we attached to a breathing machine. As soon as she was hooked up, her oxygen levels picked up immediately. “Good. Very good.”

Edward strode into the trauma room where I was working with Dr. Denali. He was wearing a pair of scrubs and his lab coat. “What do we have?”

“Fifteen year old girl. She was brought in, unresponsive and wheezing. Patient is approximately two months pregnant with smoke inhalation and burns on twenty percent of her body,” I began. “Upon further examination, her airway was blocked from swelling. Dr. Denali performed a tracheotomy and her oxygen level is rising.”

“Do you need me here?” Edward asked.

“Check with Dr. Sanchez and Dr. Black,” Dr. Denali said. “Bella and I have this, right?”

“Yes, Dr. Denali,” I smiled.

“You’ve got one of the best nurses with you, Felix,” Edward winked. “Do you know if any more victims are coming in?”

“We may have some of the firefighters, but the victims were brought in here and Lakeshore,” Dr. Denali explained. Edward nodded and left, walking to the second trauma room. I saw Jacob’s stance tense when Edward entered the room. To say that Jacob hated Edward was a vast understatement. His abhorrence of my boyfriend was made abundantly clear with his scowls, glares and underhanded comments. It didn’t faze Edward. He just documented each instance, adding it to an every-growing file on Jacob’s performance in the ER.