Part 1
Dr. Graysen endures Rapture’s Damage
Dr. Axel Graysen sat on a concrete slab near the railing on the roof of the Wuga Hospital. Sipping orange juice from a bottle he filled at the cafeteria, he stared at the dark sky and the rising full moon gracing the Kingdom of Aeras with its brilliance tonight.
Their Capital City was going to be bright this Thursday night.
Veteran doctors at the Wuga Hospital insisted a full moon meant the Emergency Room would fill with the craziest medical emergencies. The weirdest medical situations cropped up and the emergency department remained in a state of nonstop crisis until morning.
Axel once tried to disprove the theory, but experience soon proved the veterans right. He tried not to be on call during a full moon. That he was on call tonight was thanks to a series of events.
Axel shifted his gaze to the helipad platform on the other end of the building.
Three days ago, Dr. Brown, his Residency Professor, called Axel to receive a VIP patient. The patient arrived on a medic-helicopter and it turned out to be the man responsible for building and establishing the Wuga Hospital in the Capital City, Mr. Chae Wook.
Chae Wook was presenting with acute abdominal pain on arrival.
Axel agreed to give Chae Wook emergency care until his attending doctor, Dr. Raff, arrived at the hospital. He completed all admission procedures and settled Mr. Wook in the private wing on the top floor of the building. Yisu Wook, Mr. Wook’s only son, added in a moment of excitement when he hugged Axel hard in gratitude. He thanked Axel for managing his father’s pain levels.
When Dr. Raff arrived an hour later, Axel was free to return to his usual final year-of-residency existence.
Axel was completing his last year of a six-year integrated cardiothoracic residency at the Wuga Hospital. However, it was nice to see the world Dr. Raff lived in and maybe want a bit of it for himself.
Dr. Brown was his residency mentor and a professor he admired thoroughly.
Axel was surprised to discover that Dr. Raff was Dr. Brown’s husband. He had been both embarrassed and impressed by the discovery.
Embarrassed because Dr. Brown was the one person he looked up to at Wuga Hospital. Dr. Brown had helped him get through his residency, and made him a better doctor. He should have known about Dr. Raff being his husband.
He was also impressed because it took extra work to keep a marriage going with their crazy demanding lifestyle.
Axel could barely manage his personal life. He owned an apartment with three pieces of furniture. A couch gifted to him by his mother, a coffee table laden with research papers and medical journals, and a bed. When he did make it home depending on his level of tiredness, the farthest he got to was the couch. When he was lucid, his bed saw him. Those were the longest most faithful relationships he had kept these past six years.
His dad managed his utilities and tiny investments. His mom had hired an amazing woman who helped stock Axel’s apartment with groceries and pre-packaged meals. Now that he was nearing his residency’s end, his time was packed with board certifications and finding a great posting preferably at the Wuga Hospital.
At what point could he think to add in a husband?
Shaking his head, Axel sipped his orange juice and glanced at the time on his watch. He had two more minutes. Capping the bottle, Axel scratched the stubble on his chin and pushed off the slab. He walked back to the stairwell entrance and started a slow walk down to the emergency department.
Axel had agreed to take on a night shift for one of the third-year residents in his group. He ran into her the night he returned to his desk from helping Dr. Raff. Her name was Ronnie, she was very kind and hardworking. He was shocked to see her crying as she studied their schedule, so he tried to offer comfort. It turned out she was taking care of her mother who suffered a traffic accident and was admitted to the hospital. Ronnie wanted to stay with her mother to get through surgery aftercare.
Axel agreed to help by taking one of her shifts. He tried to be kind to his co-workers where he could. This was why he had ended up with a full moon night at the emergency department. He was exhausted from a long day and had needed a ten-minute break on the roof before he tackled time in the emergency department.
Drinking the last of his orange juice, Axel took the last set of stairs and opened the door that would lead him to the emergency floor.
“Dr. Graysen,” the nurse in charge greeted him when she saw him.
She stood behind the nurse’s station holding the phone.
“Nina.”
“I was about to call you. Medics 23, 24, and 25 in route with a code blue, and two in potential code blue.”
Axel took off his doctor’s coat, handing it and the orange juice bottle over to Nina. It was easier to work the night shift in just his scrubs. She placed the coat on the chair next to her behind the counter, the bottle under the counter, and handed him his stethoscope.
Axel sanitized his hands as Nina started an announcement over the public address.
“Attention Wuga Emergency Department. Three medics enroute with one code blue, and two in critical condition. ETA three minutes.”
Axel was already heading to the emergency doors, followed by three of the third-year residents in his group and four nurses, behind them, Nina had the rest of the nurses and technicians moving machines, and medicine carts, and preparing emergency bays.
Axel forgot the tension in his shoulders as the ambulances arrived. The paramedics opened the doors and Axel checked the vitals of the code blue patient. He left the other two patients to two third-year residents as they rushed the coding patient to the resuscitation room.
“Female, 22, vitals are critical,” the paramedic reported as they moved. “We used the defibrillator twice. We’ve administered three epis so far. Pupils remain fixed and dilated. Her friend says she ingested pills called Rapture at the club where we picked her up but we have no samples. Never heard of them.”
They moved the young woman onto the hospital bed and the paramedic stepped aside to allow Axel and his team to take over.
“The same conditions apply to the other two who came in with us,” the paramedic continued. “The detectives in charge of the case are right behind us. There might be more incoming patients.”
“Oliver, take over compressions,” Axel said to the third-year resident with him. He opened an app on his iPhone to a metronome, matching the rhythm to the patient’s heartbeat.
Axel checked the vitals on the screen and hurried around to the patient’s head. This was likely a severe overdose case. First, they needed to get the patient’s heart beating on its own again.
The paramedics had inserted a breathing tube down her throat and into her lungs. Axel checked to make sure it was sitting right. He was relieved they had done a good job. One of Nina’s nurses had already taken over the administration of oxygen.
Oliver’s chest compressions on the woman’s chest had frothy pulmonary secretions rising up through the breathing tube. The fluids spilled out on the patient’s clothes. Oliver kept up compressions.
“How long has she been down?” Axel asked the paramedic.
“Twelve minutes,” the paramedic said.
Shit!
Oliver’s tempo changed. He was getting tired.
“Hold compressions for a rhythm check,” Axel said, glancing at the monitor.
The monitor showed a little heart rhythm. Axel grabbed the ultrasound and placed it over the young woman’s heart. The heartbeat came back soft. It was still too faint to sustain their patient’s life.
“Roll her to her right side,” Axel said.
The nurses, two second-year residents, and Oliver rolled the patient to the right side. Axel grabbed a pair of scissors and cut her dress to check her back. He felt panic rise when he noted faint streaks of pooling blood. She was crashing fast.
Still, the heart was moving however faint. Carbon dioxide readings looked normal.
“Lay her back,” Axel said and ordered the second-year resident to restart compressions in place of Oliver.
Axel ordered another dose of epinephrine. Oliver administered it, and his skills were fast and efficient. They inserted lines into their patient’s left hand. Axel followed up the epi with a series of life-saving drugs to support resuscitation. He helped cut away stockings and pulled off the party dress. Nina replaced it with a hospital gown.
Axel monitored vitals. He used the defibrillator once to support the restoration of electrical activity and urged a fresh second-year doctor to continue compressions.
A precious six minutes passed in tense activity. Nina recorded Axel’s orders, each action they did, the numbers on monitors, and the number of compressions Oliver and the second-year residents put in. Axel was sweating when the heart monitor finally gave them back a strong note and sustained the rhythm.
“She’s back,” Oliver said, his voice weary. “Her heart’s beating again.”
Nina patted Axel’s back, her own relief coming in a swift sigh, and then she urged the nurses to start the cleanup.
Axel could only nod with a grim expression on his face as he stared at their patient’s vitals. Her heart was beating, but…it had taken too long to get her back. Too long.
Adding the six minutes on to the twelve minutes with the paramedics, Axel feared their patient was brain dead.
“Prep her for ICU,” Axel said to Oliver. “Call neurology.”
“Do you think she’ll make it?” Nina asked.
“We’ve done the best we can for her right now. A neurologist will monitor her vitals,” Axel said, shaking his head. “How are the other two—?”
“Dr. Graysen!”
Axel left the first room and ran into the second one to find their second patient, a young man this time, coding.
“Code blue,” the third-year resident said.
“How long?”
“Just started.”
“Compressions, STAT,” Axel said, calling out epinephrine orders and restarting the metronome on his phone. “Nina, get Dr. Brown for the third patient. Keep the paramedics and liaise with the police officers on this case. We need more information on the drugs the patients took.”
Nina hurried away and Axel found his third-year’s compressions were off rhythm.
“Get off,” Axel ordered, his tone harsh, unforgiving. He got on the resuscitation bed and started the compressions himself. He was not going to lose this one. “Oliver, get in here! Give him 100ccs of…”
****
Three hours later found Axel in a horror scene. Something had clearly gone wrong at a rave party. The emergency room was dealing with a surge of over thirty patients with similar symptoms ranging from mild to severe.
Axel saved the coding second patient, a young man. When he was stable, Axel raced to the third patient and restarted her heart twice. She did not last and when she crashed for the last time, Axel had to call her time of death. She was the first of the three deaths he had to call these last three hours.
Sixteen patients in critical condition arrived after her, and the emergency room turned into a gladiator ring.
Axel vs. an unknown substance called Rapture.
The second patient to die arrived in full arrest. There was nothing to do for him.
Dr. Brown came in to help and was the one who signed off on the death-on-arrival call.
Together, Axel and Dr. Brown tried their best to save as many of the remaining fifteen patients as they could.
The fight exhausted Axel so much that the last patient he declared dead cracked something inside him.
“You did your best,” Nina said, as she shook out a white sheet to cover their last patient. “Dr. Brown is with the other two girls who came in with this one. He’s done the same thing you’ve been doing, Axel. They are both stable for now. I say you’ve won tonight.”
Axel barely heard Nina’s words. He stared at the girl lying still on the stretcher. She was nineteen. Long dark curly hair fell over the stretcher. Her nails were painted in rainbow colors. She had been wearing a Black Pink t-shirt and shorts before Nina dressed her in a hospital gown. She was so young. Barely started her life.
Now…she was gone. He had failed her. Fuck!
Axel removed the gloves he wore and dumped them in the bin. He sanitized his hands and turned to leave.
“Dr. Graysen,” Nina called his name.
Axel ignored her and stepped out of the resuscitation room. He ran past everyone who called his name and headed for the elevators. The doors closed and he rode it straight to the top floor, not exiting until he was back on the roof.
Fresh cool air filled his lungs. The cool night air felt like a reprieve, jerking him back from the fires of hell.
Nausea came next, and he bent over letting out the orange juice he had drunk just three hours ago. When he was done, he reached into his pocket and found an old napkin. Wiping his mouth, he cleared his throat and moved to sit on the concrete slab he had used earlier.
He wasn’t aware of the tears falling down his cheeks until a sob escaped his lips.
****
Table of Contents | Next>>
Sui Writes 