Compass North

by Cathleen Ellis

  

  “You’ve heard what will go on, and we’re inviting you to join us. What do ya think?”

  “I want to do it; I’ll go home in June and help my dad at the shop. Then I’ll come back and be a part of the trauma nurse training. I’ve had a chance to help out in the ER, but just those Saturday hours and I just watched in the trauma unit. And I’ve done some medical helicopter stuff. This is what I want to do,” she nodded to Mrs. Coopville, the IU trauma unit specialist. They sat across from each other at a table in the IU trauma work area.

  “It’ll be four weeks, all of July.”

  “Then I’ll head home to help out until senior year begins. I’ll continue to work on my Spanish. I’m thinking seriously of an assignment out of country.”

  “Spanish-speaking?”

  “I’m thinking so.”

  “I’ll keep my ears open to possible placements.”

  “Thank you.”

  

  Tyann looked around at the students seated in the small classroom. Sixteen students started the trauma training, some of them renewing credentials. She counted, now only six remained, four renewers and two from the student class. In her mind she scrolled through situations she saw and actually helped with during her time in the ER. She knew it was what she wanted, confirming what she felt the first time the ER let her observe in trauma, her freshman year.

  “A volunteer, baby steps since then, oh my goodness,” she smiled to herself.

  The leader walked in, “They want us with the EMT’s designated to ambulances for the last eight days, Wednesday-Friday, and then Monday-Friday of your trauma nurse summer course.”

  “The 11-7 shift, be here tomorrow, Wednesday night, you’ll get a chance to see a different sort of world. You got all your paperwork signed off so you can join in, my students?”

  “I do have.”

  “Tyann, you’ve seen trauma other than the ER and ICU?”

  “Yes, Ride Alongs on the medical helicopters IU contracts with.”

  “What about you, Donovan?”

  “Same.”

  “Either of you ever worked along with the ambulance EMT’s?” the leader asked.

  Tyann shook her head. She saw Donovan shake his.

  “Well, you’re gonna be amazed, at the abilities paramedics and emergency folks have.”

  To herself Tyann thought, “God’s gonna be right there with us, His Will, we try to save those we can, but ultimately God decides.”

  

  “It’s a little bit secretive.”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “Where the rave will be, kinda spontaneous.”

  Tyann sat in the back of the ambulance with the emergency personnel. It was 2:45 a.m. Saturday morning, and the 911 call came in just three minutes ago. She listened to the paramedic and watched the EMT’s face, devoid of expression.

  “Looks like this all night dance party, uh, ended a little early,” she heard the EMT.

  She felt the jarring bumps as the ambulance moved along on a country road. They were the first of three ambulances dispatched. They headed 3 1/2 miles outside Iowa City, going slow over several potholes.

  “My last shift on my last night of this,” she told herself.

  She felt her stomach spew acid, almost making her want to vomit.

  As she climbed out of the ambulance, she heard an occasional “Help me.” Her ears searched for more sounds; instead it seemed eerily quiet. Everywhere she saw evidence of an earlier party scene. The shine of the moon revealed bottles, cans, trash, and young people lying in the field. In the background she heard the sirens as the other two ambulances arrived. A triage center went up. The leader went from young person to young person. Very few could stand or walk. Tyann helped carry those unable to walk, but who could still talk. The unresponsive ones went to triage first. Emergency crews counted 26 young people.

  She asked the same question of each one with whom she worked.

  “Can you tell me what happened?”

  “Mighty fine music, dancing, ecstasy, snorted it, then fine whiskey.”

  Several of them mumbled, “Really know, MDMA, uh, ecstasy, plus alcohol, that shit together’s a killer, but awesome feeling, until now.”

  “I must save those I can,” Tyann whispered as she went from patient to patient. “But God, these kids, they told me, the talkers, they knew full well what they were doing.”

  More ambulances arrived as medical personnel on site made decisions. IU Med could not take them all, so the ones in better shape went to St. A’s and one other hospital in the area. Tyann decided she’d never seen so much puke in her life. And she didn’t want to see that much ever again.

  The land owner showed up.

  “Sure as hell didn’t realize this could happen. I thought, heck, kids having fun; dancing, the music sounded funky and cool.”

  Tyann heard him in the background as he stood with the county authorities and one of the medical staff on site. She heaved herself up into the ambulance after two patients got loaded in. Silence and the smell of vomit on clothes filled the air as the ambulance made its way back to Iowa City. Later the crew assembled together before they sat down to chart.

  “Thank you, for everything you helped with,” the ER leader nodded. “To let you know, she’s already been taken away, uh, the one young lady who did not make it. The rest, drug and alcohol-addled brains, well parents and friends will be coming in to claim their kids. One’s up in ICU,” he shook his head, “too soon to tell.”

  Tyann went back to her place when her shift ended at 7 a.m. After she cleaned up, she wrote out notes for the paper she had to turn in to complete the summer critical care course. Then she lay down and slept. She awoke four hours later, covered in sweat, from a nightmare about the experience she had out in that field. She showered again and packed her car.

  “What’s gonna happen to the brains of those kids? I’m so happy to be going home, where there’s love, and caring, with people I want to be with; that’s the only kinda high I wanta experience.”

  She repeated that over and over as she drove from Iowa City to Porttown. Silence greeted her as she opened her front door. She brought in her bags and suitcases and put them in her room.

  At the kitchen island she saw a note from Mandy, “Lemonade and chippers, enjoy, and welcome home.”

  She drank the delicious lemonade and ate two chocolate chip bars. She started to feel better as she cleaned up the kitchen island.

  “Wow,” she spoke out, “I needed to eat.”

  She surveyed her room and set her belongings from school to the side as she took out clothes to hang up or to wash. Tears shocked her eyes as she fell to her knees beside the bed.

  “We’re all God’s children, all of us. His will for us, what do I do now, after seeing all that horrible stuff not that long ago?”

  She lay her arms across the bed and put her head between her arms. She continued to cry for a time, sometimes out loud.

  “What now, Tyann?” she asked herself.

  She shook her head, “Love myself, love God and my neighbors,” she blew out a big breath, “save those I can.”

  That evening she shared what she could with her family. Her dad held her hand and asked her, “And how does that whole thing make you feel?”

  “I’m so sad, so sad, for those young people, for their minds.”

  One by one, her folks and Mandy hugged her.

  4

  1993 - Senior Year

  “Nuthin’ fazes me now,” Tyann mentioned to several of her classmates in her Nursing Research class that fall. They also worked together in the gerontology and public health practicums. These friends of Tyann’s knew of her summer critical care unit.

  In her senior research class she worked with water quality. It’s where she decided she wanted to nurse, in locations where medical care had the additional hardship of unclean water.

  “We’re blessed beyond measure, to have clean water, sanitary facilities, so much we take fo
r granted,” she mentioned to Conner in an e-mail to him.

  “For the animals, that’s the case. If everything’s not clean, the animals we treat, they’ll not get well. Hey, I sure love what I’m doing, Tyann, I know this’s what’s meant for me, my reason to be. Love, Conner”

  

  During her nursing leadership care class each student presented a five minute plan for his or her future. Each meeting several students spoke. No one knew when it would be their turn. Lucky for Tyann, her turn came near the end of the term.

  “I want to thank Mrs. Lancaster and Dr. Edmond for their efforts,” she nodded and smiled to Mrs. Lancaster. “My first position, well, they helped me so much. Two years ago, Angela DeSanto graduated from this program and went to the Dominican Republic, to Punta Cana, a beach community, starting to be visited by folks, especially from Europe. Angela stayed in communication with Mrs. Lancaster. After she’d been at the main private hospital in Punta Cana for 15 months she got a position at the excellent private hospital in the city. She’s been in her new hospital setting for six months now. The other hospital had not filled her vacant position. I took my national nurses exam a few weeks ago and am waiting on the results. I applied for Angela’s old position. Through a series of phone calls and e-mails, the hospital’s decided to offer me the position, contingent on my passport arrival, my nursing test exam results, and completion of my application to work in that country, expatriate status, oh and of course, graduate.” She paused and smiled, “I’ll have health benefits. But I’ll have to sock as much money away as I can from my monthly salary, for my future. I’ll be sharing a two bedroom place with Angela in the town, near the hospital. I will speak Spanish as much as I can; the hospital staff there is multilingual; English is the spoken and written scenario among them. But Spanish, it’s critical for interaction with patients. Oh, RN’s, Angela says, they’re in charge, and with my trauma background, I’ll see so much of what I’ve done in my training here. I absolutely want this change of scenery in my life.”

  “From cornfields to beaches,” another student spoke up.

  Tyann laughed and nodded her head as she listened to the laughter around her.

  

  Tyrone, Annie, and Mandy stood with Tyann in the hotel lobby. The concierge took several pictures of the family, Tyann in her commencement gown.

  Tyann hugged her sister.

  “This’ll be you soon,” she smiled to Mandy.

  “Yeah, we’ll see.”

  “Uuummm, you’re a sophomore here at IU, not that long.”

  The family came into a group hug.

  “My girls, one day both college grads. could you ever believe it, Annie?”

  Annie nodded her head to them, “God’s will, and our daughters, they’ve worked really hard, yes I believe.”

  Tyann saw pictures in her mind, of the months of her internship at St. A’s. She tried to pay attention as the nursing students started lining up, getting ready for ceremony. Scenes rolled out of her head, athletes she assisted in orthopedics. They were her favorite patients. Time and again she repeated, “Up and at ‘em, you must walk, and I must stay by your side. We’ll keep doin’ this and soon after you get home you won’t even use your walker anymore. You’ll move to a cane, and you’ll be heavy duty into physical therapy. Those folks’ll take over. They’ll help you get back out on that field, or that track, or that court.”

  As she sat down at the ceremony, babies’ faces came to her, the ones she helped take care of, mostly the tiny ones, in the neonatal unit at St. A’s. Most little ones made it, but once, while she was in that unit, a baby did not survive its very early arrival. Tyann knew that her job was to bring people seeking health care to being healthy.

  “God’s will, not ours,” she always told herself as she turned her attention to the speaker on the stage above her.

  As she walked back to her seat, diploma in hand, she looked out over the audience. She did not see her parents and sister in the mass of faces. But she thought she recognized one face, standing in the back of the great hall where nursing students graduated. She looked again, gave a wide smile and raised her hand a little to acknowledge that she saw him.

  “Dear God, it is her, and I think she recognizes me.”

  Conner asked the Hulfitz family to keep his coming to Tyann’s graduation a secret. And they did.

  A cake and coffee/punch reception followed the morning ceremony in the hall. The Hulfitz family gathered around Tyann. They came together in a group hug after they found a quiet spot in a corner of the back of the hall. She watched him walk toward the family. What struck her, what she saw, was the light shining in his eyes.

  “I love her,” his mind blasted out.

  “I love him, oh I love him,” she whispered out.

  They hugged, as he whispered to her, “Congratulations, I’m so proud of you, Tyann.”

  “Thanks, Conner.”

  They let go of their hug. Conner shook Tyrone’s hand, then hugged Annie and then Mandy.

  “How, uh, how,” she stopped and shook her head, “did you do this?”

  “Ah, Alabama’s not that far away, and my semester’s completed; I’m back home helping Doc Fletcher here in Porttown for the summer. It’ll be an awesome experience for me, right in my own home town.

  “That’s so great, Conner. You know what’s happening to me?”

  She felt her face beam hot as she looked up to him and smiled.

  “Uh huh, so totally great, that you’re doing your dream.”

  “To save those I can.”

  He repeated, “To save those I can.”

  Conner moved and picked Tyann up and swung her around in a small circle.

  “I love you.”

  She heard his whisper, “And I love you,” she whispered back to him.

  He set her down and kissed her on top of her head.

  Tyrone led them to the line for punch and cake. Mandy stepped away and found the coffee area. She took cups of coffee to a round table where they all could sit together.

  Tyann swallowed her coffee and let out a deep breath. She closed her eyes, then opened them to see her family smiling to her. Conner covered the hand she placed on the table with his own.

  “Ty, glad it’s over?”

  “Yeah, Dad, you all know how I abhor stuff like this.”

  “Uh huh, but it’s important; we need to celebrate you,” Conner spoke up.

  Tears shocked Tyann’s eyes, “I wasn’t there, couldn’t be there for Conner, last year, when he graduated,” she remembered.

  “What’s the matter, Ty?” Mandy asked.

  “Just hit me again, I wasn’t there for you, Conner, on your special day.”

  He touched her shoulder, “Babe, you couldn’t be, you sat in a final, didn’t you have two that day?”

  “I did.”

  They were silent as they ate their cake.

  Tyann looked around the great hall, seeing the smiling graduates siting with their families.

  “And all of you,” she gazed from one family member to the other, then to Conner, “thank you so much for coming. This gathering completes my joy, the joy I feel being with you, for accomplishing my long held goal.”

  A familiar face to Tyann approached the table. Mrs. Elcot touched Tyan’s shoulder, “I’m Mrs. Elcot, head of nursing, and I wanted to let you know, family, that I’m so very proud of Tyann. She’s spreading her wings, away from us, with taking the position at Punta Cana’s largest private hospital. I’m excited for her, and she promises to keep in touch with us.” She looked from face to face at the table, “Congratulations to all of you as I know each of you had a part in helping her on this journey.”

  Tyann reached up and squeezed Mrs. Elcot’s hand. The nursing head moved on to another table.

  “She’s something, knows all of us nurse grads by first name, where we’re from, and what we plan on doing, our next locations.”

  “Wow.”

  “Wow is right,” she eyed her mom,
“and I have every intention of staying in touch with her. E-mail’s operational at the hospital where I’ll be working.”

  The family said their goodbyes to Tyann as they left the building.

  “I’ll be home before dark; my car’s all packed and I just have to check out of my room at St. A’s. And Conner, I’ll see you before I leave, on Monday.”

  “Good, I work tomorrow ‘til Doc wraps up his appointments. We’ll talk,” he nodded to Tyann. He bent and kissed her cheek, as the family watched.

  “You all be safe, getting home, hear?” Conner smiled to all of them.

  Tyrone laughed, “And you, Conner, with your heavy foot.”

  “Yeah, Dad always says the same darn thing.”

  

  On the drive home Tyann put in her favorite CD which included Martina McBride’s Independence Day. She played the album again and again.

  She nodded her head, “How many times, in the ER, have I seen the abuse. Yeah, this singer, I think, will do more with the whole domestic violence situation. Tyann already missed her little sister, a teen from the Boys and Girls Club, in Iowa City. Jennifer saw abuse as a younger girl, until her mom walked away with her, escaping a psychotic husband. Tyann shook her head, a picture of Jennifer in her mind.

  “Switch gears, Ty, they’ll be OK,” she told herself.

  She spoke out, “Jacob, gosh, he told me he had a great first year. I hope I have that kind of report for him and for my nursing supervisor, plus my family, after my first year.”

  Tyann remembered the last phone conversation she had with him.

  “Heed this, Tyann, basics where you’re going. The water supply, that’s most critical. Don’t drink the damn water; you gotta learn bottled, and boiling the stuff at your place. And all your immunizations, I don’t want you getting sick. Oh, and I hope you get to do a couple of airlift medical situations, both plane and helicopter.”

  “Sheesh, Jacob, you sound just like a big brother.”

  “Hey, Squirt, I’ve been that to you since I noticed you standing back in trauma, in the ER.”

  “Like a thousand years ago,” Tyann thought as she finished her talk with him.