Getting over her initial shock, Alice realized that the girl was ready to faint. She called to her husband, “Leonard, hurry, I need your help over here.”
Leonard, who was handing out blankets in the back part of the lobby, rushed to his wife’s side, where Alice and Ruth were helping the girl and the newborn baby into a wheelchair, but the new mother refused to sit down, and instead cried out in pain.
“She’s having a contraction! Ruth, call the ER, or a nurse, or someone, I don’t care who, just get us some help down here,” Alice demanded, and Ruth ran to the nearest telephone. Alice turned to Leonard and said, “We’re going to have to lay her down right here. Can you get some more blankets, and maybe find a screen we can put around her so the whole world doesn’t know her business?”
Leonard grabbed a couple of blankets from behind the admissions desk and handed them to Kate. “Here are some blankets; I’ll be right back with the screens.” He hurried down the hallway toward the back of the hospital, where he thought there might be some screens available.
“Kate, help me walk her over to that sofa where she’ll be more comfortable,” Alice said as she wrapped her arm around the young mother, holding her up.
The front lobby of the hospital was already full of people seeking refuge from the tornado, and all seats were taken, but Alice wasn’t above asking them to move. The beautiful bronzed woman, dressed in a business suit, with sculpted cheekbones and piercing dark eyes, was sitting on the sofa that Alice had pointed to, and understood immediately what Alice needed. She moved her briefcase to the side and immediately jumped into action. She moved a small table out of the way and picked up the paper cups and discarded newspapers that had been strewn about during the day.
The lobby had a small sofa sitting against the wall under a statue of the Virgin Mary, and as Alice held the baby, Kate laid a blanket down and then helped the young girl lie down on it. Though a petite girl, the sofa was not long enough to support her legs, so Kate propped them up on the arm of the sofa, not knowing if that was medically correct or not, considering her condition.
“Child, what’s your name?” Alice asked as she placed the baby back in the girl’s arms.
“Tameka.” The girl replied meekly.
“It’s good to meet you Tameka, my name is Alice. You’re going to be just fine. Just lie still until someone can come help you.”
Ruth walked over to Alice and pulled her to the side. “There’s no one coming down, they’re completely overwhelmed with patient emergencies of their own. I left a message with the Chief Nursing Officer, and I’m sure she’ll get back to me as soon as she can.”
“What in heaven’s name do we do then, let her bleed to death?”
*
The utilities worker, wearing nonconductive safety shoes, rubber insulated gloves, sleeves and hood with an insulated hard hat, walked up to the broken defibrillator, holding the live wire. “I don’t know if this will work,” he said, “the power has been shut down so this wire will go dead in a matter of minutes, if it hasn’t already. It may have enough juice for what you need.”
“Understood. Give it a try anyway.” Joyce said, stepping back from the machine.
He quickly touched the defibrillator with the wire, and just as quickly pulled it away. They watched as the stream of electricity shot through the machine, down the wiring and up to the weathervane, sending a shock that caused the patient’s body to jump up, and just as quickly flop back down again. The electrician, still holding the electrical cable, picked up the still smoking weathervane with one hand, and tossed it to the side. Then he carried the live wire over to an isolated spot away from the tent, and set it on the ground inside a cordon off area, with signs reading, live wires.
Peering inside the open cavity, Joyce released a satisfied sigh. The sutures had held, the heart was pumping on its own now, and the patient’s pulse was growing stronger. Levon, the cameraman, trained his camera on Joyce and Vicky as they hugged in celebration.
Joyce said, “You know Vicky, if being a CEO ever gets boring, you can always come to work for me as my scrub nurse.”
“Thanks, but I couldn’t handle the stress,” Vicky laughed.
“Okay let’s sew this guy up and get him shipped out. Vicky, there’s some glue in the medical kit I packed, grab that for me please. We don’t have the plates and screws so I’m going to temporarily glue him back together to survive the trip to the hospital, where he’ll have to undergo a second surgery to repair the damage and remove the bone fragments from the sternum.”
Vicky nodded, and walked over to the corner of the tent where the supplies had been piled up. As she looked through the boxes for the medical kit Joyce had referred to, she noticed that more patients had been brought in on stretchers, and a steady stream of victims, were being triaged outside the tent. The small tent was filling up very quickly, with people in various medical outfits, from different local hospitals and other medical facilities, darting to and fro, some carrying litters of critically injured victims, others rushing to collect needed supplies. Vicky said hello to several of them, as she walked back over to Joyce and handed her the adhesive.
Joyce applied the glue to the patient’s sternum, and then proceeded to stitch the wound closed. With a satisfied smile she looked at Vicky, but when she saw her face, she was shocked by how pale she had suddenly become. “Is everything okay, Vicky?” Joyce asked, applying the last stitch in the man’s chest.
But Vicky didn’t say anything, she seemed to be frozen in place. Oh my God, am I having a flashback? God, please, not now!
Joyce looked over Vicky’s shoulder, and saw Jerry in the distance, running toward them, yelling something she couldn’t make out. And then she saw a man in surgical scrubs, with a mask over his face, walking up behind Vicky. Just as he reached for her, Vicky grabbed the closest thing she could find, the burnt and broken portable defibrillator machine. She reared back, gathering up as much strength and speed as she could, and hit Harold across the head with the machine. His head snapped to the side and he fell backward onto the ground.
Levon kept filming as Joyce bellowed, “What the shit?”
Levon thought, damn, this is going to make my career! He zoomed in on Harold, laying on the ground in a daze, his surgical mask still over his mouth, puffing it in and out as he tried to catch his breath. Levon zoomed out and focused in on the women again.
Vicky turned to Joyce, and told her who he was, just as Harold got back on his feet, and pulled a pistol from his pocket. Sensing something she could not grasp, time slowed down to a trickle for Vicky, as she heard Joyce scream her name in a barely audible distortion. She reached her hand out to Joyce, but by that time the look of sheer terror in Joyce’s eyes told Vicky what she had sensed but could not name. She saw Harold out of the corner of her eye and she knew, she was about to die.
*
“Okay, think. What did the nurses do when they delivered Vicky?” Alice closed her eyes trying to picture the procedure in her mind.
“Alice, that was well over twenty years ago.”
“It’s still the same process Ruth. The baby comes out and you cut the umbilical cord. Kate, get me something to tie the cord off with. Some string would do.”
“String, where am I going to find string?”
Alice looked around and then pointed at Ruth’s feet, “Ruth, give me your shoelaces. Kate, you go get me a pair of scissors.”
Ruth sat down on a chair while Kate went to the front desk to borrow a pair of scissors. Everyone, employees included, were transfixed at the drama unfolding before them, and stared with their mouth gapping open. “This is better than television,” one visitor proclaimed.
Leonard came hurrying back carrying two exam screens and several more blankets, and placed them around the sofa where the woman was laying. “What else can I do, Alice?”
“I’m going to need some rubbing alcohol, towels and a plastic bag. Make sure it’s a large plastic bag, and go to the Labor and Delivery wing and
get some diapers and clothes for the baby. Explain to them why you need it and ask if any of them can come down here. If not, then get all the supplies you can carry.”
“All right, I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Leonard hurried down the hallway and turned the corner, out of sight.
Ruth handed Alice her shoelaces just as the front desk operator called over to her, indicating she had a phone call. She walked over and said into the phone, “This is Ruth Mason.”
“Ruth, this is Becky Collins, Chief Nursing Officer, I got your message. You’re Vicky’s aunt, aren’t you?”
“Yes. Thank you for calling me back. Let me have you talk with my sister.” Ruth handed the phone over to Alice and explained who it was.
“Becky, this is Alice Montgomery. We have a baby situation in the front lobby that we need help your with. The baby was just born and it’s still connected to the umbilical, but the placenta hasn’t come out yet. The mother is still having contractions and is bleeding pretty bad.”
“Okay, all our rooms are full at the moment, so if you can make the mother comfortable, I’ll walk you through what you need to do.”
“She’s lying on a couch here in the lobby and we have a screen around her for privacy. I have my husband out looking for towels and diapers and a plastic bag to put the placenta in, and I have shoelaces and a pair of scissors.”
“Sounds like you have done this before.” Becky said.
“Well, it’s been a while since I gave birth to Vicky, but some things you just don’t forget. I’m just not sure how to get the placenta to come out.”
“Okay, first tie the shoelace around the umbilical cord about two or three inches from the baby’s navel. Then tie the other one a couple of inches further away from the baby. Slide a towel under the cord to catch the piece you cut off, and any liquids that might drain from the cord when you cut it.”
“Becky, there’s something I’m not sure of. Will there be any pain for the mother or the baby? I mean under these unique circumstances.”
“There may be some. The worst pain will be in the mother’s continued contractions. When you cut the umbilical cord, there will be a little blood and other fluids, but there shouldn’t be a lot. Once you have cut the cord, you’re going to need to…, oh, hold on please, someone just walked up and I need to speak with them, I’ll be right back. Don’t hang up.”
Leonard rushed over to them and laid down his treasures beside the couch, beaming with pride at having found everything he thought they would need. The L&D nurses put together a kit for him that had a pair of a muslin swaddle blankets, baby wipes, soap, washcloths, diapers, a tiny shirt, a stocking cap made with baby yarn by volunteers, and even a rattle for the baby. Leonard played with the rattle while Ruth laid out the supplies.
“Alice. Alice, are you still there?”
“Yes, I’m here, Becky.”
“I apologize for the interruption, but I think you can probably expect more of the same, it’s a little crazy up here at the moment.”
“I can imagine.”
“Okay, after you cut the cord, you’re going to have to deliver the placenta. You’ll need to get the mom in a squatting position. Have a towel or something under her to catch it. Now this is where it could get bloody, Alice. Do you have any rubber gloves? Oh…, excuse me again, I’ll be right back.”
Alice looked to Leonard and said, “She put me on hold again. Can you find me some rubber gloves please?”
Leonard nodded his head and took off down the hallway again.
“That’s the most exercise he’s had since his heart attack,” Ruth laughed.
“Alice, sorry about that,” Becky said when she got back on the phone.
“That’s all right Becky. I’ve sent Leonard after some gloves, what’s next?”
“Next you will need to gently hold the cord taut, don’t pull on it, don’t squeeze it, just have your hand on the cord and ask the mother to push with the next contraction. She won’t want to, because she’s probably exhausted and frustrated by the painful contractions, so you’ll need to encourage her to finish the job.”
“That should be easy, I think she’s more than ready to get that thing out,” Alice said as she looked at the pain on the mother’s face.
“Well, if it doesn’t come out after about fifteen minutes, try having the mother nurse the baby. That usually produces stronger contractions and the placenta will deliver quickly after that.”
“Thanks, Becky. We’ll do our best.”
“I have no doubt. We’re stacking them two and three to a room up here, but as soon as we have a bed available I’ll let you know. Keep me informed, Becky, and call me if you need anything. Good luck.”
“Thanks, Becky. I’m sure we’ll be fine.” Alice hung up, and looked at the mother as she grunted in pain. Alice said a quick prayer and nervously crossed herself.
*
Vicky turned quickly to face Harold as he raised the pistol up to her face. Joyce screamed, Dr. Berry cowered, and Levon took a step back, and continued filming. Vicky saw none of that as she stared into Harold’s evil eyes. “Tell Aidan that I love her,” she said to no one in particular, causing Harold to mock her with a sardonic laugh.
Suddenly Aidan appeared out of nowhere, and seemingly flew through the air, tackling her father, and sending them both rolling across the ground. She reached for the gun that Harold had dropped, but he pulled her back and went after it himself, and they struggled in the dirt for the gun. Harold pinned Aidan underneath him and punched her in the face, causing her head to spin and her eyes to blur.
“Payback’s a bitch, ain’t it, daughter?” he said sadistically.
Vicky screamed with rage so intense that she had never experienced such a feeling before. The angry inferno inside of her, pushed her to react quickly, and she jumped on Harold’s back, digging her fingernails into his face until she drew blood. “I hate you!” Vicky screamed. “I am sick to death of you!”
Harold rolled off of Aidan, dislodging Vicky from his back, with a thud.
Joyce rushed to help, grabbing the first thing her hand came in contact with, a piece of a disassembled IV pole. As he stood up, Joyce whacked him across the back, and reared back to deliver another blow, when Aidan put her hand on her shoulder.
Aidan’s eye was completely swollen shut, the bruise she already had was now twice as big and twice as swollen. She ignored the pain and placed the barrel of her gun to the back of Harold’s head, and he instantly stopped moving and stood rigidly still.
“I’ve got this,” Aidan said to Joyce, and then walked around to stand in front of Harold, placing the barrel of her gun on his forehead, “One move, one nervous twitch, and I will blow your fucking head off. You got that, you fucking bastard?”
Harold sneered, “There’s something you don’t know, Aidan. Daddy has been keeping secrets from you.”
“What kind of bullshit are you trying to pull now?”
“Let me have her,” Harold nodded toward Vicky, “And I’ll tell you.”
With a blur of her arm, Aidan coldcocked him with her pistol so hard that he crumbled face down in the dirt. She stabbed her knee down between his shoulder blades, and put the barrel of the gun back on his head. Taking some plastic ties out of her back pocket, Aidan handed them to Joyce, without taking her eyes off of Harold. Joyce tethered his hands securely behind his back, and then she stepped back, wrapping her arm around Vicky, who was trembling profusely.
“Vic, are you all right, baby?” Aidan asked, as she pushed the pistol barrel harder against Harold’s head, even though he had been immobilized.
“I’m all right, sweetheart,” Vicky replied, still shaking.
Aidan gritted her teeth, losing the battle with the anger burning inside her. Someday I’m going to kill your mother fucking ass, old man, for the pain you caused Vicky on her wedding day. She raised the pistol, about to hit him with the butt of the gun, but Vicky intervened.
She leaned towards Aidan and spoke so softly that
only Harold and Aidan could hear her, “Aidan, it’s what he wants. Don’t give in to that. Please.”
Aidan looked up at Vicky, who had tears streaming down her face, and her heart melted instantly. She stood up and opened her arms, and Vicky flew into them. “It’s all right, baby,” Aidan assured her wife as she held her close, “we’re going to be all right.”
Harold struggled against his binding and Aidan walked back over to him. “We’ve had this dance before, old man.” She said as she crouched down beside him, calm and collected now, “I would have thought a beating from a mere girl, twice, would have taught you a lesson.” Aidan lifted his head up by his hair, “Let me make a promise to you, that every time I see you, every fucking time, I’m going to beat you to a pulp. Count on it, you bastard.” She pushed his head into the dirt, and stood up. “Vicky, what are you doing?”
Vicky timidly came toward Harold with a gauze strip and some tape.
“I took an oath to do no harm, and I broke that oath today. Still, I can’t just let him bleed to death.” As she knelt beside him, making sure that Aidan was close by, she tended to the head wound that she had inflicted with her fingernails.
“Vicky, I don’t think that oath means that you stand by and let him hurt you.” Aidan said disbelievingly, as she shook her head at the scene. She knew Vicky had a huge heart, but she would never understand why her lover would care whether that man, who had raped her when she was thirteen, and tried to kill her just now, lived or died.
“Remember, honey, you promised to take me for better or for worse.”
Aidan laughed, “That I did, kid, that I did.”
Once Vicky was done nursing Harold’s wounds, she stepped away and looked up at Aidan, “Oh honey, your eye!” Vicky immediately cleaned the wound and applied an ointment to it. As she worked, Aidan’s eyes followed her every move, smiling at her bride’s tender bedside manner. When she was finished she met Aidan’s eyes and said, “I didn’t freeze up this time, Aidan, I wasn’t afraid.”
Remember This Day Page 14
