by Lexy Timms
The pain and tension in her abdomen subsided. Her face still hurt like hell, but she could manage it. At least the paranoid man hadn’t punched her in the eye. Charity cautiously opened her eyes. Dr. David, the resident doctor she worked with, was in the process of dragging Mr. Wiggins away. Two other medical staff held his arms and one of them had just injected him with a needle. Probably more IM ketamine.
How had this all happened? One minute she had been helping the paramedic and then… She had followed protocol, right? The newbie paramedic had said the patient was agitated, but there was no note of violence, right? She tried to figure what she had done wrong.
“Paging Doctor Bennet to the ER. Paging Doctor Bennet to the ER.”
There was probably another patient in critical condition in the ER who needed Elijah. The last thing Charity wanted was for him to see her lying on the floor. She gripped the metal of the bed by her and forced herself to sit up. Her cheek throbbed and something warm ran down it. So help me if I’m crying. Charity wiped her face and stared down in surprise at the red liquid in her hand. Blood?
“Are you alright? The baby?” Julie dropped down with a basket filled with a first aid kit and touched Charity’s cheek.
“I’m okay. Just a little shook up.”
“What the heck happened?”
Charity tried to smile, but it hurt her face. “I guess that patient didn’t want me to treat him.”
Julie frowned. “You’re going to need a couple of butterfly stitches.”
Charity winced.
“Sorry.” Julie gently pressed a piece of gauze against Charity’s cheek.
Charity lifted a shaky hand to hold it.
“You sure you’re okay?” Julie gave her a quick physical assessment and checked her eyes to make sure they weren’t dilated.
“Nothing’s broken.” Charity shook her head. “Bruised, slightly battered and a little embarrassed.”
“You don’t have to be embarrassed. This wasn’t your fault.” Julie handed her an ice pack.
Charity felt her cheeks burn, but not from pain. Using her eyes, she beckoned Julie closer. She whispered, “I think I might’ve peed my pants.”
“What?” Julie straightened. “Oh! Okay!” She patted Charity’s knee. “Let’s get you cleaned up then.” She brought her head close to Charity’s. “I’ll help you up and then get you into the first cubicle. I’ll go grab you clean scrubs.”
“Thanks.” Charity stared at her left hand shaking over her belly. “Thank goodness nothing happened to the baby.”
“You’re very lucky.”
“I know. I’m like a freakin’ cat with nine lives. My luck’s gonna run out one of these days.” She gave a half smile.
Julie crouched and offered Charity her arm. “Let’s get that cheek taken care of.” She spread her feet shoulder width apart. “Easy now as you get up. Just in case you feel a bit dizzy.”
Charity let Julie help her. Chaos still ensued around the Emergency room as more motor vehicle accidents were brought in. Charity gripped Julie’s arm and pushed up with her legs. Her lower abdomen muscles cramped and a low, dull ache stretched across her back.
She stiffened when a warm fluid leaked down her leg. She pressed her thighs tight together. “Oh shit!”
Julie froze. “What?”
“I didn’t pee myself.” She forced herself to remain calm. “It’s amniotic fluid.” She swallowed hard. “We need to page Dr. Govender.”
Julie’s mouth dropped open. Her eyes suddenly darted behind Charity.
“What the hell’s going on here?”
Charity closed her eyes and chewed on her lower lip. Slowly she turned around to face Elijah. “My water just broke.”
Elijah stared at her in disbelief. “That’s impossible. You’re only thirty-two weeks.”
Charity took a step toward him and more warm fluid leaked down her leg. “I think we need to see Doctor Govender.” Something wasn’t right. This shouldn’t be happening. Her heart raced and her skin grew clammy and sweaty at the same time. She was scared. Her voice came out barely above a whisper, “Now.”
Chapter 15
Elijah reacted instantly. He looked at Julie. “Page Doctor Govender. Tell him it’s an emergency and let him know who it is. She’s in preterm labor.” He turned to Charity. “Are you able to walk? Or do you need a wheelchair?”
“I can walk.” She had no intention of sitting in one of those. Her abdomen tightened. She rested her hand on the wall for support and concentrated on keeping her breath even. Crap! She wished it would just stop. Or she could rewind time and not do what she did.
Elijah touched her cheek. “Contraction? Or something else?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s a contraction. It’s just tightness, not painful. Hopefully, it’s just Braxton Hicks.” More fluid escaped. She knew it wasn’t Braxton Hicks, but couldn’t admit it out loud. “Maybe I should use that wheelchair.” She figured rotating her pelvis in a seated position might block where the break in her amniotic sac was, and either stop, or slow the flow of amniotic fluid.
Elijah touched her cheek. “I can’t leave you alone for ten minutes.” He smiled and kissed her forehead. “You’re going to be fine.”
Julie grabbed a wheelchair and set it beside Charity. “You are the strongest person I know. Get this sorted and tell that little babe she needs to wait a few more weeks before she’s allowed out.” She hugged Charity.
“Thanks.”
“Wait!” Julie dropped down beside her when Charity sat in the wheelchair. “Let me quickly put those butterfly stitches on your cheek. It’s not bleeding. Give me a sec.” She bent over and grabbed the small Band-Aids out of a suture kit. She wiped and cleaned the area and had the little butterfly pieces on Charity’s cheek in less than a minute. “You are good to go!” She stood and hugged Elijah. “Keep me updated. I’ll let Simon know.”
Elijah returned the hug and then pushed Charity to the elevator. He checked his phone. “Dr. Govender is waiting for us. He wants you in for an ultrasound so he’s going to examine you there.”
The ER still ran on a high level of madness, trying to keep up with the car accident victims. As the elevator door slid closed, Charity saw Simon and her father come out of the stairwell to help. All hands on deck.
It was only Elijah and Charity in the elevator. The silence as they traveled up felt unbearable. “You okay?” Charity asked him. She looked over her shoulder to get a glimpse of him.
He stood staring up at the red elevator numbers. “I'm all right.” He glanced down at her, his eyebrows raised in confusion.
“I saw you sitting on a patient’s chest. Did he make it?”
Elijah’s lips pressed together. He hated losing anyone. “Unfortunately, no.” He forced air through his nose. “Come on! Why’s this elevator so freakin’ slow?”
Charity’s hands rested on her basketball tummy. She mentally talked to the baby, trying to sooth her. You’re going to be fine, Jamie. You’ve got your dad a little worried, and your mom too. You just stay snug as a bug. We’ll make sure you're safe.
The elevator slid to the floor and before the doors slid open Elijah was pushing the wheelchair. Charity shifted her legs so they wouldn’t crash into the metal. She needn’t have worried, Elijah planned his movement perfectly and slid through the opening door without touching it. He rushed her toward the ultrasound department.
Dr. Govender stood waiting. He frowned when he noticed Charity in the wheelchair. “What happened?”
“Some idiot punched her and then shoved her into a hospital bed.”
Charity stared at Elijah in surprise. “It’s okay, Elijah. I’m fine.” She stood cautiously, afraid more amniotic fluid would leak as she got up. “A patient was brought in sedated. He was rather large. The sedation must have worn off sooner and he woke up confused. When I went to check on him, he didn’t know what was going on. He pretended to still be under sedation and then thought I was going to hurt him.”
“Don�
��t defend him!” Elijah nearly yelled.
Dr. Govender motioned with his hands for Elijah to calm down. “Dr. Bennet. I can’t assess the situation if you are agitated. It’s not going to help Charity or your baby.”
Elijah folded his arms across his chest, opened his mouth and then closed it. He nodded.
Dr. Govender turned his attention back to Charity. “Why are you in a wheelchair? Are you hurt? Did he punch your stomach?”
Charity shook her head. “I’m pretty sure my water broke. I figured sitting in the chair might prevent more fluid from leaking.”
“So you weren’t punched or kicked or anything traumatic to your stomach?”
“When he shoved me, I banged into the wall or a hospital bed or something. But it hit my back.” As she spoke, Dr. Govender led her into the examination room. She removed her lab coat and slipped a hospital gown over her shirt and then dropped her pants. She didn’t care, she just wanted the baby to be okay.
Elijah helped her onto the table and Dr. Govender ran a swab test. Elijah and Charity tensely waited to see if the color of the cue tip when he lifted it up.
“Preterm PROM,” Dr. Govender confirmed. “If your water breaks before the thirty-seventh week of pregnancy, it’s known as preterm PROM – premature rupture of membranes.”
“Shit!” Elijah muttered. He reached for Charity’s hand.
Charity knew what Dr. Govender had said but in her shock, didn’t fully understand them. “The baby’s going to be okay, right? Can you just put me on bed rest and monitor the baby? Keep her in there another month?” She didn’t care if she had to lie motionless or in traction for a month. Anything to keep her baby safe.
“Let’s do an ultrasound.” Dr. Govender was already hooking her up to check the baby’s heartbeat. “If your water breaks too early, it’s sometimes possible to extend the pregnancy a short time after the membranes rupture, but generally there is no turning back. Most women who have preterm PROM deliver within one week of their water breaking.” He squeezed the warmed gel onto Charity’s stomach and pressed the ultrasound against her skin.
Charity’s belly tightened into a fist. She checked her watch.
“This isn’t your first contraction?” Dr. Govender lifted the ultrasound and waited for it to pass.
“I’ve had a few. They’re about ten minutes apart.”
“Then we’ve come to the point of no return. We will try to slow the contractions, but this little baby isn’t going to wait. Let’s get you admitted.” He called one of the medical staff in and instructed them to get Charity to the maternity ward.
Elijah stood beside Charity, holding her hand. Both of them were too scared to speak.
Dr. Govender turned back to them and resumed his ultrasound. “We are going to try and slow your labor and monitor the baby. If heart rate decelerations start occurring, she is going to need to come out. I know you were planning on having a vaginal birth, but you need to mentally prepare yourself for a C-section. We’re going to administer two shots of betamethasone. It’s a steroid that will promote fetal lung maturity. We’ll give you that right away and try and hold off the C-section as long as possible… hopefully forty-eight hours.”
A nurse came in. “We have a room available.”
“Bring Doctor Thompson-Bennet up. I’ll be there in a moment.” Dr. Govender patted Charity’s shoulder. “You are going to be fine. You’re in the best hospital to have this baby.”
“With the best doctor,” Charity added with a smile. Worried and scared she knew there was no turning back the clock. They were going to do anything and everything to make sure Jamie would be okay.
When Dr. Govender left, Elijah pulled out his phone. “I need to cancel surgeries and see if I can get someone to cover my shifts.”
“Why don’t you do that outside?” the nurse suggested. “Then I can help Charity change and bring her upstairs.”
Elijah double-checked with Charity. “You alright on your own? Do you want me to stay?”
“Go outside. I’ll be out there in a moment.” She gingerly sat up, grimacing when more amniotic fluid escaped. Why did it have to feel so gross? Charity forced a smile and reached for Elijah’s arm. “Can you let my dad know? And your mom? She might want to change her flight.”
He nodded. “Will do.” He hugged her gently and whispered in her ear. “You’re going to be fine. I love you.”
“I love you.” She didn’t care about herself, but she was terrified for their baby. She couldn’t tell him and that scared her too.
Chapter 16
Charity stared up at the off-white ceiling, attempting to make shapes out of the cracks in it. One kind of reminded her of a bunny. She tried to remember a childhood book she had read about a crack in the ceiling having the habit of sometimes looking like a rabbit.
She lay on a maternity bed now, bigger and actually more comfortable than a regular hospital bed. Hooked up to an IV and monitors for herself, more monitors for the baby covered her belly. It was hard to find a comfortable way to lie down. She tried shifting her weight so she was half on her side, but the monitors dug into her skin so she ended up back on her back. A few minutes later she twisted again to the other side and her left leg began tingling. She couldn’t win.
Elijah had left to go and talk to Charity’s father and also to Julie and Simon. The ER had slowed down so they had all stopped by to find out what was going on. Elijah had offered to go and talk to them in his office and give Charity some time to rest.
She had just received her first of two corticosteroid injections. It was betamethasone. Dr. Govender explained what the steroid drug was and how it would help the baby. She needed two doses. He was hoping to do it twenty-four hours apart, but depending on how the baby was doing in her belly, he would inject it again in twelve hours. The way he explained everything, it sounded like she would be receiving the other injection in twelve hours. He had also given her tocolytic medications to slow, if not stop, her labor and antibiotics had been added to her IV.
She rubbed the spot on her thigh where the steroid needle had gone in. It didn’t hurt, she just rubbed in unconsciously. Thank goodness she had Elijah. She knew she would have fallen apart if he hadn’t been there holding her hand. She kept thinking of everything Dr. Govender said in terms of disaster. Elijah thought of them in clinical terms and then explained how the risks were less likely because her pregnancy had been fantastically healthy. The baby wasn’t in distress. Not yet. So until there was a real reason to worry, the best thing for her to do was to rest and let the corticosteroid do its job.
Easier said than done. Fetal or neonatal death, respiratory distress syndrome, necrotizing enterocolitis, cerebroventricular hemorrhage, systemic infection, childhood developmental delay… all these issues ran through her head over and over again. There were so many possible complications, the chances of one of them actually happening to the baby seemed realistically possible.
Elijah had assured her that little Jamie could easily, and very comfortably, stay in her belly for a few days. Twenty-four hours after administration of the first dose reduced most of the list of complications. And every hour after was better and better.
Charity shut her eyes tight and tried to force sleep to come. Dr. Govender’s last words echoed inside her head, “Staying pregnant these first two days after the corticosteroid shot is the first significant milestone for you and your baby. You and your baby are going to be fine, Charity. Focus on resting and relaxing. It’s the most important thing you can do for your baby right now.”
“Madeline!”
“Pardon?” Elijah sat on the chair across from Charity’s bed, his feet resting on the end of her mattress.
“Madeline.” Charity tried shifting her weight so her butt didn’t feel so numb.
Elijah jumped up to help her. “Do you need somebody?”
She smiled. He looked a bit like a lost puppy. “Maybe some water?” She scratched around the tape of her intervenes.
“Who is Madeli
ne, by the way?” he asked when he handed her a plastic cup of water.
“A book I read as a kid.” She pointed up at the ceiling. “The crack on the ceiling had the habit, of sometimes looking like a rabbit.”
“Okay?” He raised his eyebrows and the corners of his mouth twitched slightly.
She moved to the right side of the bed and glanced at the monitors. Everything looked even and steady for her and the baby. “Come lie here beside me.”
Elijah set the water back on the stand beside the bed and cautiously laid down. He rested his hand lightly on Charity’s belly.
She pointed to the ceiling. “I was staring up at the ceiling earlier and the set of cracks kind of looks like a bunny.” She traced the outline. “As a kid I read this book about an old house in Paris. The little girl’s name was Madeline. She’s at an orphanage or something and ends up in the hospital to have her appendix removed. It’s a rhyming story.” She waved her hand. “Never mind.”
Elijah pulled out his phone.
“What are you doing?” she asked, happy to have him beside her.
“Sending myself an email with the title of that book. I’m going to get it for Jamie and when she’s older, I’ll explain how Mum went coo-coo in the hospital waiting for her to come out.”
Charity elbowed Elijah, nearly knocking him off the bed. She giggled and then snorted when Elijah tried to catch himself and instead tumbled off the small bed. He popped his head up, just high enough to show the side. Charity covered her mouth. It felt good to laugh.
He raised his eyebrows and cautiously lay down beside her.
She giggled again. “Sorry about that.”
“I’m still buying the book,” he whispered.
“I hope you do.” She rested her hand on her belly. “I haven’t had any more contractions in the past while.” She checked her watch. She had managed to get just over an hour of sleep. She stretched and used the remote to set them into a half seating position. She went slowly and carefully, making sure to not mess any of the monitors covering her belly.
