Jailed

The consistent beeping of the monitors becomes white noise at some point during the day. Some thing that, if they were to stop all together, would make you feel uneasy and fidgety. Like something bad is about to happen. Silence is not a common sound in these halls.

There's a brief alarm that sounds, only for a short second. Another common occurrence that doesn't distract the busy workers as they rush around.

I tear my eyes away from the computer screen and push my glasses onto the crown of my head. The glasses are supposed to protect the eyes from 'blue light' that comes from the computer screens. They help, I think. Either that or I've been conditioned into thinking they provide some type of relief.

A quick sigh escapes from my lips as I rub at my eyes with my fingertips. After three consecutive 12 hour days, this day seems to be especially long.

The clock on the wall only reads 1308.

Another alarm sounds, this time for several seconds. Frowning, I step closer to the monitors and scan my eyes along the several heart rhythms showing.

The alarm is going off for a heart rate of 162 beats per minute. Way too fast for someone who should be relaxing in bed. Something pops up at the top of the screen in red writing, "Prolonged SVT."

"Fuck," I mutter under my breath at the same time that Maya does. We both glance at each other before racing into the room in question to assess the situation. Hoping to find a misplaced sticker of the monitor or, hell, even someone masterbating in bed. Wouldn't be the first time.

Instead we find the patient, a hispanic woman in her 80's, covered in sweat with fear weighing heavy in her eyes.

"I don't feel right," she says before her eyes roll up to the ceiling and she passes out.

"Fuck," we say, louder this time before springing into movements we've memorized like some kind of dysfunctional dance.

"Sadie," I scream out before another nurse appears in the doorway, "Go call a rapid response and then grab a rainbow of tubes and everything we need for blood. Maya, we need to grab an EKG."

Both nurses nod and disappear out the door.

My fingers rip at the woman's gown as I connect her to the portable heart monitor and stick one of the pads on to her chest.

"Code Blue, Overflow. I repeat, Code Blue, Overflow." A loud voice rings out throughout the hospital just in time for Sadie to come bounding back into the room. Her platinum hair falling loose from her bun already.

"I'm going to turn her towards me so you can stick the other pad onto her back. And let's pray that we don't need to use it." I tell Sadie as I pull the patient onto her side and Sadie presses the sticker onto her back.

Maya and Sadie are hooking up the patient to the EKG monitor while I place a bright blue tourniquet onto her arm. Her veins bulge out at me, purple and angry as I slide a needle under her skin and start collecting blood.

The last tube of blood finishes filling at the same time that the EKG is printing out of the machine. The patient stirs as she comes to, blinking up at us in confusion. I glance up at the girls just as we hear a crowd of voices approaching closer.

All of a sudden the room is filled with bodies. Fresh scrubs and white jackets everywhere.

"What's going on," I hear several voices ask at the same time.

Dr. Bolton is standing at the foot of the bed, his laser blue eyes taking in the situation before his eyes flick over to us.

"The monitor showed that the patient was in prolonged SVT, when we came into the room to check on her she was covered in sweat before she passed out. She just came back a moment ago," Maya tells Dr. Bolton.

"We will need an EKG and a full panel of blood work," Dr. Okan, a cocky third year resident student says and even though he is wearing a mask, I can hear the smug attitude behind it.

"Already done, doc," Sadie retorts before sliding past the resident in order to give the EKG to Dr. Bolton. She hands the resident the tubes of blood I just drew, "These just need to be sent to the lab, if you have a second."

Maya lets out a small laugh and I smile behind my mask as Dr Bolton reviews the sheet.

The alarm sounds again, signaling another run of SVT.

"Push 150mg of amiodarone to start," Dr. Bolton nods his head in my direction before turning his attention to the rest of the room, "and everyone loosen up and get ready for compressions if we end up needing them."

And we did.

After several medications didn't work, the patient lost her pulse. And after 15 minutes of compressions, we brought her back. Her heart in a semi-normal rhythm. She was immediately transferred to the ICU for further monitoring.

"Well damn," Myla said before collapsing in her her computer chair breathing heavily, "I was not expecting our shift to go that way today."

Sadie and I let out a chuckle as we also struggle to catch our breath. Compressions on a mannequin is one thing, but on an actual person is a hell of a lot of work.

"You're not fucking kidding," Sadie sputtered while raising a can of Diet Pepsi into the air, "But can we can have a moment of appreciation for Alexia? Who always is running that shit right next to Dr. Bolton."

I roll my eyes and pull my face mask away from me several inches so I can fill my lungs with more air as Myla raises her ginger ale into the air and presses it to her lips.

"Oh please, we all ran that shit together. As we do," I nod my head to both of the girls before zeroing in on Sadie, "how about a moment of appreciation to Sadie who threw all those tubes of blood at Resident-Always-Cocky and made him look like the total asshole that he is."

The three of us burst into laughter and raise our soda cans into the air before draining half the can each.

I lower my Diet Pepsi to find Dr. Bolton standing in front of the nurses station staring at all of us with an amused expression on his handsome face.

"No matter how hard you may wish it, that's not alcohol, ladies," He smiles at us, his long fingers digging through a box on the desk for a new face mask.

"Not yet, but catch us after the shift and it sure as hell will be," Sadie laughs.

His blue eyes glitter at us with humor before glancing down at his cellphone with a sigh.

"Girls, I have some news for you," Dr. Bolton says after reading over his message.

"No more rapid responses, I hope," Maya says.

"No, no, nothing like that." Dr. Bolton says before sighing, "There is no more room upstairs on lockup, so we have an inmate targeted to you girls."

I catch eyes with Sadie and Maya before shrugging, "It's no big deal. We get inmates sometimes. He's going to come with a Correction Officer or two, right?" I shrug again, "What's he coming for? Chest pain?"

Dr. Bolton eyes me wearily as he nods his head, "Yeah, I just," he pauses and allows his eyes to roam over the three of us before narrowing in on me once again. His voice softer as he continues, "I don't have the best feeling about this one."

Before we can question him, his phone flies to his ear, "Bolton," he barks before casting us another look and disappearing down the hall.

"Ohhhhkayyyy," Maya says at the same time Sadie says, "Weird."

I nod my head in agreement, staring at the place Dr. Bolton was just standing, confused.

The clock reads 1612.

In the hour that passes, we find ourselves bustling around the unit tending to our other patients and taking report from the ED. The patient is an inmate from a maximum security prison and is coming to us with complaints of chest pain.

"Prison made cocaine, is my guess," Maya says after I get report.

"Or he'd just looking for a few day getaway. Is there a game this weekend," Sadie asks.

"Are you going to google him?" Maya asks as she shakes her phone at me and wiggles her eyebrows.

"Hell no, the last time I did that I instantly regretted it," I say, pushing Sadie's phone away.

The first and last inmate I ever looked up ended up being a man who was sentenced to life in prison after setting his wife on fire and leaving her disfigured on the whole left side of her body. My friend in the burn unit took care of her and I went to visit her the night I read up on her husband. I held her hand and cried until my throat was sore. She will never know about me visiting her, since they had her sedated the whole time so she could heal from the brutal wounds he left her. Every time I looked at that excuse of a man my stomach clenched in revolt. I didn't tend to him as I would have tended to any other patient. I was so disgusted in him and my care, or lack thereof, showed it.

Everyone, even the most repulsive human beings deserved quality medical care when in the hospital. As medical professionals, it is not our job to sit and judge someone on the shitty things they have done, even though sometimes we do because we are only human. It is, however, our job to do everything we can to take care of every single person that enters through the doors of the hospital.

I vowed after that, no more googling anyone.

"I do love a man in uniform," Sadie sighs, pulling me from my thoughts as the doors of the floor opened and a corrections officer strolled onto the unit and towards the nurse's station.

"Ladies," he greets us before looking back over his shoulder towards the door he just walked through, "We have an inmate from Abtivia Penitentiary here on the floor going into room O17. Who's going to be his nurse?"

"That's going to be me," I reply, standing up and making my way out from behind the nurse's station.

I feel eyes burning into me before I even step fully into the hallway. An unsettling feeling starts o blossom in the pit of my stomach, like I just swallowed an ice cube that was much too big. A heavy, uncomfortable feeling that only intensified when I turned to confront who it's coming from.