Nemo Resideo

Part 5

"Dr. Arata!" The trauma surgeon stopped in his tracks and turned around only to come face to face with the head nurse of Lakeshore hospital's emergency room. Not one to beat around the bush, she cut straight to the point and put forward her request. "Would you mind examining the patient in treatment four? He's been here for hours, but no one had the time to have a look at him yet." The doctor cocked his head and arched an eyebrow. Usually, surgeons weren't asked to help with the influx of patients in the pit, mostly because it was of the utmost importance that they were free to be on standby in case they required someone to perform emergency surgery. Subsequently, it was never a good omen if they were asked to take care of the non-critical patients.

Reading his mind, the nurse sighed, "I know, I know. And I hate to ask, but two of my doctors called in sick and I have no one on standby." David Arata wasn't surprised. With the most recent budget cuts, the hospital was chronically understaffed. So, it was no wonder, she hadn't found anyone to cover. "We're swamped right now. More urgent emergencies keep rolling in, pushing the patient in four further down the priority list, but I swear if he has to wait much longer, he might bail, and I honestly don't think he should be going anywhere with the symptoms he presents."

The doctor regarded her for a long minute, his expression wary and slightly irate, then glanced at the clock on the wall behind her. It was barely past ten in the morning, and he'd been here since five, having been called in an hour before his shift would have officially started to perform what turned out to be rather complicated five-hour emergency surgery. A surgery that had been touch-and-go for a while with the patient just barely escaping death. Thankfully, the man was finally stable and on his way to recovery, which permitted David to take a quick break and grab himself a cup of the tar-like sludge they called coffee here, something he despised but would desperately need if he wanted to make it to the end of what would be a very long shift.

However, the hospital as usual had other plans than to sanction him as little as five minutes of quiet. Of course, as a surgeon of nearly twenty years, he knew well enough that those were rather hard to come by and elusive. Emergencies lurked around every corner, and today that sentiment rang especially true. Letting his eyes wander over the hustle and bustle, it didn't go without notice that the ER was already crowded with people seeking medical attention and it would only become more and more congested by the minute. If they already had trouble getting everyone treated, it would be sheer impossible for the department to provide their patients the proper care they needed and deserved, especially those who weren't high on the triage.

Knowing that he didn't have any scheduled surgeries for the next couple of hours, therefore was basically on standby for the emergency room, anyway, in case a critical patient needed to be operated on, the doctor relented. He backtracked a bit and passed the admission desk, motioning for the nurse to hand him the chart and give him a brief overview of the patient. Just as he expected, she was naturally quick to deliver. "Jay Halstead, twenty-nine, came in with severe back pain and quite an impressive collection of bruising and swelling to his face," she rattled off as she fell into step beside him, a mutual decision already made that she would assist in the examination.

Arata nodded thoughtfully, furrowing his brows as he went through a mental checklist of things he would need to look out for. The listed injuries suggested the patient had been in a fight and considering he'd been here since the early morning hours, there was a good chance that he was also intoxicated or in the process of sobering up, which usually went hand in hand with poor compliance. An unnoticed visual assessment from outside probably wouldn't hurt for further information if that was the case. Consequently, he slowed his steps and came to a halt in front of the partition glass wall to get a preliminary glimpse. However, the sight that greeted him confused him.