Broken - #Wattys2016 Completed

BROKEN CHAPTER 4

I would like to dedicate this chapter to Anniemena for all of her support, thank you :)

September  23, 2013

Danny burst in through the red glass sliding doors of the Emergency room, holding Emily out front of him as though she were a hot potato. He felt sick, bile was rising up into his throat, it was burning - his whole chest was on fire. As he ran frantically towards the counter he could hear yelling, "Please god help us." Alarmed he realised it was him, the strange disjointed voice echoing through the room was coming from him.

The nurse behind the Emergency room Perspex glass was standing up, craning to get a look at who was yelling. Danny reached her at the front desk, followed closely by Victoria holding onto Amanda's hand. He held up their blue motionless baby for the nurse to see.

"Choking, she is choking please, help, help our baby..." said Danny as he frantically tried to deny himself air until he had finished his plea to the nurse.

The nurses eyes widened as she put up her hand, her palms showing, fingers spread wide in a halting motion. "Wait there I'm coming around."

Seconds later the door near the front counter buzzed and the nurse appeared ushering them into a long corridor that lay beyond the front of the hospital. She led them into another room with hospital beds. As they entered the room, she grabbed the arm of a passing nurse, "Get Dr. Jones, quickly."

The other nurse nodded and scurried away.

There were 3 beds in the room the closest one had a curtain drawn all the way around. In the last bed was an older man laying down with a mask over his face, his eyes were closed and he made no effort to open them when they entered the room. He continued breathing in deeply as puffs of white smoke whizzed out of the mask.

The nurse took them to the empty stall and motioned for them to lay Emily on the bed.

The nurse inspected the baby for a moment and quickly began fiddling with machines and cords. She ran over to a short long a cupboard that doubled as a desk and book shelf in the room, pushing aside a chair on wheels, then crawling on her hands and knees she rummaged around until she found a clear plastic bag. It contained a tiny breathing mask. The nurse  unwrapped it  as she ran back to the bed and placed it over Emily's face.

The mask was just like the older man in the next bed had over his face. Even though it was much smaller it still looked too large and covered Emily's face almost entirely. Once it was in place she hooked up the connecting cord of the mask to a nearby tap looking type of thing that was attached to the wall and twisted the dial. It hissed gently but unlike the man in the next bed but no white smoke puffed out.

The nurse didn't look or speak to Danny, Victoria and Amanda as they stood huddled in one corner trying to keep out of the way.  She continued to hook up more machines. The nurse from earlier arrived in the room, with a young looking doctor two steps behind her, he was dressed in scrubs and a theatre mask around his neck. Not seeming to notice Danny, Victoria and Amanda in the corner, he glared at the nurse.

The nurse replied in two strange words, "Cerebral Convulsions." The doctor nodded as he looked at Emily and touched her head gently where it was bulging, and opened her tiny eyelids. Finally he looked over at Danny Victoria and Amanda and pointing at the nurse he had come in with he said, "This is Nurse Rose, go with her..."    

Danny stood there unable to move, for the first time since he had discovered Emily in her cot that morning everything seemed to stop still. Before with all of the panic everything had been happening so fast it was as though they had been on a roller coaster. He hadn't even taken a moment up until now to think about exactly what had just happened.