Anchor - Christopher Herrmann [1]

Chapter 1 - Fire Fighter Down

[CHICAGO FIRE SEASON 4]

I'm a third-year resident at Chicago Med, and medical school felt like a lifetime ago, especially while working in a big city like Chicago and seeing a lot of patients every day while working 48-hour shifts. I was 24 hours into a 48 hour shift When we received a patient rushed into the ER "what happened?" I inquired as I rushed over "A knife wound to the right flank . "BO 80 over 50," said the paramedic who brought him in, "let's get him to the shock room," I said as I put gloves on my hands. "April, follow me," I said as I followed the trolley as the trauma attending Dr Rhodes raced up to me and said, "call respiratory and blood bank." Get two O negs and two plasmas for me." Dr Rhodes said as he looked at April "on it" April said as she rushed off "Jordan, you're the resident on call tonight, right?" April said as they pulled him into the shock room.

"Yes Dr Rhodes" I said as I stood there "ok your with me" Rhodes said as he ran into the room and I followed. "Hi, my name is Dr. Jordan, can you give me your name?" I said, glancing at him. I already knew his name, but I wanted to double-check that he was still with us. "Christopher Hermann" I answered. "I can't die," Hermann said as he removed his mask. "I have five kids who recently lost their mother, and I'm all they have." Hermann said, "It's going to be okay, let's pop this back on," I said as I put his mask back on. After he was checked, we discovered that the knife had injured his liver, diaphragm, and lung.

"Here they come," one said as we entered the room, "we have given Herrmann several units of blood, and he's stable for the time being." "Unfortunately, the knife caused severe damage to his body because it went through his liver, diaphragm, and lung," Rhodes stated as he nodded at me, "if you would want to continue, Dr Jordan." As a result, we've inserted a chest tube to assist him breathe by reinflating the injured lung. We're hoping the bleeding has stopped since there's nothing on his CT that indicates any more bleeding." I said as I looked at them all "When will you know," Dawson asked

"Well, The next several hours are critical." I said looking at them I knew from the look on there faces that this news wasn't they wanted to hear but it was the only news I had so far "I'm sorry that it's not better news as soon as we have anything else I will let you know" I said as I was about to walk off before I was stopped by the stations chief "Dr Jordan" The Chief said which made me turn to face him "yes Chief" I said as I smiled "I know your trying your hardest but he's a single father of 5 children, he has to make it through" Chief said as he looked at me worriedly because one of his men was down "I know he told me, I promise you I will do everything I can" I said as I looked at him before I headed off.

I sat there all night watching over him because I was on call anyway. The next morning I was awoken by a hand shaking my shoulder "morning you been here all night" I heard a voice say as I opened my eyes to see Dr Rhodes stood next to me "sorry I must have dropped off for a moment" I said as I woke myself up properly before I stood up "it's alright how's he been" Dr Rhodes said questionably as he looked at his chart.

"Stable but that's all we can hope for at the moment," I said as I looked at him. "OK," Dr Rhodes said as we both walked out of the room. I took a shower and changed into my spare set of clothes before heading out to do my rounds, but I told the nurses to page me if anything changed because I was seeing a patient. "April, can you take over?" I said, looking at April, who nodded before I ran upstairs. "His sats are falling, Eighty percent," said a nurse.

"Herman, I need you to try and take some nice, easy breaths for me, ok?" I urged as I dashed in and went to his bed. "Nice and easy, buddy," Dr Rhodes said as the nurse proceeded to cover his face with a mask as he coughed. "He's crashing," Dr. Rhodes replied, worriedly looking at me. "What are we going to do?" I said, concerned. "We need a BiPap in here with an albuterol neb and racemic epi immediately!" He replied. "It'll be OK Herrman," I replied as I placed my hand on his arm and stared into his eyes. "Get that BiPap on him now," Dr. Rhodes urged. "Give me 125 mg of methylprednisolone," Dr. Rhodes said as the resident stepped the BiPap Dr. Rhodes said I observed the resident take far too long to put on the mask.

"Give it here," I said as I took it from him. "Get a stat portable chest x-Ray and a blood gas," I said as I pushed by him and placed it on him myself. Dr. Rhodes said as he was injected with 125 mg of methylprednisolone, which began to talon his sats down, but he wasn't out of the woods yet. As I stood there, I felt him grab my hand. It was Dr. Rhodes' case, so I couldn't do much, so I figured by being there, I could help him. "It's going to be ok," I said, which made him look up at While Dr. Rhodes went to tell everyone, I stayed with him. Dr. Rhodes agreed that it was a good idea because my presence seemed to help him relax a little, which was important.

"How's he doing?" Dr Rhodes said as he stood there looking at Herrmann's sats. "No too good, he's still bleeding from his liver," I replied, causing Dr Rhodes' countenance to shift. "I believe we should go and notify them jointly whatever you're doing appears to be helping calm him down." Dr Rhodes said, sounding impressed "I've just been sat here." I said. "Sometimes that's all a person needs," He added.

"Come on, let's go," Dr Rhodes said as he glanced at me again. Dr. Rhodes stated that I pulled my hand away from Herrmanns and carefully placed it on bed gently before standing up. "Herrmann's continuing to bleed from his liver, and his hemodynamic situation is becoming unstable. Ideally, we'd take him to angio, and we would try to fix the bleeding from the inside, but unfortunately, his blood pressure is too low to risk that. So we have no other choice but to take him into surgery. Now, he's going to need a lot of blood and plasma, so the risk of TRALI is high, we will deal with that if it comes up." Dr Rhodes said as I looked to the fire fighter Cruze I could tell he felt guilty about what had happened, because I wasn't intentionally listening but I heard what he said to Herrmann. "Thankyou doctors" Chief Boden said as he looked at us both.

"Well, were gonna be out here sending all the good mojo we got his way." The Chaplin said as he looked at us as I was stood waiting outside I heard beeping come from his room so I ran in "Dr Rhodes?" I shouted as I pushed Cruze back so I could get to him "what happened? He was fine, then all of a sudden" Joe said as he looked at me worried "Joe, I need you step outside, so I can do my job" I said looking at him before he nodded and walked out of the room that's when I lifted up his blanket and saw all the blood "Dr Rhodes" I shouted and he came running in "What we got" Dr Rhodes said then he saw all the blood "I think a clot came loose.his chest tube is dumping blood." I said looking at him worried because his condition was deteriorating fast "he's decompressing his liver, through his diaphragm into his chest. We need to get him to The OR right now." Dr Rhodes said as he looked at me "Dr Jordan I need you to stay here and call the blood bank tell them to trigger the mass transfusion protocol." Dr Rhodes said as he was working on him.

"but what if he goes into TRALI again?" I asked "we will deal with they if we have to. Right now we need to stop him from bleeding out." Dr Rhodes said "package him up and let's go." Dr Rhodes said sternly as he looked at me as I packaged Herrmann up before they moved the gurney and I stood there watching them move the gurney away as everyone from his house followed "you will all need to move to the waiting room" I said which made them just stare at me "Dr Rhodes is amazing at his job Herrmanns going to be just fine" I said as I looked at them "come on guys let's move" Boden said as he looked at them all before they moved.
End Of Chapter 1