Forever and a Day//Jolex

Chapter 13

Baby Brooklyn was 3 months old, and Alex was officially going back to work. He was nervous about leaving Jo alone, since they had usually been together to help each other out, but he knew she was more than capable. Jo decided to extend her leave a month or two because she wasn't ready to leave Brook all day and put her in daycare.
Jo had been up since 4:00 with the baby, who seemed to be nocturnal, so she was pretty exhausted. Jo was reading a case study Mer just published while she pumped, and Brooklyn was in the swing that swayed back and forth, which she loved. By the time Jo had finished, the baby had fallen back to sleep, so she had nothing to do but wake up Alex. A few minutes before he needed to get up, Jo woke him with a kiss and a mug of hot coffee.
"Good Morning, beautiful." He said, taking the mug from her hand and taking a sip. "What are you doing up?" He asked, now putting the mug down on the bedside table.
"The baby didn't want to sleep. She's finally napping in her swing, though."
"Well, I still have a few more minutes before I need to get up." He said, with an inquisitive look.
Jo laughed as Alex pulled her into bed with him and pulled off her shirt.
15 minutes later, Alex's alarm went off, and even though he didn't want to get out of bed, he couldn't have thought of a better way to start the day.
"Shut it off, it's going to wake the baby."Jo said, just before Alex pressed stop.
"I think it's too late." Alex said, looking at Brooklyn who was giggling in her swing, wide awake.
"Hello!" Jo exclaimed in a baby voice as she hurried to wrap the comforter around herself to cover her naked body. She leaned in to caress Alex's face and gave him one last slow, deep kiss to get him through the day.
Alex got ready for work and left in a hurry, and Jo dressed herself and Brooklyn and they set to begin the day. They watched some TV, had an hour of tummy time, took a nap and had a bath, and it was only 10:30. She decided to go for a walk, so she covered the baby in a small blanket and gave her a toy to play with before heading out the door and down the block.
Jo walked about 3 blocks down before deciding to explore a nearby park that she had passed everyday on the way to work yet never visited. She found an empty seat on a bench beside a man in a button down shirt and khakis. She smiled and said hello, put Brooklyn in her arms and sat down, and went to minding her own business.
She cradled the baby in one arm and scrolled through phone with the other, as Brooklyn stared at the outside world with wide eyes. She sucked on her little fingers and played with her feet, babbling and cooing happily.
A few minutes passed and her arm was starting to get tired, so she gave her daughter a kiss on the head and strapped her back into the stroller. Just she stood up and turned to leave to leave, she heard a thud behind her. She whipped around to see the man who had been quietly sitting beside her collapsed on the ground, his skin turning an icy bluish color. A little girl ran up to the scene before Jo had the chance to act, her arms flailing in the air and shouting.
"My daddy! Somebody help him!"
"Hi, sweetie. What's your name?" Jo asked, preparing to comfort her.
"Gabby."
"Okay, Gabby. I'm a doctor and I'm gonna help your daddy, but first I need you to stand back so I can work, okay? Stand by the stroller and watch the baby." She instructed, kneeling to the ground. By now, a crowd of parents and children had gathered at the scene. "Everybody step back please, I'm a Doctor! Can somebody please call an ambulance?"
The man was gasping for air, struggling to get in a deep breath. When Jo put her head to his chest, it was evident his breathing was shallow. His heart beat was rapid, and he was clutching his chest.
"Think, Jo. You still have medical knowledge stored up there somewhere," she thought to herself. "His symptoms are all tell tales of a pnemo. Which means there's pressure building up in his chest, and that could bring on even more issues. "How far out is the ambulance?"
"7 minutes." Someone in the crowd called out.
"That's too long. I need to get this man some oxygen!" She said, mostly to herself.
She had to think fast- she didn't have any tests or imaging to prove her theory of a spontaneous pneumothorax, but her instincts had been right before, and if there was one thing she knew for sure, it was that she was running out of time. If she wanted any shot at saving this mans life, she had to take a leap of faith. In front of his daughter and a crowd of onlookers. Crap.
"Sir, I need to insert a chest tube to relive the pressure building in your chest. I'm really sorry, but it's going to hurt." She said. A few whispers came from the people surrounding the scene, but Jo didn't have time to worry about squeamish bystanders.
In her best attempt to get creative, she pulled her car keys out of her purse and tried to sterilize them with a bottle of hand sanitizer. She braced herself to push the key into the firth intercostal space, widening the incision with her finger. The closest thing available that somewhat resembled a chest tube was a straw, which she yanked out of some lady's Dunkin' Donuts cup, "sterilized" and inserted into the incision.
Almost immediately, there was a small gust of air and then the steady rising and falling off the man's chest. The surrounding audience clapped, and Jo let out a sigh of relief. She felt more alive than she had in months.
She missed that rush, had almost forgotten the high she got from cutting. And in the park with a set of keys, no less? She was on top of the world. The last thing she had to do was secure the straw, which she did with a couple of bandaids as makeshift tape. Not ideal, but it would do until they reached the hospital.
The only thing that felt better than that save was the sirens that followed soon after, meaning help had arrived. A team of paramedics rushed over with a gurney, looking baffled at the sight of a man with a straw in his throat and a tired mom covered in blood.
Jo stood up and introduced herself as Doctor Josephine Karev. The team thanked her and lifted the man onto the gurney for transport, signaling for his daughter, Gabby, to follow.
"Do you think I could get a ride to the hospital, finish what I started?" She asked, unwilling to let go of this high.
"Sure, get in."
Jo scooped the baby from her stroller where she had quietly sat through the whole affair and gave her a kiss, securing her on her hip. She threw the diaper bag over one shoulder and her purse over the other, leaving the rest behind. The sirens started, startling the baby for a brief moment, and they took off for the hospital.
"Did you see that, Brook?" She said to her daughter. "Mama's still got it."