Mercy by Rada Jones

Author:Rada Jones [Jones, Rada]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781086835502
Publisher: Apolodor
Published: 2019-09-19T16:00:00+00:00

48

After squaring away the brain bleed and the drunk and the other challenges of another lousy shift, Emma sat in her office.

She finally got to think about the quality meeting. Her jaw clenched, she started fuming. They told her to mind her own business! As her patients died in her ER. Inconceivable.

She logged in the computer to have another look at the charts. She had perused them so many times that her eyes started glazing over them. To focus, she started a list, looking for similarities.

Death #1. Monday, April 9. Room 5.

Patient: Old nursing home patient with hip fracture.

Doctor: Alex. Nurse: Brenda.

Mechanism: Unknown. Opiate overdose, maybe? The woman’s vitals got better just before she died. Opiates would give her pain relief and normalize her vitals. At first. Then they’d put her to sleep. For good.

Coroner’s report: Pulmonary edema. The toxicology report was still pending. She got morphine, so she’s going to be positive for opiates no matter what. Carlos worked that day. George didn’t. That doesn’t mean much. He could stop by, for one reason or another. We all do. For a meeting, to return a book, whatever.

Death #2. Wednesday, April 11. Room 20.

Patient: Old woman with dehydration and rash.

Doctor: Kurt. Nurse: Carlos.

Mechanism: Hypoglycemia. Insulin? Maybe that ordered for another patient? She wrote herself a note: Who took out that insulin? Who gave it? When? Ask Sal.

Coroner’s report: Nothing. Tox report is pending. This one may help. An abnormal C-peptide will confirm that she received insulin she had no business getting.

Case # 3. Saturday, April 14. Unknown room. This one didn’t die.

Patient: Old woman with a urinary tract infection. Discharged back to the nursing home. Returned next day with severe unexplained dehydration.

Mechanism: Lasix overdose? That would make her pee a lot. That would get her dehydrated. Would anyone notice at the nursing home? The urinary tract infection made her pee a lot anyhow. Hypertonic saline? That would scar the vein. But whoever gave it didn’t give a damn. Dead people don’t need veins.

Doctor: Alex. Nurse: Ben.

Coroner’s report: None yet.

Death #4. Sunday, April 15. Room 5.

Patient: Middle-aged man with back pain.

Doctor: Me. Nurse: Carlos.

Coroner’s report: Not yet.

Mechanism: Who knows? Maybe I missed a dissection or an aneurysm. I almost hope it’s that, rather than someone killing a healthy patient. My patient! But if they did, how? The meds I wrote for him were removed from the pixies. Carlos says he left them on the counter. Did anyone give them? But they weren’t enough to kill him anyhow.

A knock at the door. Emma threw her notes in the drawer and minimized her computer screen. She’d been told to mind her own business. She didn’t want to get caught detecting. Not before she found the answers.

“Come in.”

Faith came in, glowing and full of life, filling her scrubs in all the right places. Her warm indigo blue eyes embraced Emma.

“You’re still here?”

“Catching up on some work. How are you, Faith?”

“I’m good. You?”

“Hanging in there. This work is beating me lately.”

“I bet. All these deaths.”

Emma cleared her voice.

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