CHANCES OF THE HEART (Part 2) (missy@ipax.com.au) Spoiler warning: This has very serious spoilers for the 5th Season right through to Point of Origin, so anyone not wanting to be spoiled, you have been warned. Sorry, but not much movement ahead in this part. Part 3 coming at you in another 24 hours :) "Where's Mark?" Carol asked Jerry after she had finished the med-line call, worry punctuating her brow. "Huh?" Jerry looked up from the magazine he was engrossed in. He had not heard her question, and judged by her exasperated look that she had directed a question at him. "Jerry! Clear Trauma One and Two. We've got incoming MVA's. Alert the OR and call for surgical consults." Carol slammed the files she had been carrying when she answered the call on the desk in front of him. Jerry jumped, fumbling to try and catch his magazine before it fell to the floor. "And if you have nothing better to do one you've done that, you can chase up the labs and x-rays on these files. Now, where is Mark?" "In Exam Two." Jerry hoped he was correct. He had been shocked by Carol's whole demeanour and he did not need her coming back to chew him out twice in one shift. Kerry Weaver did it often enough without others joining in. He did not even bother to pick up his magazine, reaching for the phone. Heading towards Exam Two, Carol thought about the conversation she had with Kerry earlier in the day when they had discussed the options available to a pregnant patient. She had cut Kerry off part way through their discussion when it had gotten too close to her heart, the weight of the decision bearing heavily on her heart. Now Kerry was being brought into County in an ambulance. "Mark, we've got two MVA's coming in." Carol stood at the doorway of Exam Two. "Call Carter and Doyle, I'll be there shortly." Mark finished drawing the spinal fluid, labelling it for the lab. "Mark, you might want to come now." Carol's tone held a gentle warning to him. "Lydia, could you finish up here?" Mark was already stripping the latex gloves from his hands. "Sure, Dr. Greene." Carol waited for Mark to come level with her before continuing, his eyes questioning her. "One of the victims is Kerry." "Damn." He tossed the gloves into the hazardous waste basket. "How serious?" "Not too bad from what the paramedics report. Their comment was that Kerry Weaver was being Kerry Weaver." "That's good to know." Mark still wouldn't be able to reassure himself that all was okay until he had seen Kerry. "What about the other victim." "Elderly lady in her seventies. Unconscious with head and chest injuries. Apparently she is Kerry's mother." - 0 0 0 - "Give me the bullet." Mark took control of the trauma as he helped the paramedics unload the gurney. The elderly lady was strapped to a backboard on the gurney, a c-collar firmly holding her neck in place and intubated. "Margaret O'Neill. Approximately 70 years of age. BP's 90 over 50, Pulse 130, Resps 24, good breath sounds bilaterally, two large bore IV's running wide open." Kerry's voice emanated from the back of the ambulance as she awkwardly maneuvered her crutch in the confined space. Mark offered his hand to help her down as she continued the bullet. "She is suffering from head, chest and abdominal trauma." "What about you? That's a pretty nasty lac." "I'm fine, Mark." Kerry ignored his look of concern, caught hold of the side of the gurney and moved with the trauma team to Trauma One. Doyle and Carter were already in the trauma room waiting for their arrival together with several nurses. The rumour that the victim was Kerry's mother had travelled fast. It made all the staff on edge, the patient no longer being a faceless victim but an integral link to one of their team. As soon as the gurney came through the doors and aligned with the trauma table, they reached across, releasing the straps. "On my count. One two and over." Mark directed. "Get her on a monitor, cross-table c-spine, chest and abominal series, CBC, lytes, PTT, serial blood gases, type and cross for six, two units of O neg. on the infuser, dip the urine. Call for a surgical consult and alert radiology. We need a portable CT." The only hint of difference to Kerry's instructions from those she gave in any other trauma was a slight wavering of her voice and a shortness of breath. "BP's 88 over 50, Pulse is 135," Carol said as she prepared to draw the blood orders. "Pupils are round and sluggish, react to light. Possible hyphaema" Mark commented, putting the penlight back into his pocket. The area around the patient was crowded with four doctors and four nurses assisting. Mark was concerned for Kerry. She had also been in the accident and her head lac was bleeding profusely. "Kerry, why don't you get that head lac seen to and change your clothes. You are soaked." "One gram of mannitol per kig," Kerry instructed, deliberately ignoring Mark's suggestion "Carter, check for a pneumothorax." "DTR's are two plus bilaterally," Maggie called out. "Babinski's negative." "Clear for pneumothorax. We've got some crunching ribs here. Guarding and tenderness to the abdomen. Let's get an abdominal CT." Carter concentrated on the elderly lady on the table. He was surprised that Kerry had not told him that she had finally found her mother and now he was part of the team treating her. He had felt Kerry's apprehension in her search for her biological parents and he was filled with compassion for her at the situation she now faced. "Here's the O neg." Malik passed it across to Lily. "Dip is positive." "Where is Peter? We need a peritoneal lavage. DPL tray." At that moment, Benton and Elizabeth came through the doors. "You're just in time, Peter. We need a peritoneal lavage." "What's her medical history, Kerry?" Mark asked. "I don't know. I only met my birth mother for the first time tonight. I was adopted." All eyes turned in shock. It was the sympathy that was in them that was Kerry's undoing and she turned quickly leaving the room before she could not contain her emotions any longer. End Part 2/?