the emergency room front desk. She looked around the emergency room lobby area to see if she could find her husband maybe waiting patiently in the seating area to be called to come back to an available room, but she didn’t see Matt anywhere.
“Hello, yes, I’m Christina Carter,” said Christina to the front desk receptionist. “My husband is Matt Carter. He was brought here from an auto accident just a short time ago.”
“Hold on one moment, ma’am. Let me check,” said the desk clerk, as she rummaged through some paperwork at the desk. The receptionist flipped through a sheet of papers on a clipboard at the desk, moving one sheet of paper after another until she came to Matt’s paperwork.
“Okay, I do see that name, and do you have photo identification, ma’am?” said the clerk.
Christina set her purse down on the counter and began to rummage through it. Finding her wallet she took out her driver’s license to show the receptionist. The receptionist took the identification, turned around, and scanned a copy, and then turned back around, handing the identification back to Christina.
“Matt is in emergency room number 9, through those doors right there. I’ll just have you sign in on this sign-in sheet and you should be good to go. I’ll also open the door for you from here. Once you go through those doors, room 9 is down the hallway to your immediate right, straight in front of you,” said the receptionist.
“Thank you. Is he doing all right?” asked Christina.
“Ma’am, I don’t know, they don’t share with us any information on how a patient is doing. I’m sorry. I wish I knew more for you.”
Christina left the front desk and ran toward the emergency room doors. The doors opened when she got close enough, and she ran through the double set of doors into a scene of absolute medical chaos—medical staff moving about from room to room, nurses and doctors chatting and charting notes in the hallway, children and loved ones waiting outside the room doors. Their children screamed and cried while adults talked and yelled around one another. The sounds of medical machines emanating from each emergency room that was covered by a fabric curtain filled the hallways with beeps, dial tones, and a variety of all sorts of noises. Christina worked her way around large groups of people, random medical machines, and hospital staff throughout the cluttered emergency room hallway until she got to room 9. Christina stopped in front of the curtain and braced herself to what she was about to see, as she pulled back the curtain and walked in.
There in a hospital bed she saw her husband, Matt. He was hooked up to a breathing machine that helped pump oxygen into his lungs. Bruises garnished his face, as well as his left arm—the only parts of his body visible from atop the bed sheet. Matt also wore a neck brace that immobilized him from freely moving his neck. Matt was asleep, and Christina had seen enough medical shows on TV to know that the beeping sound the machine next to his bed was making indicated that Matt was still alive and still presenting with a heartbeat. Christina walked up to Matt’s side and talked into his ear.
“Matt, baby. Matt, can you hear me? It’s your wife, Christina. Matt?” said Christina as she fought back tears.
“He can’t hear you right now, ma’am,” said a commanding voice behind her.
Christina turned around to see a tall, balding man with a white beard in a white lab coat standing behind her now. She looked down toward his badge on the breast pocket of his lab coat: Dr. Jeff Kilbowski, MD.
“What do you mean?” asked Christina.
“For his own good, Matt has been sedated at this time. Are you Christina, his wife?” asked Dr. Kilbowski.
“Yes, sir, I am,” replied Christina.
“Are you his POA?”
“POA?”
“Power of attorney. Can you make health care decisions for him?”
“Oh, yes. Yes, I can, sir.”
“Most spouses are, but I just wanted to be sure. Please sit down with me.”
Christina found a chair along the wall at the foot of Matt’s bed she sat in, and Dr. Kilbowski sat in the other next to her. Dr. Kilbowksi started explaining the situation to her.
“Christina, Matt has some internal bleeding that we need to stop as quickly as possible before his condition becomes critical, but believe me, I feel that he got down here in good amount of time where I feel that we can certainly do that, but the longer we wait the worse it gets. It’s difficult to say the extent of the damage from the accident until we get in and actually see what is going on inside of his body and what damages he sustained. Another doctor, Dr. Ho, is also going to join to assist in the surgery to stop the internal bleeding. Right now, Dr. Ho is preparing for his surgery, and after we finish talking I’m going to do the same and we’re going to do what we can as medical professionals to save your husband’s life. At this time do you have any questions, Christina?”
Christina was worried at the sound of having surgery and doctors indicating that they were going to do their best to save her husband’s life. Christina had a hard time coming up with any questions to ask the doctor at this time. All she could think about was her husband and making sure he had the medical help that he needed.
“No, sir, I can’t think of anything right now. I just need some time to think. Please do what you can to save his life though.”
“Very good, please come with me. The nurse will need to ask you some questions, fill out some paperwork, and this will give us the chance to bring him back into surgery.”
Christina followed the doctor out of the room to the emergency room’s nurse station.
“Amber? Amber!” said the doctor as he approached the nurse’s fishbowl area—a large, rounded area with desks and medical staff where nurses typed their notes and gathered their information from family members. Christina looked and saw a nurse dressed in blue scrubs who ran out from a group of nurses charting notes—a younger woman who looked as if she was fresh out of college and dropped into the position the day after she had graduated.
“Yes, Dr. Kilbowski?” said Amber.
“Amber, this is Christina Carter. She is the wife to Matt in emergency room 9. We’re preparing to take Matt back into emergency surgery to stop internal bleeding from his accident. Can you sit with Christina for a bit to have her fill out admission paperwork as well as insurance forms and any other paperwork that the hospital will need to have on file please, while Dr. Ho and I go into surgery? We received verbal permission to begin operating, so we feel that it’s in Matt’s best interest that we start sooner rather than later.”
“Of course, Doctor,” said Amber. “Right this way, Mrs. Carter.”
“Christina, everything is going to be all right. Please do not worry too much. I’m sure you are, but Dr. Ho and I will do our best and give him the best care that we can,” said Dr. Kilbowski.
“All right, thank you for all you’re doing, Doctor. How long do you think you will be in surgery for?”
“It’s too hard to tell, Christina, until we go in and see what is going on internally. You may however wait in the waiting room on the third floor. I believe room 309 is being prepped for him to stay in, but I will know more for sure after surgery. I will look for you on the third floor.”
The
