Twenty-four Years

Twenty-four Years

It had been twenty-four years since she’d last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same. Twenty-four years ago she had been a patient at the Berwick Hospital Center’s ER. Angela could still hear all the sounds that surrounded her as she lay on a bed in one of the curtained off cubicles. She laid there worried about her baby sister and totally pissed off at her brother that had crashed them into a telephone pole. She stood here today outside the very same hospital because today was her first day here as the head of the ER trauma team. She swore she’d never come back here, but when your momma gets sick you do what you have too, to be close to her. Angela drapes her stethoscope around her neck and heads into the one place that changed her life so long ago.

“Good morning, I’m looking for Dr. Emmitt Taylor.”

“May I ask who you are?”

“I am Dr. Angela Evans, your head of trauma.”

“One moment please.”

Angela wonders around the waiting room, silently going over the people waiting to be seen. She sees a woman with a probable broken arm, a man with a more than likely broken leg, one or two others which appeared to be have some sort of back pain. She turns when others walked and immediately runs over to catch the young girl before she hits the floor.

“We need help here. NOW!”

Angela picks the young girl up and starts carrying here into the back and starts barking orders.

“LET’S GO PEOPLE! TODAY! BRING THE CRASH CART!”

Luckily everyone jumps at her commands. Thirty minutes later they have the young girl stable after bringing her back once. The girl is on her way to surgery with the Cardiologist. Angela steps out of the room to go find her discarded items that she dropped when she caught the young girl she now knows as Carly.

“Dr. Angela Evans.”

Angela hears someone calling her from behind. She stops and turns around. She sees a man walking toward her carrying the items she was about to go look for.

“Yes?”

“I am Dr. Emmitt Taylor.” He says as he hands Angela’s items to her. “That was amazing work, not many people would catch that. Welcome to our family here at BHC.”

“Glad I was here. Carly should recover as long as Dr. Davis is as good as I’ve read.”

“He is, I’ve not seen anyone as good as him. Come, I’ll show you to your office and then I’ll introduce you to your team.”

Angela was actually surprise that she would have a full team of seven, eight on certain days. Some of the members she had already met and she was pleased that they were quick on their feet. Today they didn’t have any warning with Carly, but hopefully from here on in they’ll have the normal prep time from when the ambulance EMTs call in. Angela walked back in the room where Dr. Taylor had just introduced her in, time to put her team at ease around her.

“Good job earlier with little Carly. Hopefully there won’t be too many of those types of emergencies. Most of the time we’ll be told a head of time from the EMTs so we can prep a little. We will also be using a room and not a curtained space. Some of these people may require to be cut open to save their lives and we don’t want to put on show or have an audience distracting us from our jobs. Is everyone clear on this?”

Everyone answered her in unison.

“Good, glad to hear it. Now a little about me. I grew up around here. This hospital saved my live and changed that live for the better. I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the doctors and nurses of this hospital. I can be your friend or your worst nightmare, I prefer to be your friend, so please talk to me. If you need a day off for something don’t be afraid to ask. Family emergencies are always, always given time off no questions asked. Speaking of family emergencies, my mother is very ill, she may go either way, so I myself will need a day in the near future. Does anyone have any questions?”

“Is the trauma team going to be permanent?”

“As long as I am here, yes, and I don’t plan on leaving anytime soon. I feel we here at the BHC can make a big difference. We can save even more lives.”

“What do we do when we aren’t on a trauma case?”

“You will go back to doing whatever you did before. The doctors and nurse know that when there is a trauma case you are mine. If any of you have more questions see me when you can, but right now we need to get back out there and help save lives.”

Angela was walking back to her office when she was stopped by a nurse.

“Little Angie Evans is that you?” The nurse walked up to her and took her by the forearms. “Let me have a look at you. I wondered what happen to you.”

“Thelma?”

“The very same. How ya been, dear? How’s your momma?”

The walked to Angela’s office and sat before continuing their conversation.

“I owe my career to you, Thelma. You and all the others that took care of me after the accident. After high school and went to college to lean about medicine and here I am.”

“Yes, you are. Is your momma doing any better?”

“She’s still on the fence. I got her a live in nurse, since I can’t be there 24/7.”

“I’m glad she’s got you. Your father, Ooo, I just want to smack him upside the head with a cast iron frying pan that good for nothing man left her when she needed him the most, and if I get my hands on Ronnie I’ll do the same to him. He should be here helping you.”

“Its alright my brother isn’t worth the fuss. Thank you for caring though.”

“You and your momma need anything, just call me.”

“We will, thank you, Thelma.”

Thelma stands. “I Got to get back to the patients before Dr. Taylor has my hide.”

“Alright, I’m sure we’ll run into one another again.”

Thelma pulls Angela into a big o’ grandmotherly hug and then leaves.

At the end of the Angela is standing in the same spot she was in that morning. They had only had the one trauma, Carly, but with everyone working together she lived to see another day and that was all that mattered.