The Harsh Reality

Nurse Bailey felt something amiss as she walked into her ward after her midnight lunch break. The ward was pin drop silent with all the children sound asleep, except for one. It was 1 am and her usual routine began from room 213. She walked over to the receptionist desks to see many of her colleagues engrossed with piles of paperwork and some of them having a silent nap. Bailey carefully picked up a brown file from under the desk in front of her without making a noise, so that she wouldn't disturb her fellow co-workers. Haphazardly, even a ghost couldn't go past Nurse Tara without her noticing. Tara looked up to Bailey and plainly said, "There's a new girl in room 213, she hasn't eaten or spoken much, maybe you could get her to-"

Bailey cut off Tara, "Don't worry, I'll get her talking in no time," Bailey whispered with high spirits. Nurse Bailey was known to be the night cheer of the ward, spreading her quality through all the children and their families. She was the perfect companion the children looked out for and the children's pain reliever from their medications and surgical procedures. In her whole 15 years career at LRI, there has not been a single night of dullness. Tara gave Nurse Bailey her medical equipment box. Whilst reading the brown file, Bailey strode over to the room to meet the silent child. She lightly knocked on the door and entered the room, not once taking her eyes off the file that she was intently reading. She placed her box on an armchair besides where she stood. It was tar black inside the room, so Bailey walked over to the room side lamp and the light flickered on. As she turned around, she saw various IVs scattered on the floor around the bed. Bailey looked at the patient and saw both arms of the child loosely sitting over the edges of the bed. She then looked up to the heart rate monitor and saw the 'flat line of death'. Bailey ran over to the child and placed her back on to the bed properly, patting her cheeks trying to awaken her from her deep sleep. She was as hot as a burning fire. Bailey frantically ran out of the room shouting for the attending doctor. This startled the nurses and the doctor came running straight towards his call's epic centre.

"What's wrong Nurse Bailey"? Asked the doctor, confused.

"Dr Carlos, the girl in... 213... She-," Bailey tried to get back her breath.

Dr Carlos placed his hand upon Bailey's shoulder and frowned, "What's wrong with her Nurse Bailey? What's wrong with Sam?"

"S-sam is... She flat-lined," Bailey breathlessly stated.

Without further ado, Dr Carlos sped over to Sam's room to see her lifeless.

Bailey and other nurse staff barged into the room and placed an oxygen mask over her face, manually pumping fresh oxygen at certain intervals. Dr Carlos took hold of the electrode paddles, "Charge to 200," the nurse followed orders.

"Clear," he placed the paddles on Sam's chest. BOOMPH!

"Charge to 250," he barked! Again BOOMPH! Still the 'flat line of death' was streaming.

"Charge to 300," he whispered. Dr Carlos slowly placed the paddles down one more time and the result was a final BOOMPH! He stood back and plainly stated, "Time of death, 1:16am," with his head down, he walked out of the room. Bailey rushed behind him and turned him around, "I think it was an attempted murder, all her needles were on the floor. I need to see the CCTV of the room. The doctor stiffly nodded and both of them walked towards the security room at the end of the corridor. Dr Carlos spoke briefly to the security officer and the guard placed in a tape of the room approx. taped from 5pm. It had shown a teenage lad wearing a blue jacket and red jeans entering the room. Fast forwarding the tape by 31 minutes, he had started conversing with Sam. The boy turned around for a fraction of a second and Dr Carlos immediately recognized him. He was a sibling of another patient that he was dealing with. He carried on watching the whole tape and was horrified how the boy grabbed onto Sam's wrists just below where the IVs were placed. Squeezing her fingers, she yelped in pain as the needles poked in out of her veins as he rocked her wrists back and forth. Her tears bleeding from her eyes, she tried to free herself from his grip by lightly kicking him; however the thin cotton blanket was snugly fit around her, preventing her release from this devil in front of her. Dr Carlos left the room immediately before telling Bailey that he would handle this issue. 

Carlos casually walked over to the Sade's room where their daughter had been admitted for severe food poisoning. He didn't knock and walked straight into the room startling the small family. "Hello, I'm Dr Carlos and I'm here to tell you that you are free to go."

"What?! Are sure you have cleared all the poison?" Shouted the father.

Dr Carlos confusingly asked, "Poison?"

The mother's nose flared, "Yes! The food poisoning that our devious adopted daughter gave to our René,"

René on the other hand was scared from all the noise and called out for Sam, which angered both parents even more. The mother continued, "She's gone from our lives, she tried to kill you."

"But..." René tried to argue.

Rubix looked up at his family and then finally the doctor who was staring straight at him with a mean glare. He took the look as for him to leave the room immediately.

Carlos addressed the parents again, "And where is she now?"

"We kicked her out," both parents simultaneously stated.

"You did what?! She could be dying right now!" Carlos bellowed

The father not feeling one bit of remorse, "Good riddance, she tried to kill my girl with poison, we can only expect karma to come back to her."

"I hope you didn't mean that," Dr Carlos retorted back.

Feeling offended, the father asked, "What d'you mean?"

"There was no poison found but yes there were nut traces found in the blood which would of have caused the nausea. Is René allergic to nuts?" Replied Dr Carlos

Mr and Mrs Sade looked at each other confused, "Yes, but Sam made spaghetti Bolognese for dinner- how did nuts-"

René spoke up finally, who couldn't take the insults that were placed on her beloved elder sister. "Rubix gave me a Cornetto before dinner, the chocolate one-"

"With nuts," Carlos finished, folding his arms across his chest.

René looked up at her parents. She was disgusted by their behaviour towards her sister who would be the first person of contact, always taking the blame for her even when her parents knew who was surely to blame. The sister who cooks nearly every evening because of their parents 'heavy work schedule'. Who were they fooling; all three children and neighbours knew that Mr and Mrs Sade spent more time at parties than home.  René just couldn't look at these people anymore and looked away with hate. Sam came to them as a gift and they easily tossed her away.

Mrs Sade fell to the floor with a fresh batch of tears flowing down her red cheeks. Her hand covering her mouth trying hard to control her sobs whilst her other hand clamped to the metal bed frame, balancing her body weight. She sighed heavily, "What have we done? Sam! She could be anywhere.

Carlos shook his head vigorously. His sight caught René who looked up at him with a pleading face. He placed a fragile hand on her head and in return René wrapped her arms around Dr Carlos' waist tightly, as if he would disappear any second. Carlos smiled at the little girl and held her head close to him.

René quietly whispered, "Doctor, will you help to find my Sam?" René broke the hug and began explaining what she looked like, "She's 15, her sweet 16 is next month. She has dark brown hair, shoulder length, a fair complexion with a green stone ring on the fourth-finger of her right hand. She has a gold and silver bracelet on her left. It has my initials on it and I have hers, see," René presented her left wrist to Dr Carlos.

Carlos' eyes widened as René told him Sam's description and how it perfectly matched with the young girl Sam who just passed away. He crouched down to René's level and asked her if she had a picture of Sam. She pulled the locket away from her neck and opened it up to show Sam's picture. "She bought me this for my 7th birthday, from her lunch money," René gleefully said, looking at the picture of them both. Carlos genuinely smiled at the bond they shared. He held out his hands, "May I?" he asked René if he could take the locket. She obeyed and watched him walk over to Mr and Mrs Sade.  Carlos dangled the locket in front of them like an ancient hypnotising stopwatch.

"This is Sam, right?" Dr Carlos plainly asked.

Both of them nodded silently, too shocked to say anything in this moment of trauma.

"She passed away 15 minutes ago, she suffered from lobar pneumonia, it engulfed her whole right lung", right on cue Rubix re-entered the room and Dr Carlos continued, "It was an attempted murder, Rubix will now explain why and how he managed to give René an allergy attack and kill your 'devious adopted daughter', right Rubix?"

Rubix froze as everyone turned towards him with tumultuous expressions. Carlos stepped out of the room, sighed heavily and thought 'sometimes, the harsh reality has to be laid out in front of you.'

-  09/04/14

"Life is a dream for the wise, A game for the fool, A comedy for the rich, A tragedy for the poor"

- Sholem Aleichem (Solomon Rabinovich)  

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