Read Online March Forth (The Woodford Chronicles Book 1) by Deirdre S. Hopton - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Deirdre S. Hopton
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nothing.
“Cause if you took anything, we need to know so we can help… what happened? You ok?” The EMT checked a band around her arm, checking her blood pressure. “Your blood pressure just skyrocketed. What did you take?”
“Tell him you smoked crack in the library,” the man in black said, leaning over the EMT’s shoulder. “I just wanna see what he says.”
Deanna started hyperventilating, even with the oxygen mask blowing into her mouth and nose. The EMT was frantic as they pulled into the hospital’s ambulance-unloading area, turning dials on the oxygen tank and trying desperately to figure out why she was hyperventilating and why her blood pressure had so suddenly escalated. The driver got out and opened the back doors of the van; the two men unloaded the stretcher Deanna was on, popped the wheels down, and rolled her into the emergency room. A woman in a white coat, wearing a stethoscope around her neck and carrying a clipboard, rushed to greet them.
“What’s the situation?” the woman asked.
“Not sure, we got a call from the library, where the woman was unconscious. Librarian said she had some kind of attack, and then fainted. She – the librarian - thought the patient went into some kind of shock. The patient came to on the ride over, seemed ok, but then her blood pressure went from 120/70 to 150/100 within seconds, and she started hyperventilating under the mask,” the EMT responded.
The man in black, standing behind them, said, “Well, that’s not good. You really need to calm down.”
Deanna was fairly certain her heart was going to explode, it was beating so fast. She was petrified, both because she was seeing and hearing a person no one else heard or saw – a person other people could walk through – and because she feared being locked in the psych ward. It was one of her greatest fears, to wind up like that. Her trip to the adolescent unit the psychiatric hospital twenty years earlier had been bad enough. The idea of winding up as an adult locked away in a straightjacket, a permanent source of heartbreak for her parents with no control over her own existence, at the mercy of doctors….it terrified her. So, she stayed quiet.
She was wheeled into a tiny room, where the doctors removed her shirt and stuck suction cups with wires around them to her chest, presumably to monitor her heart rate and vitals. She was embarrassed to be sitting on a cot in just her bra in front of the man in black, then mad at herself for being embarrassed about a hallucination seeing her without her shirt.
Someone put a hospital gown over her torso, and she was grateful.
They swapped out her ambulance oxygen mask, which the EMT’s took, for another oxygen mask.
The woman in white said, “You didn’t take anything, did you? Any pills or coke or anything? We can’t help you unless you tell us.”
The man in black said, “Seriously, do they want you to be on drugs? Do they not have any other illnesses around here?”
Deanna shook her head, and murmured, “Nothing, no drugs.”
The woman in white said, “Okay, I’m gonna give you something to bring your heart rate down. You’re gonna feel a little pinch.” A needle stabbed her in the arm, and released something that stung a bit under her skin as it came out of the needle.
“So if you’re not on drugs, they’re gonna put you on drugs,” the man in black said. “That’s an awesome system.”
Deanna was quickly learning to tune him out. She was feeling calmer by the second, too. Whatever
“Cause if you took anything, we need to know so we can help… what happened? You ok?” The EMT checked a band around her arm, checking her blood pressure. “Your blood pressure just skyrocketed. What did you take?”
“Tell him you smoked crack in the library,” the man in black said, leaning over the EMT’s shoulder. “I just wanna see what he says.”
Deanna started hyperventilating, even with the oxygen mask blowing into her mouth and nose. The EMT was frantic as they pulled into the hospital’s ambulance-unloading area, turning dials on the oxygen tank and trying desperately to figure out why she was hyperventilating and why her blood pressure had so suddenly escalated. The driver got out and opened the back doors of the van; the two men unloaded the stretcher Deanna was on, popped the wheels down, and rolled her into the emergency room. A woman in a white coat, wearing a stethoscope around her neck and carrying a clipboard, rushed to greet them.
“What’s the situation?” the woman asked.
“Not sure, we got a call from the library, where the woman was unconscious. Librarian said she had some kind of attack, and then fainted. She – the librarian - thought the patient went into some kind of shock. The patient came to on the ride over, seemed ok, but then her blood pressure went from 120/70 to 150/100 within seconds, and she started hyperventilating under the mask,” the EMT responded.
The man in black, standing behind them, said, “Well, that’s not good. You really need to calm down.”
Deanna was fairly certain her heart was going to explode, it was beating so fast. She was petrified, both because she was seeing and hearing a person no one else heard or saw – a person other people could walk through – and because she feared being locked in the psych ward. It was one of her greatest fears, to wind up like that. Her trip to the adolescent unit the psychiatric hospital twenty years earlier had been bad enough. The idea of winding up as an adult locked away in a straightjacket, a permanent source of heartbreak for her parents with no control over her own existence, at the mercy of doctors….it terrified her. So, she stayed quiet.
She was wheeled into a tiny room, where the doctors removed her shirt and stuck suction cups with wires around them to her chest, presumably to monitor her heart rate and vitals. She was embarrassed to be sitting on a cot in just her bra in front of the man in black, then mad at herself for being embarrassed about a hallucination seeing her without her shirt.
Someone put a hospital gown over her torso, and she was grateful.
They swapped out her ambulance oxygen mask, which the EMT’s took, for another oxygen mask.
The woman in white said, “You didn’t take anything, did you? Any pills or coke or anything? We can’t help you unless you tell us.”
The man in black said, “Seriously, do they want you to be on drugs? Do they not have any other illnesses around here?”
Deanna shook her head, and murmured, “Nothing, no drugs.”
The woman in white said, “Okay, I’m gonna give you something to bring your heart rate down. You’re gonna feel a little pinch.” A needle stabbed her in the arm, and released something that stung a bit under her skin as it came out of the needle.
“So if you’re not on drugs, they’re gonna put you on drugs,” the man in black said. “That’s an awesome system.”
Deanna was quickly learning to tune him out. She was feeling calmer by the second, too. Whatever
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