Nadine - The Beginning

15. Damaged

We walk down the hall towards the doctors office when all of a sudden the main doors fly open and we can hear people yelling.

"GET A DOCTOR!"

"AHHHH"

"Where the doctor?"

Vitchen looks down the hallway we're in. "DOCTOR!"

Elkie runs toward the chaos and open a door. "Right in here. Lay him on the bed."

The doctor runs by us. "This way girls."

We follow everyone in the room.

"AHHHH HELP ME!"

"The doctor looks around. What happened?"

"PLEASE HELP ME!"

One of the men that carried him answers. "He fell off a cliff then a big boulder landed on him. I got it off but it did so much damage."

The man on the bed starts coughing up blood. There is blood everywhere.

"Vitchen get the antiste."

Vitchen speeds out of the room.

"Please help doc."

The doc puts his hand inside the mans ribcage. He looks like he's feeling around in there. He takes it out and nods.

Mary and I are just hugging each other on the other side of the room. The man lost both legs and an arm. His intestines are all over the place. His ribcage is cracked open with ribs sticking out of his skin.

Elkie is cutting off his clothes.

Dorceti throws a clean sheet over him when his clothes are gone.

Vitchen speeds back in with a vial of something. "Here."

"Help me."

"This is just going to relax you son. It will help."

The man goes completely unconscious.

"Is he? Is he?"

"No he's simply sleeping now. This will give his body time to recover some of the injuries. I will know more in a day or two. If you have told me the entire truth, poison will not be an issue so, he will heal on his own with time."

One of the mans friends looks very upset. "We were just out for our hike. He slipped near the edge."

The doctor nods. "He's very lucky. These injuries are very extreme but he kept his head and his heart intact. However I will have to remove some of his organs." The man standing there gasps. "Not to worry, his body will regrow them. It just takes extra time. For now we need to clean him up and I will perform the removal of everything that needs out. You will be able to visit starting tomorrow. But he will not be awake again for several days."

"Thank you doctor."

Dorceti walks up to the 2 men who came in with him. "I'll show you the way out now. He's in good hands. You can come back tomorrow."

"Will he?"

"I can answer questions outside please. We need to let the doctor work now."

The 2 men follow her out and she shuts the door.

"Girls come closer you can watch what everyone does. How this works."

Elkie takes the sheet off the man and finishes cutting the clothes off. "He's really banged up doctor are you sure he'll make it?"

"Yes, I felt the heart. It was intact and his head is completely intact as well. It's just going to take him a long time to recover from all this."

Vitchen walks back in with a box and hands it to the doctor. I didn't even know she was gone.

He opens the box and it is a variety of knifes and scissors. He cuts the man across the stomach and starts taking out the intestines.

Vitchen starts grabbing intestines that are out and throwing them into a bucket.

The doctor looks at me. "Come over here Nadine."

I let go of Mary and walk over so I'm on the opposite side of the man as the doctor. "He looks so bad."

"Yes he does. What I'm doing now is helping his body as much as I can. By removing the intestines and anything else damaged beyond repair, his body will not have to do it. That means his body can start to build new ones right away. Instead of getting rid of the old ones first. Does that make sense?"

"Yes sir." I look into his chest cavity and stomach that are all open. "How do you know which are damaged? I've never seen them before."

"Basically you can look for holes or big parts missing. If you miss something, his body will get rid of it on it's own it'll just take more time."

I nod.

"And it's obvious the intestines were damaged beyond repair. They came in beside him."

I chuckle a little bit and the doctor looks at me and smiles.

"Also the legs and 1 arm are fully detached. We don't have to do anything there. They are just going to need time to regrow. Do you have additional gloves here?"

I look at Mary. "Yes sir I sent for 2 extra pair for her."

"Can she be without gloves around me since I am a doctor?"

"Only if she is the patient sir."

"Ok Nadine. You will do this with gloves on. Place your hand in his chest with mine. We will be feeling the heart."

"I can't see in there sir."

"Your not supposed to. I want you to feel it. His heart was not damaged. Feel how it is plump and oblong? Long tubes coming off of it?"

"Yes sir."

"That's how it's supposed to be. If you ever come across one different than that. You will have a probable death shortly after."

I just nod and remove my hand from this man's chest.

"Ok now here in the stomach. You can see the incision I made. This one was to help us see. You can pull the skin apart and look in there. See if you see any other pieces of intestine."

"I pull his belly apart and look in. I put my hand in and feel around. I see something small and pull it out. I also feel something really hard and pull that out."

"Good. Good. This was a piece of intestine I missed. This was a piece of rock. Did you feel any more rocks?"

"No doctor."

"Good. Now we're just going to push some of these ribs back into place." I start pushing on one on my side like he is on his side. "They are quite hard to push in." Mine snaps into place and I nearly fall on the man. "Oh yes be careful and the floor can sometimes be slippery. Be mindful of that. But putting bones back into place is just so the body can use it's energy on other things. Ok now we will go do some documenting while the girls clean up his body and the room."

"You can can go wash up in the ladies wash room. I will be in my office when you are done."

"Yes sir."

Mary follows me in and pulls some clean gloves out of her pocket. "You were good in there princess. I felt like I was going to pass out."

I smile and wash my hands.

"Do I have anything else on me? Anywhere? I really don't want to wear that man home."

"Just the gloves princess. Here you go."

"Thank you. Let's go see what this documenting is about."

We get back to his office and I'm all cleaned up.

"Great. Ok this part is a bit more boring. You must document what happened. This way if there are questions later, we have something to look back on." He hands us both a scroll. "Write what happened for you. I will read over them later and offer suggestions."

We both nod and start writing. After a bit of time and talking through it. What to say and what not to say, we both turn in our scrolls.

"Good job girls. Now we go back to the patient. He should be cleaned up by now. We also need to get the items for a blood drip while on the way. I'll show you where those are."

I just nod. This day is going so fast.

We walk back over to the herb cupboard. The doctor opens it and gets a couple tubs and a container of blood. "You'll always need a container of blood and it's best to grab a few different sizes of tubes at first, for a patient that is unconscious. It's going to drip blood into his mouth so he still get's his blood. That's the most important thing to remember, patients always need their blood."

Me and Mary both nod and follow the doctor back into the patients room. It looks completely different now. The bed is clean. The floor is clean. There no intestines anywhere. The man is clean and in a robe. He just looks like he's sleeping. "This room looks so good now and so does he."

Elkie and Dorceti both look at me and smile then leave the room. I guess Vitchen was already gone.

"Yes the girls are very good at their jobs. I just wanted to get you started quick on the documenting part. But you will be doing all of this as well."

I smile and nod.

"Ok so now I am going to lower the top of his gown. You can see the area is clean and everything is still open." The doctor looks at us and we nod. "I do it this way so if there is poison or something else in there that needs to come out, I don't have to open him back up. Some doctors will sew people shut. I am not one of them. The body will close on it's own. But if infection starts in there, I will not know about it if I can't see it."

"That makes sense doctor."

"Great and now I will have you set up a blood drip. You will place this container of blood up in that ring above the bed. Good. Now connect this tube to the bottom of it. Good now put the end of the tube in his mouth. Right. Sometimes you have to pry the jaw apart a little. Not to hard though. You could rip it off. Right. Perfect."

The doctor starts pulling the mans robe back up so I help. I pull the sheet up over him too.

"Now look in the mouth. See how the blood is absorbing?"

"Yes doctor."

"That looks really good for now. You need to watch the blood drips though. If the blood starts pooling in the mouth or leaking out the sides change to a smaller tube. If the blood is absorbing to fast and the mouth is just dry then change to a bigger tube. Depending on the injury and how much blood the patient is using, it can change daily. Just always check them once per day."

I just nod. This is actually a really neat set up.

"And the last thing we will check is him arm and legs. Now the girls have cleaned the areas but I always like to do a double check just to make sure everything is clear. No dirt anything like that. We won't notice any poisons for a few hours. So we can't look for those yet. So here just take a look, everything looks clean and no visible signs of poison. Now we just wait."

We cover him back up. "So how long will he be unconscious doctor?"

"I gave him enough for 2 days. If he still has open wounds after 2 days, I will not let him wake up. I will just add on another day or 2. This would be an extremely painful healing if he were awake."

"Yes these injuries were horrible. I feel terrible for the man. At least he can heal in peace now."

The doctor smiles at me. "You did very good today. I do believe you have what it takes to be a doctor. Which will be nice."

"Thank you doctor."

I must have a weird look on my face.

"What is it princess?" The doctor is staring at me.

"If the boulder would have fallen on his head, he would be dead right now?"

"Most likely. The body can regrow a brain or teeth or any number of things up here. But it can not grow a new head. Once that's gone, it's over. Except for royalty. Your family has the power to reattach even that."

"So, we really can't be killed?"

"You can. It would just be very difficult. The head or the body could be completely destroyed. That would lead to permanent death. I'm sure there are more ways princess. I have never seen it happen though and hopefully it doesn't."

"It is time for us to get back princess. It is nearly dinner time."

I nod at Mary. "Thank you doctor. Do you mind if we come and see his progress tomorrow?"

"That would be fine princess. But please remember, this is the outfit you need to be in while you're here. We never know what's going to happen."

"Yes doctor thank you for today."

"My pleasure princess. Enjoy the rest of your day."

"You too doctor."