Vengeance is Mine

Chapter 5: Abnormalities

Dr. Keith Lobello

I had shut the door to my office, closing out the noise and chaos of the emergency department.  Most of my patients were waiting on lab results, and there was nothing which urgently needed my attention, so I grabbed a cup of coffee, and took down the file.

It was a file labeled “Abnormalities”, which I had started when I took the position as Doctor of Emergency medicine last year.  Inside the file were documented cases of medical mysteries.  The things that science couldn’t explain.  Some people would call them miracles.  They were the hearts that started beating twenty minutes after the patient had been declared dead.  They were the spontaneous remissions.  They were the comatose patients who woke up after five years as a brain-dead vegetable.  They were the congenital heart defects that seemingly healed themselves.  Every hospital has a few cases like these, the weird ones that are talked about for years.  And the lucky doctor gets to witness a few for himself.  But there was something strange about Rutberg Emergency.  In one year I had collected and documented 72 cases.  That was abnormal, in and of itself.

I took out a random case and started reading through the details.  A fifteen year old girl in a hit-and-run car accident.  She’d been declared dead at the scene.  It took them twenty minutes to cut her out of the car, just so they could transport her mangled body to the hospital morgue.  But she’d arrived back at the hospital with a pulse and a barely registering blood pressure.  She’d been dead for so long that her body temperature was already dropping off.  Respiritory had rushed in to intubate her, and the doctor on duty had knelt on the stretcher over her body trying to stop her from bleeding out as they pushed her straight up to the OR for emergency surgery. And she’d survived.  After two months in the ICU, and another month and half in rehab, she’d gone home to her family.

I had highlighted a few details.  The patient had come in to the ED by ambulance.  Each town in the area had its own ambulance service, but this girl had come in by Rutberg Regional.  Two EMT’s had been in the vehicle with her.  Kate Sheron, and Melayia Potter.  I had circled Melayia Potter’s name.  63 of my 72 abnormalities had come in through the Rutberg Regional Ambulance Service.  And in 63 out of 63 of those cases, Melayia Potter had been in attendance.

I had a feeling that Melayia was the key to my mass of medical mysteries… but now Melayia was dead.  The thing is… I had known Melayia.  We’d messed around when we were in high school, and we’d had a brief fling during my residency.  I’d known her intimately.  She was fun and sassy and she loved to party.  Honestly she’d seemed a little silly, like the classic dumb blond.  People were always a little amazed that someone who seemed so flighty and shallow could hold down a job as demanding as an EMT.  I was even more puzzled to find her at the center of this cluster of abnormal cases.  Would they suddenly dry up now that Melayia was dead?

While I was deep in thought over this, there was a light knock at the door, and one of the new nurses slipped in.  I couldn’t remember her name… Meghan or Maggie or… I discretely checked her name badge.  Molly.  Molly was looking entirely too made-up to be an ER nurse.  I was pretty sure she was wearing fake eyelashes.  She had somehow managed to make her scrub top look indecent, because it was two sizes too small and plastered to her breasts like a second skin.  Her hair was artfully arranged as if she was headed to a prom instead of a night of inserting cathedars, changing bedpans and being puked on.  “Molly, what can I do for you?” I asked a little impatiently.  I reached for my coffee, which was luke warm by now.

“Well, doctor, I was hoping you could help me with something…” she batted her eyes… “I’m having pain…”

I sighed.  Being the youngest Emergency doctor, being the one of the few SINGLE doctors in the entire hospital, and being fairly good looking… the nurses found me irresistible.  “Oh, if you need to be seen, you should probably clock out and go check in through triage…”

She locked the door.  “That won’t be necessary Doctor… I’m sure we can do this really quick.”

Although I honestly wasn’t that interested… what can I say?  I’m a man, and she was hot.  She pulled up her scrubs and cupped her breasts.  “My breasts are aching, doctor Lobello…”  A sarcastic little voice in my head wanted to tell her that her breasts were probably sore because her scrub top was too damn tight, but instead I played along, and wheeled my chair closer so I could examine the patient.