In Search of the Cadavers

" Ok, hit him with another five mils of adrenaline. Now!!" A man wearing a blood splattered white coat waved at a tired looking nurse who was frantically sifting through a container of multicolored needle heads. Behind her, two hospital aids burst in from behind the blue curtain, each clutching two new bags of haemosederin replacement fluids as a male nurse removed the spent bag from the rack. Overhead, the flat screen monitors churned out a myriad of graphs and numbers, most of them either flashing red or have the tag "danger" glaring menacingly beside it.

My eyes swiveled from the hectic din of the overcrowded treatment room towards the inert body of a blood stained male sprawled on top the narrow treatment bed. His body totally exposed to the harsh white light from the overhead surgical lamps, revealed vast tracks of bruises, deep gashes and cuts all over his muscular form. A long white tube dived into his sealed mouth as long fine lengths of wires and tubes extended out from his chest and arms to the monitors and red blood bags above. My nose wrinkled as the strong scent of alcohol wafted through the tiny confine. The smell of sweat and stress is bad enough as it is.

Drunkard!! I cursed inwardly as I returned to my vigil of monitoring his vital signs. I grumbled, were it not for the unbidden entry by this young man, I would be home this very minute snuggling comfortably into my bed. Great, and I am not even getting any overtime pay for this.

" Darren!! Vitals?" the strained voice of Dr. Walker filtered through my elaborate self pity network. I clutched at my stethoscope as I recited the essential computer output.

" Heart rate at forty per minute and dropping, totally irregular, blood pressure at 70/40 and dropping, respiration rate with artifical life support mechanism maintained at six breaths per minute, no self initiated breathing attempted, electrocardiogram indicating huge ST depression in all leads consistent with ischaemia?.."

" That is enough Dr. Yii," Dr. Walker produced a clean looking handkerchief from one of his many pockets and wiped the beading sweat off his brow. " Ok, increase his oxygen saturation flow??"

Suddenly, all the life support monitors issued a loud monotonous shriek as all graph output suddenly fell flat. " Oh no, cardiac arrest." I murmured. " Someone, cardiovert him!!" as the cardioversion trolley rolled in and soon, the table was encircled by a new team of doctors. From the corridor, Dr. Walker and I watched silently as the grievous looks were exchanged by members of the new team.

" Well, looks like we are going to need to fill up another death certificate." I announced unhappily. This is just awesome, now I am not only not going to get paid overtime, I need to put in extra hours to sort through piles of legal paperwork, being a junior doctor I am.

" What do you expect?" he glared at me momentarily than smiled. " Though I will certainly help you out. Pity, he had such a good body."

Strange man, I told myself as I gathered in my arms all the files related to the patient.

The short hand of the white hospital clock indicated that it was 2am in the morning. I leaned against the high back of the office chair and yawned as I snapped my pen shut. Done, I smiled as I surveyed the neat paperwork piled up in small stacks on the table. Lying forlorn and forgotten at the moment, was the lonely brown mug of coffee which was instrumental in keeping me awake for so long. Well, better get the work over and done with so I can at least catch up with some sleep before coming to work tomorrow.