-The ER

The ringing of the telephone late at night was not a strange sound to Louis Bunting.  He had been doing this work for a long time, and this seemed to be a common time for people to get into trouble.  He'd seen a share of trouble during his time here as a doctor in Hebron, which was all of his life, save for his childhood.  He grew up in Belvedere, a few miles up the road, and had gotten his MD from the University of Nebraska.  Then he settled back down here where he could work at the little hospital in Hebron and enjoy the life of the country physician.  He was a pilot, so he got to fly around and had seen the world, but the road had always led right back here - and probably always would. 

He had seen highway 81 go from a dirt road to a two lane highway, and had watched many a family farmer come and go as life whisked them into and out of the life of this town.  Times around him had changed, but he was always here.

            He reached into the darkness to pick up the phone.  He could hear Evelyn’s excited voice chatter in the headset as he lifted it to his ear.

            "Dr Bunting, Dr. Bunting!"  She shrieked.

            "Slow down, Evelyn," he said calmly into the mouthpiece.  "What's going on?"

           "Oh God, Dr Bunting," she gasped.  "A man just brought his family in here!  Said they were in a plane crash and forced his way in.  Now he's going crazy and has taken the ER over!"

            Dr. Bunting took a moment to process the information, then sat up with a start, grabbed his glasses, and switched on the lamp on the table beside him. 

A plane crash?? What the hell was going on?

            "Where is he now, Evelyn?" he asked.  "Is he injured?"

            "He’s in the hallway with his kids!  They are all injured!" she cried.  "There is blood everywhere and he won’t let us do anything! What do we do??"

            Oh my god, he though, this wasn't a joke.  There were wounded people there, and by the sounds of it, it had caught Blanche and Evelyn completely off guard.  How was that possible? 

No time to worry about that now.

            "Okay, Evelyn, okay, calm down" he tried to reassure her.  "If they are all breathing, make sure their airways are kept clear and control the bleeding as best you can.  I am on my way.  Call he Sheriff, and everyone one else on call.  Better call Pembry, too."

            "Yes, Dr. Bunting," Evelyn whimpered.  "Please hurry!"

            "I'll be right there." He said and hung up the phone.  He hurriedly shook of the remnants of sleep and quickly got dressed.  He said a quick goodbye to his sleeping wife with a quick kiss to her cheek and left the house, emerging onto his big front porch.  He trotted down the stairs and into his car, backed out of the driveway and gunned the engine, aiming the car toward the hospital a half mile up the road.

            Evelyn spoke in hushed tones to Blanche behind dad.  She had just got off the phone with Dr. Pembry and he was on his way too.  Rick was beginning to thrash about and was getting very agitated.  Blanch tried to calm him.       

            "I'll do this, you go call Marilyn and Helen," Blanche said to Evelyn, trying to regain control of the situation.  “And call the Sheriff and tell them what we have.”

            Evelyn hurried off and passed Dr. Pembry coming into the ER.  He walked up to dad and touched him, speaking gently.  Dad wheeled to glare at him, but calmed down once he became aware that he was a fellow doctor.  Dr. Pembry spoke to him about what happened for a moment.  Dad wasn’t very happy.  They argued about what was to be done. 

Dr. Pembry wanted to stabilize us and admit us to the hospital, but dad was still shaken by not being let in right away.  Dr. Pembry knew dad, although in his state it took awhile to recognize him.  In fact, dad had been in that very hospital many times.  He had flown down to the Hebron airport in the same Baron that now lay crushed in the field on several occasions to consult on surgery cases.  If he knew where he was now, and who it was he was talking to, he sure didn’t show it.

He was adamant to working towards getting us to Lincoln, where he would be comfortable with our care.  Dr. Pembry chose not to argue the virtues of the various facilities and told dad that for the time they should at least get x-rays of our injuries.  Dad relented and Dr. Pembry called to an orderly to warm up the X-ray, which was in a little room next to the ER, and walked away. 

He ordered Blanch to put an IV in Rick, whom he was most concerned about due to the closed injury he had suffered to his head.  He gave Rick valium to cam him down.  Seeing that someone was now actually in charge, dad calmed down a little, but was still very on edge.

            Dad turned to look at a nearby mirror.  It was the first time he had gotten a look at his face.  It was dirty, and bloody and disfigured by swelling.  He could still only see somewhat out of his left side.  His right eye was still swollen and caked shut with dried blood.  In the mirror, all he could see was a blurry smear where his face should have been. 

Still, he could see enough.  The hole in his cheek wasn’t bleeding any more, but the side of his face was black with a massive bruise.  His forehead was covered in dried blood from the gash he had suffered.  He lifted his shirt and took a look at his injured side.  A dark purple bruise spread across it, up to his armpit and disappearing into the top of his jeans.  He gently lowered his shirt and turned his attention back to his face.

He gingerly picked bits of dried blood and bits of debris from the wounds, carefully probing tender spots and cuts to try and determine how thrashed he was.  Then he noticed Dr. Pembry approach Rick.

Dr. Pembry lifted him off of the gurney, cradling him by his shoulders and knees.  Rick’s head lolled back and wobbled side to side.  Dad had never seen that kind of lifting done to a patient with a head injury.  Rick’s neck was completely unsupported.  Dad quickly became quite upset by that.

“Doctor, you need to support his neck!” Dad shouted.  Dr Pembry ignored the outburst and carried Rick into the X-Ray.  Dad shook his head.  He was starting to get very agitated again.  Dr. Pembry returned a short time later and laid Rick back down.  He produced an X-Ray and held it up to the light.  He and dad studied it for a moment.

“Well there’s no skull fracture,” Dr. Pembry said.  “We can clean him up.”

“What about the cervical spine?” dad said.  He knew the cervical spine should always be considered when head wounds were involved.  The kid could have a broken neck for Christ sake!

But Dr. Pembry just stared at him. “I don’t see any reason to do a cervical spine.  He hurt his head, not his neck.” He said.

“You should always…” dad began.  He cut himself off when he saw Blanche approach me, laying on my gurney.  She held a suture kit.  Dad turned his attention to her.

“What do you think you’re doing?”  He snapped.  Blanch shrank back.  “I was going to close his leg wound and head,” She said.

“What?  Why??!” dad shouted.  “He’s not bleeding anymore!  The bleeding stopped out there!”  He thrust his finger toward the door.

“He has to have these wounds irrigated!” dad yelled and moved toward us.  “He’ll need surgery to close that, not a goddamn suture!”  He swiped his arm and knocked the suture kit to the floor. 

“Get away!” he yelled.  Blanch burst into tears again and ran out of the ER.  Dad was now really mad. The mental and physical exhaustion now overwhelmed his entire being.  The annoyances of the emergency room now mixed with it and the reaction caused him to boil over.  Plane crashes and dead wives, no rescue and speeding trucks...all of it on his shoulders.  It was all too much.  He had had enough.

He announced angrily to the stunned faced in the ER:

"Listen to me!!  I am a physician, and I am taking over the care of my family!!"  He hollered hoarsely.  "We don't want your help and we don't need your help!  You all just leave us alone!"

Dr. Pembry approached, trying to calm him down.  "Now Doctor, hold on.  These people are just trying..."

"NO!!!" Dad screamed.  "I kept these kids alive and stable for hours in that goddamn field and I am not going to lose one now in a goddamn Emergency Room!!”