Lawrence stood and watched Dr. Patel pace while he thought. He was a short, balding man. His ring of silver hair contrasted with his rich dark skin. From all he had seen so far Dr Patel was a good doctor. He had only been on shift with Dr. Patel for three hours but he came with a good reputation.
The door to the small office swung open. A nurse he hadn’t yet met burst in, she was flushed as though she had been running. She was in her early 20's and had her long dark hair tied back in a bun.
“There’s another one” She said as she caught her breath.
“That’s the seventh so far,” Dr Patel said “correct?”
“Yes” She said. ”we’ve moved the patient to level three.”
“Good” He said.
Dr Patel rubbed his forehead looking out over the emergency room. Lawrence stood uncomfortable; he and the nurse exchanged a worried glance waiting for the doctor to say something. His first night was turning out to be way more than he had expected. He had worked outpatients, but that was nothing compared to the stress of tonight. This slowly developing crisis had everyone on edge.
“I need to call the Department of Health” Dr Patel said and begun walking out of the room “Lawrence take over my patients for me. Make sure to wear your isolation garb, we don’t know if this is contagious yet. I’ll send a nurse to relieve you when I need you.”
The serious look set on Dr Patel’s face as he left the room didn’t help with Lawrence’s uneasy feeling.
“This way Dr Nguyen.” The nurse said turning and walking out of the room.
Lawrence followed quickly behind her.
“Do you think it’s that sickness from Asia,” She asked walking briskly.
“I’m really not sure” He said hurrying to keep up.
They left the ER and followed the hallway to the lifts.
“So” She said looking up at him as they waited for the lift. She had a hint of a smile in her eyes and Lawrence noticed she was quite pretty ”you’re this new doctor everyone’s been talking about?”
“Yeah, First night” he replied.
“Well don’t you know how to pick them” She said “I’m Kim, looks like we’ll be working together”
"Good evening Mrs Thompson" Kim said as she entered the room "This is Dr Nyugen he will be taking over treatment from Dr Patel, we need to give him some important information about your care if that's ok with you."
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Mrs Thompson nodded her approval.
Lawrence looked over the groaning, sobbing woman. She looked terrible her eyes were swollen and red, mucus ran freely from her nose and her glands seemed swollen and inflamed. She had vomited all down her front, a thick green substance all symptoms linking her to other patients that had started coming in over the day. Nurse Kim handed him the patients chart and he quickly looked it over.
"This is Audrey Thompson," Kim said "She was admitted to emergency half an hour ago by her husband Harry. Her date of birth is the seventeenth of October 1961 making her 58 and she has no ongoing medical issues or medications. She has been unwell for two days, she had severe nausea and vomiting develop over the day. No treatment has begun yet."
“Hello Mrs Thompson” He said “do you have any questions about your treatment here?”
She groaned and her eyes took a moment to focus on him and finally, she spoke. “I've got a headache now.”
“How long have you had it Mrs Thompson?” He asked.
She tried to speak then vomited noisily, the vomit, a thick pale green slime splattered to the ground.
“Can you please get us a sick bag” He asked the nurse Kim “now I’m going to give you a check-up.”
He began to work, he kept talking to her as he checked her over, he always found these things wen't better if he could distract them. Kim returned with the bag for Mrs Thompson. Lawrence stepped over to talk with her.
“We’re going to have to put her on an IV, she’s dehydrated and by the looks of things and it doesn’t look like she’ll able to keep water down,” He said. "Some pain killers for the headache once that's done."
Lawrence got the IV attached and Kim cleaned away the vomit.
“Is there anything I can get for you Mrs Thompson?” Kim asked.
She started to shake her head then changed her mind.
“Can I have some water to wash my mouth?” She asked.
Kim fetched a cup for her.
Dr Patel's second patient lay in his bed unresponsive as Kim ran through the handover. He was a man in his 40s who had come in with similar symptoms Mrs Thompson. He was the first. He then complained of a headache. Things had become serious when he developed a high fever and started to show signs of mental deterioration. Lawrence noticed the man had red marks on his skin that might indicate an infection. Lawrence began to inspect the marks as Kim read through the treatments he was on.
The door swung open and a nurse in isolation garb entered.
“Dr Nguyen?” She said. “Dr Patel is asking for you in his office.”
Lawrence nodded to Kim and left the room and made his way towards Dr Patel’s office. He walked the hallway dodging busy nurses and patients. This wasn’t how he had thought his first shift would go. Maybe a broken arm or some deep cuts but really he had thought he would more or less just follow Dr Patel around and get a feel for the place. Ideas for the cause of this sudden outbreak ran through his mind, he thought most likely a dodgy restaurant was responsible. Food poisoning is usually the cause. He came to Dr Patel’s office and he could see him on the phone through the small office window. Dr Patel hung up the phone and noticed Lawrence waiting, waving him in with a quick gesture.
“Dr?” He asked as let himself into the office.
“Well, it is worse than I had feared. We are not the first hospital to report this to the Department of Health. Six other hospitals in the area have reported similar issues.” Dr Patel said.
“Is it contagious then?” Lawrence asked.
“Too early to tell, it certainly seems that way though, the bloodwork results are still at least an hour off.” Dr Patel responded “We need to isolate the affected patients and the hospital staff that have treated them. This is going to be a long night I am afraid.”