Free Pack Law by Marie Stephens

Chapter 1
    It has been a long night here at the
hospital. I have had several code blues in the emergency room. The
moon is full tonight. It seems that anything and everything always
happens on the full moon. I really hate having to work tonight
since it is so busy. The full moon has always been enticing to me.
I love the feeling I get when it is at its fullest. My name is Ava
Lingam. I am a Respiratory Therapist for a small county hospital
here in the mountains in Ashville, North Carolina. We hold maybe
two hundred patients at our fullest. Here lately we do not see that
many patients because of the economy being the way it is. Many
people can’t afford to go to the doctors so they don’t go to the
doctor until it is too late. My job is to treat patients that have
difficulty breathing and attending any and all code blues. I place
breathing tubes in patients that are unable to breathe for
themselves with the aid of a mechanical device called a ventilator.
My job can be exciting at times but lately we have not had any
codes in the hospital until today. I am on my way to start my
second patient rounds when my pager goes off. There is a code blue
in room two in the emergency room. I stop what I am doing and run
down to the emergency room. I open the double doors to the ER and
grab some gloves on my way into room two. What do we have here I
asked the other staff? We have a multiple gunshot wounds to the
abdomen, chest, and back. The patient is a male two hundred fifty
pounds, 6’6” tall, very muscular, with long blond hair. He was
found outside a hotel in town. He has been brought in by EMS.
Someone at the hotel found him outside and called 911. He is a
really big guy and has tattoos all over his chest that run down
both arms. His breathing is shallow and labored. Was anyone with
him that knows anything about him? “No”, replied the nurse. We need
to protect his airway. We are going to intubate this patient so he
can breathe better and get him to surgery to remove all the bullets
to save his life. I pull out my intubation box from the crash cart
and collect all the necessary items to place a tube in this
patient’s airway. After about five minutes I have the tube in place
and taped it to keep it stable so that way it doesn’t get pulled
out. We are going to take the patient to CAT scan to find out where
all of his wounds are and where the bullets ended up. I grab the
ambu bag and begin to ventilate the patient with oxygen by a tank
under the stretcher. I push the stretcher with one hand and bag the
patient with the other. The nurse accompanies me and runs ahead to
let the x-ray technician know about the patient’s injuries. As I
round the corner the patient reaches up and rips out his tube that
is helping him breathe. My only thought is that he can’t breathe. I
try to reach for him and he grabs me by the arm. I don’t know how
he is awake. He is so big that he drags me down the hall like I am
a rag doll being dragged behind a child. I begin to scream but he
squeezes my arm harder and I gasp in pain. I forgot all about
screaming as the tears well up in my eyes from his grip. I can see
the bullet wounds leaking fresh blood from where they entered. I
don’t understand how he is standing let alone how he is dragging me
with him. We come to a door at the end of the hall that is marked
stairs. It leads to the outside of the hospital. Once he gets me
outside it is over for me. Oh God, he is going to kill me. No one
is going to know where I am. I don’t even think anyone would care.
I have been estranged from my family since I was a teenager and I
have lived own my own ever since. “Who are you and where are you
taking me”, I asked? “My name is Tristan and you ask too many
questions. I need you to be quiet so I can clear my head. I need to
be able to think”, he replied. He pulls out a cell phone and dials
a number. I hear him whispering about someone picking him up and
that there will be an extra person with him. I