Dead and Forsaken Read Online Free

family become important to
you.
    We
also saw our fair share of indigent, homeless, and mentally ill
people who lived on the street. Our hospital had a high standard of
care providing treatment along with jobs for the neighborhood. The
emergency room staff had good people who were dedicated to saving
lives. We had some of the best trained doctors in the country. It
was a high stress environment but they thrived on it. They had to
stay on their toes because it was easy to miss something when it was
so crowded. Tonight was Friday the start of the weekend. All the
security officers called Friday “little night”. That is
because most of the patients that came in were a little drunk, a
little crazy or a little high. You never knew what to expect. I
relieved the second shift ER officer and started on patrol.
    Most
inner city hospital ER’s like ours were overcrowded and filled
with newcomers and familiar faces. Most of those sick people had
been waiting a long time. The waiting room was at full capacity. We
needed an ER officer because some people wait patiently in line
while others lose their temper and start acting out. Most of the
gridlock was caused by understaffing or overcrowding. On the weekend
it seemed like every call coming through the doors was a trauma.
Patients waited to be seen by a triage nurse and separated based on
life threat status. The envious patients with regular issues like
illness, cuts and other superficial wounds ended up with a long
wait. Most of the other patients came to the ER because they did
not have a primary care doctor. Even the ones that did might have to
wait a couple of months to get an appointment. They used the ER to
refill prescriptions and to receive regulatory meds.
    A
row of beds was set up in the main hallway of the ER to treat the
extra patients. Some of the beds were almost touching each other.
They had to place an old demented black woman with chest pains next
to a foul mouth Hispanic gang banger high on METH. Further down a
suicidal young white mother was next to a homeless Native American
man that smelled like urine. Out in the waiting room it started to
look like a TV show. Several small children of all races chased each
other around the crowded room. Everyone was tired, bored or
stressed. At one point it looked like a couple of people were going
to get into a scuffle. An overtly obese patient that had just
checked in was escorted to the back while several others who endured
long waits were bypassed. The girl at registration made the mistake
of telling the first group they would be next. It could have gotten
ugly but cooler heads prevailed. Most of the other people waited
patiently. The ambulances kept on coming. Some of them had been
diverted from smaller hospitals. Gunshot victims, heart attacks, and
stabbings were pushed to the front of the line and received
treatment first. The doctors also treated blunt force traumas,
multiple fractures, car accident victims, and several cases of human
bites.
    Soon
all of the rooms had patients in them. A middle aged white man
walked in with his wife. She looked confused and in a lot of pain.
She was really weak and could hardly stand up. The poor woman’s
knees nearly buckled with each step. A small amount of blood stained
her shirt. They sat down next to a noticeably drunk black man that
smelled like an old bar rag. He was here to get a bite on his chest
looked at. He got it from a young redhead hooker he met at a motel
nearby. A beautiful Asian baby cried hysterically in her mother’s
arms. Her mother slowly rocked her back and forth while trying to
get her to take her pacifier. The baby’s mother was starting
to get scared as she watched the child’s condition deteriorate
in front of her. She immediately got up and went to the window to
tell a nurse that the situation was getting worst. The old Hispanic
man next to them hunched over and vomited into a plastic bag. He had
drunk an enormous amount of alcohol and was now paying the