Deadly Diversion: A Medical Thriller Read Online Free Page B

the armholes of her blue uniform. She bloused out her shirt and fanned herself with it.
    “Sick?”
    “’A course they’re sick. Why else would they be in ICU?”
    “Just making a joke.” She held up her hand before I could open my mouth. “A sick one,” she added with a grin. She smoothed strands of damp blond hair, tucking them expertly into the French braid on the back of her head.
    A waitress plopped glasses of water in front of us, saying she’d be right back.
    “The man’s son got in a rage and just went crazy, swinging his arms and screaming at everyone. Tim got a punch in the eye, he slammed me against the door. It took four security guards and a St. Louis police officer to get him down.”
    “Who was it?”
    “I can’t tell you, BJ. Patient names are confidential. You know that.”
    “I mean who was the cop?”
    “I don’t know. And my boss said we’re not pressing charges.”
    She fanned herself with the menu and looked around.
    Dolph’s was filling up fast with the older crowd here for the early-bird dinner special.
    BJ nodded to two cops seated in the smoking section separated from us by a half wall. “Nothing funny about the death, was there?” she asked, turning back to me.
    “Maybe.”
    “What do you mean, maybe?”
    “One of the nurses...”
    “She did something wrong?”
    “He. No, but he might as well have. He didn’t do a full code.”
    The waitress returned and asked if we needed more time. We didn’t. BJ ordered her usual—the Favorite Grilled Cheese—and I decided on the breakfast Grand Slam for my dinner.
    “What do you mean ‘he didn’t do a full code’ ?” BJ asked when the waitress had gone.
    I explained about the three levels of resuscitation.
    “Why didn’t he do it all?”
    “Mistake, he said. The guy was terminal,” I admitted, “but his family wanted us to do anything and everything we could to keep him alive.”
    “Wasn’t there anyone else there? Didn’t the other nurses step in and do something?”
    I sighed. “Unfortunately, I didn’t have anyone else on staff who wasn’t already working this morning, so my boss had called the agency for two temps. They don’t know the patients and would just do whatever Bart told them to do.”
    “Wasn’t there a doctor around?”
    “Only a brand-new resident who’d started last month. Bart probably told him what to do.”
    “What’ll happen? Will somebody investigate? Will he be fired?”
    I snorted. “My boss is worried about our accreditation. We don’t have enough nurses as it is, and firing one more would make it worse. And Joint Commission is due back any day.”
    “What’s that? Some kind of medical group that specializes in bones?”
    I laughed. “No, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. JCAHO, or Joint Commission, Jayco for short.”
    “I guess that’s bad,” she offered.
    “If we lose our accreditation, we’re out of business. No more government funding, no more Medicare, no more St. Teresa’s.”
    “What about the family? You think they might cause trouble?”
    “Not if they don’t know. And I’ve been ordered not to tell them.”
    “So, it’s probably going to be okay.”
    “There’s still the state board.”
    “What about them?”
    “It’s a practice violation. Bart could lose his license if it came to that. And I’ve been ordered not to say anything.”
    “Sounds like it’s his problem, not yours. And the hospital’s.”
    “BJ, I could be in trouble for not reporting this. The law says that any nurse who knows about a violation is required to report it. My license is on the line, too.”
    “You saw it?”
    “Of course not, I would’ve coded the guy. Bart told me about it when I came in this morning.”
    “Then you’re off the hook, aren’t you? With your license, that is.”
    “The letter of the law, maybe, but not the intent. It for sure violates nursing’s code of ethics.”
    “How often does a nurse get in trouble for not