


********************************************************************** From: "Patti" <theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 14:08:06 -0800 (PST) Subject: [EmergencyTheaterLive] Complications
Johnny Gage bent close to the woman's face, holding her shoulders to prevent their muzzy patient
from trying to sit up. "Hey there. Can you hear me? What's your name? Can you tell me that?"
The girl groaned wetly, closing her eyes, still coughing weakily.
Gage moved the O2 mask aside
and cross scissored her mouth open, using her teeth, looking for blood or any other fluid that might
be there. He accepted an active suction line that Roy shoved over to him with a foot but Johnny
soon found that it wasn't needed.
"Nothing's here Roy. Her airway's doing fine. Ma'am? Hey! Can
you answer me?" Johnny asked again, letting go of her mouth. He dug several knuckles into her
breastbone.
The girl immediately shoved his hand away with only her left arm and her face screwed
up at the painful rub. *choke* Ugghh.." and she took a deep breath from the mask Starsky replaced
back onto her face. "Aaaah..." she sobbed. "My...hea..d-d.."
Johnny rocked back onto his heels.
"I know. Easy. Just lie still. Can you tell me what happened?"
" I...mmmgh.." and fright suddenly
filled her dirt crusty eyes as the rest of the woman's words faded into incoherency.
"Just
try to relax. My name's Johnny Gage and I'm a Los Angeles County paramedic. We're gonna take real
good care of you, all right? Keep holding still until I can check you out a little better. Tell me
where your pain is besides your head. Can you tell me that?"
The woman, looking groggy and
heavily stunned, didn't reply, but tears leaked out of the corner of one of her eyes as she finally
tracked Johnny's.
"You're still waking up a bit. Don't be scared. Try and take as many deep full
breaths from this oxygen as you can, ok? It'll help you focus a little better." Gage suggested to
her as he rechecked the status of her pupils. "I'm just gonna take another look here with a flashlight
to see how you're doing. Just relax."
Hutch picked up the girl's cut away clothes and started
searching for a wallet in a jeans pocket. He found one. "I've got a name. Mary Malone. Age 22 from
14 North Crescent in Anaheim. The photo I've got here matches her in a positive I.D. Starsky,
California driver's license." he told the paramedics and his partner. "There's also a student's pass
here to the University down the block."
Gage nodded while Roy called Rampart Base on the biophone.
|


After a half minute or so of watching Mary take breaths under the mask, Gage spoke again. "Mary.
Talk to me now. Do you hurt anywhere else besides your head?"
Johnny noticed that she was
growing more and more agitated. Finally, her lips opened and she let out a fully coherent sentence.
But it wasn't a reply to his insistent question. It was about something else entirely different.
"...Tob... He's... Toby?!" she started calling out. "Where are y---!?"
"Toby? Who's Toby?
Mary! Take it easy. Don't move around so much. You're gonna hurt yourself!" Johnny grunted, keeping
her shoulders pinned and immobile while Hutch kept firm hands across her forehead and over the
dressing on top of the gaping wound ripped open on her temple.
"Mary..." Hutch started in, being
closest. "Who's Toby? Easy hon. Just answer the question without fighting us.."
"My...my son.
He took him.." she cried frantically. "Ohmyg*d. That man had a gun!" and she started wailing and
struggling in her panic. Johnny and Hutch both restrained her tightly.
Starsky took the wallet
Hutch had dropped on the ground and leafed through its photograph section. He found several of a
young boy with blond hair. "There's a couple photos of a kid in here,.... about four years old. He
looks a lot like Mary. I'll put out an APB." and he got up to radio headquarters from the Torino.
|


Hutch nodded and then he looked down once more."Mary.. Mary! Lie still! We've got nearly a dozen
police officers in the area and we'll look for him immediately. But you've got to start cooperating
with the paramedics here so they can start treating you! I'm Detective Hutchinson and I promise you
that I'll do everything I can to find your son, but my first concern right now is you, and your
injuries. Let these firemen get you to a doctor and to some help at the hospital. The best way for
me to help find your son is for you to start answering their questions about what happened to you,
ok?"
Mary Malone went limp, sobbing in resignation. "Please...I'll do anything you ask. Just
find my little boy...."
Hutch sighed and so did Gage. Ken let go of the T shirt over Mary's temple.
"The bleeding's pretty much stopped here. I'm letting go." he told Johnny. "I've gotta go help
my partner get out that possible kidnapped hostage bulletin. I'll be right back to help you with
Mary's spine board. I'll also make sure an ambulance is well on the way."
Johnny nodded to
the fair haired policeman and got to work over Mary. "Thanks, Detective Hutchinson."
"Please,
call me Hutch. It's easier, Mr. Gage."
"O.k.." replied Johnny. "I'll remember that."
Ken
got up and joined Starsky by the Gran Torino and a couple of other officers who were heading up the
grid search for the rifle armed Metford. He also helped Starsky give Captain Dobey a preliminary report
of the chase and circumstances surrounding the girl's assault, over their car phone.
Johnny
bent close to Mary's face once more, wrapping a Coban elastic wrap around her head to hold the blood
soaked T shirt and dressings into firm place against her temple. "How are you doing, Mary?"
"I...feel so dizzy, sir..."
Gage smiled at her. "Well then it's a good thing you're still lying
down now, isn't it? How's your neck?" he added quickly.
"Sore."
"How about back here?"
he said, gently feeling the bones in the back from the base of her skull and down to the top of her
shoulders.
"It hurts just in front where he grabbed me. The left side of my neck's burning."
and she pointed over the biggest of the angry fingermarks wrapping around there.
Gage checked
gently for equality on both carotid pulses with a couple of fingers. "Can you still breathe all right?
Is your throat swelling up at all?"
"No.. I think its ok. It's just my head. It hurts real
bad." she gasped.
"On a scale of 1 to 10, if one's nothing and 10's the worst, where's your pain
right now, Mary?" Johnny asked.
"A nine.."
"Are you nauseated?"
"Yes.."
"Ok,
just let me know if you think you're gonna get sick and we'll tip you over."
"O.k.." and she
grimaced rubbing her right arm with her left hand.
"What's wrong?" Johnny asked.
"I.. can't
pick up my arm."
"This one here?" he said, gripping her hand on that side.
"Yeah.. it feels
...kinda tingly and numb."
Johnny got both her palms in both of his. "Squeeze my hands. Hard as
you can." he encouraged her.
He noticed her grip was weak but still there on the right but
her ability to keep her arm uplifted above her, was absent.
He moved down to test both her legs'
strength, moving the shock sheet aside. "Ok, can you feel me touching you down here?" he said
pulling out a scissors point and tapping her shins and the tops of both her feet.
Mary nodded
yes.
Johnny put the scissors back into his hip holster.
"All right. Push both feet down
onto both my hands. Ok, good. Now try and lift your legs against my holding them down, hard as you
can. Good. That's fine." He looked for a Babinski's. Her toes curled down to his forceps point sweep
check, normally, on both sides.
"I'm ticklish." she said, trying to smile. The grin was nonexistent
on the left side of Mary's face.
"Sorry." Gage grinned, looking up. He didn't miss seeing
the face droop and he didn't alarm Mary by mentioning it.
He went on to get a full medical history,
which he wrote down onto a small tablet with his neurological findings. Gage handed it to his partner.
|

 |
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Roy had reached a physician through the biophone line. "Rampart. We've a 22 year old female. Victim
of an assault. She's got a large left temple wound due to a blunt force blow to the head. Bleeding
has been controlled. I estimate her blood loss at under 500 cc's. Rampart, it seems she was a
victim of a near strangling.
"She was respiratory arrested for a couple of minutes but was aided
by a bystander to spontaneous recovery. She's now awake and oriented to 12 on the Glasgow on 15 liters
of O2. There's signs of non invasive crushing injury to the soft tissues of the neck. She's complaining
of marked tenderness in the left anterior throat without airway distress. She's been cervical
spine immobilized. Apparent restlessness has proved to be emotional in nature.
"She's positive
for vasovagal signs. Carotid pulses are equal. BP initially was depressed at 64/40. Pulse's now 50
beats a minute, up from 42, and regular. Respirations are 18 and shallow. Pupils were equal
and reactive, but sluggish, when we first arrived, but now the ipsilateral side's dilated. She has
contralateral hemiparesis of only her right arm with partial sensation and face drooping on the left.
Negative on Babinski's.
"There's no indication of further injuries or allergies. Nor does she
have a prior history of medical problems. She's negative for any medications."
Dr. Early replied
back.
## Start a large bore I.V., 51, of Normal Saline. Run in 500 ml's to offset her carotid
hypotension. Then turn the intravenous to TKO. Give her mannitol IV 1 g/kg in a rapid push once you're
in transit. After she's been long board immobilized, raise her head up. Closely watch for signs of
a deteriorating consciousness level. If she develops Cushing's, administer 1.0 mg/kg of Lidocaine
slow IVP. Use 5mg diazepam for any agitation.
##If her Glasgow drops below 8, hyperventilate
her, 51, and make preparations for a rapid sequence induction ET intubation. I'll advise you on
what to use for a paralytic agent.
##Give her .5 mgs atropine IV for that bradycardia. Get
a strip for me, 51, I want to look for any arrythmias. Monitor her vital signs every five minutes
and transport as soon as possible, without sirens, to prevent possible seizures.##
Roy repeated
back all of Joe's orders and then he and Johnny, along with the two plain clothes detectives, got
Mary situated onto a backboard.
A minute later, the Hearse ambulance arrived and Mary was gurney
loaded onto it with DeSoto and all the gear boxes. They used the squad's splint box turned onto one
side to lift up the spine board's head end 30 degrees. Roy repeated to Gage. "Johnny. Doc wants
silent mode in."
"Ok.." said Johnny, putting on his helmet onto his head.
Starsky looked
at DeSoto, holding the ambulance door so the paramedic wouldn't have to shut it himself. "Traffic's
not gonna do anything to get out of the way with just your ambulance reds flashing by themselves."
"We've no other choice in the matter. Mary has to stay perfectly quiet and calm. She's got an
active intracranial bleed ongoing and any further excitement, like loud noises, are liable to complicate
things for her." answered Roy. "Mr. DeSoto, you have an alternative. We'll go ahead of the
ambulance. Our siren faces forwards and isn't heard past the rear of our car. Now where's the
girl headed?" Hutch asked, his question sounding more like a demand.
"Rampart General Hospital
in Torrance." said Roy.
"Let see, that's.. 6th to Ventura Freeway North, to 101 North to 226th
Street. Hang a right... Right?" Starsky asked the paramedic quickly after his mental map drawing.
"Yeah, that's the shortest route. And if I can't talk ya out of an escort, I'll take it."
DeSoto grinned and got on board the ambulance.
"We gotta go anyway to talk to Mary for more details
before she heads into surgery. We may not get another chance to learn from her about what actually
happened if she doesn't make it." Hutch said grimly.
|

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 |

Roy frowned when his hidden paramedic worry was stated so openly. "If Mary's got just an epidural
hematoma, she's got every chance in the world to survive it. The neurosurgeons at Rampart are absolutely
the best surgeons around these parts."
"DeSoto, we're counting on them to do their d*mned*st
to save her. Those doctors, and my partner and I, are little different. Little Toby's now counting
on the both of us,...to save HIM." said Hutch with conviction, meeting Roy's blue eyes evenly with
his own.
"Let's go. Time's wasting." said Starsky gently. "Be sure to let that attendant know
that he's following our unmarked police car. It's the striped candy apple over there."
Roy
nodded. "I'll let him know."
Hutch shut the door until it latched. He then patted the glass to
let the driver know that he could start turning around back towards the main drag.
Starsky
sprinted ahead to the Torino to precede him in the same move. Then he picked up his partner in a spin
of tires and dust and soon, the siren blaring Torino and silent, lights only running squad and ambulance,
were off to Rampart as fast as Starsky and Hutch could scatter the city traffic.
In route,
Roy set up an EKG tracing off Mary. She had fallen into a litany of calling out her son's name. She
no longer opened her eyes to Roy's questions nor followed any of his suggestions.
Roy picked
up the phone. "Rampart this is Squad 51, how do you read?"
##Go ahead, 51.##
"Our victim's
LOC is 9. Stand by for a Lead Two and vitals."
##Standing by.##
The paramedic sent on the
telemetry to Dr. Early and waited, biting his lip. Roy picked up his HT to Johnny. "HT 51 to Squad
51."
##This is Squad 51.## answered Gage driving behind the ambulance.
"She's slipping
into unconsciousness. We might have to pull over for that intubation before we get there."
##10-4,
51. Watching out for a curbside. I'll let the detectives know that we might emergency halt on their
Tach Two. ##
|


--------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the striped Torino,
Starsky had one eye on the ambulance behind them and the other on the road. He shouted to a slow
driver in front of him. "Come on, buddy! Move it!" he shouted, hanging his badge out the open car
window for the startled motorist to see. "What part of the color red don't ya see?! Maybe this
badge'll talk better!"
Hutch ducked down in embarrassment. "Starsky, go easy on them. Scaring
the other drivers'll only make'em slower in pulling out of our way. We're making good time. I estimate
Rampart's only three minutes away."
"More like six minutes, Hutch. Did you forget the seven o'clock
coal train already? I'm speeding because we're a minute away from it cutting us off at the pass.
Look over there buddy boy." and he pointed out to their left, where two city blocks sideways from
their own position, the guard rails of the train crossing intersection, were already lowering and
flashing red.
Rows of cars were damming up in front of them in anticipation of their own street's
train rails coming down.
Then Gage's transmission about Mary's potential future ambulance emergency
stop came over the radio through their police dispatcher.
"O.K. Nobody's stopping for anything
else that's as unnecessary as a freight train here." said Starsky and he drove onto the sidewalk to
get around the halting cars. Then he threw the Torino into a sharp left onto the railroad tracks
wooden rails as he waved on the ambulance and squad to start coming towards the tracks normally,
via the street.
Starsky jerked the wheel and spun the Torino sideways until the locomotive conductor
was sure to see the red car obstructing his way. He pounded on the dashboard happily when he heard
the blast of the train's klaxon bite down in rapid succession and when blue sparking arcs started
to fly as the train's emergency brakes were frantically applied.
Hutch paled, seeing that his
passenger door was the side facing the oncoming train. "Starsky, what the h*ll are you doing?!" he
shouted in a high panicked voice.
|

 |
 |

"Slowing him down. The gates won't flash for our street until he's an eighth of a mile away. Remember
your train stats? I'm buying us an extra thirty seconds. At least." said Starsky.
"You're
crazy! Are you sure you didn't jam the tires into the rocks?! We might not be able to work free again
in time."
The smile of success faded from Starsky's face into a white wash.
Until he tested
the stick and the forward and reverse gears until the Torino rocked in response comfortably. "We're
not stuck, Hutch. And we only gotta stay here long enough for the squad and ambulance to work
past the traffic jam and get past that R/R crossing. Then we can rocket outta here.."
Hutch
just stared at his partner and back at the oncoming train again in a panicked flurry of glances. "St...ar..sk..That
train's going over forty miles an hour!" he shouted.
"Just a few.....seconds.....more..."
said Starsky, watching the intersection crossing the avenue they had just left for the Hearse ambulance
and rescue squad, in the rear view mirror. "There goes Mary.." he wiped his hands on his jeans. Then
he started to re-grip the Torino's steering wheel, ignoring Hutch's shouts of alarm.
The train's
next horn blare all but split their eardrums.
"StarskyyyYYY!" said Hutch.
"....and there
goes Johnny..." said the curly haired detective with a crow of delight. "They did it.." he laughed,
highly pleased. "They beat the train!" Then he caught sight of the immense train bumper scoop and
a whole lotta of steam boiling down on them less than ten yards away from Hutch's passenger door.
Hutch was scared into completely frozen immobility.
"GaahhhHH!" gasped Starsky and he punched
the gas pedal to the metal with all the strength he had in his leg. The Torino scooted off the tracks
mere feet before the train barreled by in a high speed squeal of sparking brakes. He caught the
barest glimpse of its terrified train conductor before the young stripe hatted man in the locomotive
was swept past and then beyond them.
Clouds of dust roared into the detectives' car in an angry
wind and made both men cough and choke violently. When the dust cleared, they both eyeballed each
other from underneath a thick coating of grit and sand. The dusty assault had snapped Hutch out of
his freeze. "....Starsk... if ..you ...ever...." he began, holding up a now trembling finger.
Then he sneezed.
"I promise. I won't. Not ever again. Hey, let's catch up with them now, Hutch.
I can still see them on the merge ramp leading onto the freeway." And he spun the car's tires until
they dug them off the soft soil of the intertracks and back onto a sidewalk. He cut over onto the
merge lane and boiled up onto the freeway in long peels of noisy rubber. A plume of dust accented
their departure from the car's interior.
|

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Belatedly, Hutch fastened himself tightly into his seat's lap belt. "I should turn you in for reckless
endangerment Starsky! I'm sure the captain will LOVE to hear about this latest stunt." he said, trying
to brush off the dust coating his tan leather jacket in vain.
"How can you rat on me? It'll have
no credibility at all. There were no witnesses visible for the last fifteen seconds. The dust cloud
was too big for anyone to see through."
"I saw everything just fine with perfect one hundred
percent clarity. That's all I'll need you big lummox!"
"You mean you'd doom our six year long
partnership to a dissolvement? Hutch I'm thoroughly surprised at you. I only made that move to save
a risk to a life. Mary's."
"By risking ours?!"
"I had everything perfectly under control."
"Let me tell you something Starsky. If you wanna go around rescuing lives, do it with your Wesson
39-9mm. You're far better at shooting than you are at playing chicken."
"I am?"
"Yes."
"Oh."
Hutch was still fuming when he killed the siren long enough for them to slide past
the speeding squad and ambulance to get back into the leading escort position they had before the
train crossing. "Or better yet. Why don't you join the firehouse guys to do that sort of thing
and work it out of your system?!" he snarled angrily.
"You know, that's not such a bad idea, Hutch.
All this ambulance and emergency medical stuff's addicting." And he flipped their forward siren
back on with a fancy florish. "I wonder if those two paramedics' stationhouse ever takes on police
volunteers...."
Hutch just stared at his partner in utter disbelief. "I was kidding, Starsky."
"I don't think I was." Starsky replied back, keeping tabs on their two tails in the rear mirror.
"When I was a kid, I always dreamed of becoming a fireman."
"You've got the wrong kind of badge
for that kind of work. Forget about it."
"Guess you're right, Hutch. Ah, here's our exit."
And he calmly signalled his right hand turn off the freeway.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ##Did you
see that, Roy?## Gage came over DeSoto's HT.
"See what, Johnny?" answered Roy over his radio
as he counted Mary's pulse at her carotid. The woman had quieted significantly verbally and had
accepted a simple nasopharyngeal airway without a fuss. So far, her Glasgow rating was staying a
solid 9.
##That police car. It just took on a train so we could get across.##
"I hadn't
noticed. Mary's fair. Still a 9. And Joe's still going over her EKG. She's showing inverted T waves,
and non-specific ST depressions. Pressure's rising."
##How high?##
"In the hundreds
palpated. She's still breathing ok. I put a nasal airway in and she took it."
##Keep me posted.##
"I will."
##See you at the entrance. We're gonna make it in without that stop.##
"That's
my call, too. Whatever those detectives did back there bought Mary a whole lot of time."
##I'm
sure they knew that, doing it. Man, I wish I could've become a policeman. Seems like a d*mned fun
profession. I wonder if their department ever takes on fireman ride alongs.##
"Policemen are
useful sometimes, Johnny. But a lot of them are hot headed risk takers who'll do anything for the
shortest outcome. They're not your kind of people."
##Who says? I won't know if I don't try..##
"I've never heard of volunteer fire in a police station."
##Oh. That's too bad, Roy. I'll
see you in one.##
Soon, the Torino, ambulance and rescue squad were lined up at the emergency
entrance and powered down.
Mary Malone was quickly bustled inside to Dixie awaiting there.
|


****************************************************************************** From: "Cory Anda"
<andacory@h...> Date: Mon Nov 22, 2004 7:11 pm Subject: Hallway Duty
"Treatment
3." said Dixie quickly as she took the hanging I.V. from Roy DeSoto's hand so he could manage his
chattering HT radio. The two other men, she recognized as police detectives. " Gentlemen, Dr.
Early's called for a neurosurgeon and I'll be the one helping you fill out your crime report after
we're through examining Mary. Johnny, could you stick around and help x-ray out with her films? I've
already set out an extra lead apron."
"Sure, Dix."
"How's she breathing?" Joe Early
asked as Gage and DeSoto wheeled Mary's gurney into the indicated room.
"All right." Roy replied.
"Still reacting to pain on both sides of her body. All except that one arm. She was talking a minute
ago, but now she's just mumbling." And the three of them disappeared inside the treatment room.
Detective Hutchinson sped up his walk until he was parallel with Dixie. "Ma'am. Is there any way
my partner and I could ask Miss Malone a few questions? She's not unconscious yet."
"That's
seriously doubtful." Dixie said, as she whirled to prevent the two men from entering after Mary and
the two paramedics when they tried to follow them. "Excuse us. We've films to get and then she's
going straight into a ward for an immediate craniotomy."
She nodded to the two policemen she
had anticipated needing to thwart the detectives' meddling, to stand fast on either side of Mary's
door.
"Miss.....McCall." said Starsky after reading Dixie's name tag quickly. "You don't
understand the urgency of the situation! Malone's four year old little boy has been kidnapped by
her attacker and only Mary knows the critical details. This'll only take a couple of minutes. If
she dies before we find out anything...."
Dixie's hand slammed into the frame of the treatment
room's door. "She'll die for certain if you two delay us or her treatment for even a minute..." she
snarled. "Please! Go sit down in the waiting room! If she says anything during her exam and stabilization,
I'll send Johnny or Roy out here to let you know about it!"
|


The richly varnished set of doors swung shut into their faces.
Starsky was about to go barging
in after Dixie, when Hutch grabbed his shoulders, and stopped him.
Starsky knocked his hands
away. "What are you doing?" he said with a low warning glare. "You know we've gotta get her side
of it for the boy's sake."
"Starsky. Think about it. Just how much could Mary've learned from
Medford during the brunt of the attack? He was strangling her."
"Adrenaline sometimes does
some pretty powerful things on memory, partner. I'm banking on Mary having had a total recall effect
because of her mother's instinct firing off for her child's protection." and he started to push on
the doors around Hutch's larger frame.
The two very large officers started to tense up their
well muscled arms.
Hutch once again prevented his smaller partner from moving. "Don't, Starsk.
Be happy. We've managed to save Malone long enough for the doctors to get their shot at finishing
the job. Let's go grab a cup of coffee."
"No way in h*ll, Hutch. I'm not getting the wool pulled
over my eyes by skipping an interview with another material witness against Metford again. Not
this time. We lost the last one when he died on the surgical table."
"I insist." said Hutchinson,
spinning his partner around toward the front reception desk of Emergency's ward. "Sorry officers.
He's a bit gung ho when it comes to cracking female victimization cases. Come on, Starsky. I smell
coffee brewing over here and you look like you could seriously use some right about now."
Starsky
let himself be herded, finally realizing that he should retreat rather than embarrass them both with
a public scuffle with two fellow policemen. Then he shivered. "I am kinda cold."
"Stress'll
do that." said Hutch matter of factly, grinning at the nurses who hurried by them, going about their
business. He absently patted Starsky's shoulder reassuringly as he guided him away from Mary's room
and the two head nurse appointed guards. "We've been hunting Metford down like an animal for ...what?
Two days straight?"
"Three. I remember that because that's how long it's been since either
of us got any sleep." Starsky grumbled unhappily. Then he shrugged out of Hutch's grip, cooperating
at last, and he adjusted his brown leather jacket back into comfortable place around his fatigue slumped
shoulders.
"Homicidal maniacs always give us a run for the money. It's the price we haveta
pay before we get to nab the bad guy." Hutch reasoned. "Haven't you ever noticed that?"
"No."
Starsky reached out an arm in a grab and collapsed his weary butt on an empty gurney stored along
the side of the hospital hallway with a sigh, before they had even walked thirty steps. He toppled
over onto his side, nesting a cheek on an elbow and then he closed his eyes. "Wake me when those
two fire monkeys get back out here, Hutch. I want a decent prognosis on Mary for Captain Dobey a.s.a.p.
You know how he makes our life a living h*ll until he hears the final results or at least some decent
progress news on any of our felony cases."
"That may take a while. They've got to clear her C-spine
before they can even move her."
"That's ok by me. Why don't you grab the other end of the bed
and lie down. This feels....absolutely....divine...." he murmured sleepily, curling up under the
wheeled gurney's antiseptically clean white sheet.
"Starsky?" Hutch inquired, staying on his feet.
"I don't think you should be doing that.. I mean, what if it gets busy later and they need this stretcher?"
A loud snore peeled immediately from Starsky's lax face.
|

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 |

"Starsk?"
There was no answer.
Hutch finally yawned uncontrollably and then he gave in
to a mild grin. "All right. I guess you deserve a nap, pal. Looks like we've a long night ahead of
us." he said angling Starsky's chin, so he slept silently without noise.
To keep nosy hospital
staff at bay, Hutch threw the sheet over his partner's face, took over a chair, and snatched up a
magazine to read. Then he sat next to Starsky's gurney as if on a corpse watch.
The shining
detective's badge that he put out on his shirt's lapel kept anyone from asking any questions about
either the man shaped lump under the crisply pressed sheeting on the bed, or him. ---------------------------------------------------------------
|


******************************************************************* Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 15:20:34
-0800 (PST) From: "Jeff Seltun" <finiterider@yahoo.com> Subject: The Lead..
Dr.
Brackett was already in the Treatment Room on the phone. "Joe, I've got an anesthesiologist coming
right now to get her squared away with an endotrach tube."
"Thanks, Kel." said Joe as he began
a funduscopic exam on Mary. "The sooner the better. There's retinal petecchiae in evidence."
"Intracranial changes?" Dr. Brackett offered.
Joe nodded. "At the very least, a linear skull fracture.
I'm feeling a crack that's non depressed right along her parietal bone just above the left ear. With
that same side dilated pupil and partial hemiparesis that Roy found, I'll bet there's a strong possibility
that she's got an active epidural bleed going on."
"No bet." said Kel. Then he turned to
Dixie while he continued waiting for the X-ray tech to lay out the lateral and frontal cranial film
series on the light board. "Dix, I want you to set up a foley before she hits the OR. Take care of
that once she's under and intubated. Also draw blood for electrolytes, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine,
glucose, a complete blood cell count with platelets, prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin
time. Have the lab do a toxicology screen and serum alcohol level and get a blood type and crossmatch.
Her chart's not up from records yet." said Brackett.
"Right away, Kel." and she went to the
wall phone in the back of the room.
He moved to the woman's right side and uptook her hand and
fingers. "Johnny, what's her pressure?"
"It's up, Dr. Brackett. 150/98. Respirations are only
ten now. The heart rate you already know." he said pointing to the audible cardiac monitor that
they all could hear pacing off a slow beat.
Joe completed his physical check of Mary's head and
he moved to her legs to test their reactions with a reflex hammer. He looked up when the anesthesiologist
arrived with his equipment.
Brackett pressed his thumbnail on top of Mary's middle finger nail
bed, sliding it along until his clicked over the end of hers at the finger tip. The rest of Mary's
fingers on that hand flexed, transiently exaggerated. "Joe, I've a positive Hoffman's response."
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"Both sides?"
Kel checked. "Yes."
Dr. Early frowned. "That means there's a problem at
C5 or above in addition to her head injury."
"Good thing she was collared." Dr. Brackett said.
"Did you get cervical plates, too?"
"Yeah, they're almost set. Hang on."
"Mike. Get
her ready, fast. Cushing's is just around the corner." Kel said to the anesthestist.
Right
then, Mary moaned. Roy, by her right side, leaned in close. "Mary... can you hear me? The doctors
are right here. They're gonna take real good care of ya. We're at the hospital now."
Mary got
more agitated, as if feeling Dixie's tap for the lab's arterial blood, and she started to fidget restlessly.
"Tttt----Ttttoobbbb "
"Keep her down." Brackett warned the two paramedics to hold her still.
He drew up a 3 mg syringe of pentobarbitol and injected it into Mary's I.V. "Mary. Mary. Listen to
me. You hurt your neck when you hit the ground. It's very important for you to lie as still as you
can and don't move."
"TTttttt---oob. Money's on the dress...e..r. Tooower's Plaazzz-zz."
"Shhh.." Kel soothed holding her forehead. "Don't try to talk. We've given you some medication to
relax you."
"Brrrrriing....ittt th---" Mary's face slacked off with a sigh as Brackett's sedative
took effect and she quit fighting actively.
Mike deftly took out the nasopharyngeal airway and
suctioned the blood and saliva out of her mouth and nose.
He prepared for an in-line intubation
with the endotrach airway tube he had ready to place. He nodded to Kel to signal that he was ready
for the doctor to inject the second syringe full of succinylcholine to paralyze her the rest
of the way until her breathing stopped.
Gage pulled the sheet down so the anesthesiologist could
see her chest for landmarks and its eventual rise for when the ventilator was turned on. He read
off the numbers on the billows gauge. "She's got mild hypocapnea.. I'm reading,...30- 35 mm Hg,
doc."
"That's fine, Johnny.." said Joe Early. "That carbon dioxide level will prevent any severe
vasoconstriction and it'll eliminate her existing cerebral ischemia. Do you have good breath sounds
yet for Mike, Roy?" he asked as the tube doc finished his work.
Roy listened carefully over
both of Mary's lungs and her stomach with the stethoscope he still had around his neck. "There's
no gastric gurgling. You've got your placement right first time." he shared. Mike nodded and taped
off the breathing tube so it wouldn't move around during her transit into surgery.
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"Ok, let's go. Dixie, make sure the lab results and those X-rays meet up with us while we scrub up.
We'll stall with starting Mary's tapping burr holes as long as we can."
Dixie nodded as the
two paramedics bundled Mary up again in warm heated blankets and helped the orderlies gather all her
tubes and IV from around the wheeled bird vent.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hutch rose immediately from his chair hopefully, as Mary was wheeled out into the hallway. But
his smile died when he saw that she was tubed and not breathing on her own, hooked up to a machine.
"Do you need us any more, docs?" Gage asked Joe Early and Kel Brackett from alongside her bed.
"We got it from here." Kel said, helping to keep Mary's airway from jostling.
"Tell those
two detectives we'll give them a call as soon as Mary hits the Recovery Unit." Joe added as they put
some fast distance between them.
"Will do.." said Roy and the two fire paramedics slowed their
pace as the surgical entourage entered the metal doored elevator.
Hutchinson met up with them
as the doors snicked shut on the sight of Mary's pale, still face. "Gentlemen? Did she speak anymore?"
"Hmm?" Gage said, looking up thoughtfully. "Oh, oh.oh. Uh. Let me think back. We really had our
hands full. Uhhhh. She was really worried about her son, Toby." he offered.
"Yeah, she called
out his name a few times." Roy agreed. "And..and and.. she mentioned something about some money.."
"About what money?" said Hutch starting to walk back down the hall to where he had been reading.
The two firemen followed, next to him.
Gage blinked a few times. "She didn't specify.. but
I think she said something like, 'It's on the dresser.' "
"Yeah, and about a place that it
had to go to." DeSoto frowned, rubbing his head wearily.
"Did she give an address?" Hutch asked,
pausing by the gurney along the wall.
"Not exactly. We had a hard time making it out." Roy
admitted. "She was getting doped up pretty good by that point. It was just a few syllables."
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"Where?" asked Hutch amicably.
"Well,... it sounded like Tauser's Pass or... Tower's...Pl..."
Gage broke off, trying to remember.
Hutchinson snapped his fingers. "Tower's Plaza?"
"Yeah,
that might have been it..." Roy nodded.
"Thanks fellas. We'll get right on it."
Gage stopped
Hutch before he turned away again. "Uh, who's we? I don't see your partner around here anywhere."
Hutch took his radio out of his pocket and said, "Zebra 3 to Headquarters. We've a lead on the
Malone kidnapping. Tell Captain Dobey to call us on our automobile phone in two minutes. We're
headed to Mary's residence right now. Come on, Starsk, rise and shine..." he said, tickling something
on the gurney. "We've a ransom to deliver."
Johnny Gage startled badly when the "body" moved
and became Detective Starsky pulling off the sheet in a tangle of bleary panic.
Roy steadied
Gage as the two hastily departing detectives ran quickly down the hallway for the ambulance doors.
"Easy, pal. Don't have a coronary. We've got that dinner bet to collect on, so don't die of fright
on me. I don't wanna work that hard."
"D-dd-ddid you see that?" Gage said, breathing fast and
pointing down the hall. "Why'd they pretend a body was a sleeping guy like that? What a nasty trick."
Roy shrugged mildly. "I don't think it was a trick. More like an inadvertant crash. I've seen
you do it enough times around here."
"What?"
"Nothin. Come on and walk it off. Let's go,
I'm getting hungry." DeSoto said, thinking about how bad the end of rush hour traffic was going to
be and how long their ETA back to base was gonna take. "L.A., Squad 51's available."
##Squad
51.## Spap.
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*************************************************************** From : Cory Anda <andacory@hotmail.com>
Sent : Wednesday, December 1, 2004 1:57 PM Subject : Mary's Deal
Starsky and Hutch
ran up the stairs leading to Mary Malone's spanish shingle house and to its vine wrapped front door.
In their hands, they held a property search warrant, fresh from Captain Dobey's hands. Lock picking
the door, they went inside steathily, guns drawn and hugging the walls.
They put them away
when they saw that things were completely undisturbed in every room they could see. Together, the
two detectives sighed in relief.
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"Metford hasn't been here yet." said Hutchinson.
"How could he come around to look for the ransom
money? He's got a kid in tow. And one who probably isn't very happy about being apart from Mary
right now. Besides, Metford still knows he's got every cop in the city looking for him." said Starsky.
Hutch frowned. "There's one thing about this whole affair that really stinks." he said, as he
and his partner searched every dresser in each room for anything resembling something that could
hold hidden money.
"And what's that, Sherlock?" smiled Starsky.
"If Metford kidnapped
Toby on the spur of the moment, how could Mary have had time to make arrangements to have money
available on hand to try and get him back so fast? We've all been assuming that attack on her was
a first meeting between the two of them." reasoned Hutch, leafing through the stack of mail sitting
on Mary's desk for clues.
Starsky didn't like the feeling that washed over him. "A prior relationship
of some kind?"
Hutch nodded. "Not necessarily a romantic one. I can't see a college student
getting involved with a man Metford's age. He's old enough to be her father. Perhaps she knows him
as some shady, obscure family acquaintance?"
"I'll buy that. But if that was true, why didn't
she tell us about knowing him, when we were there, right up front?"
"She had a head injury
Starsky." said Hutch. "I speak from experience that you can't always think clearly having one. I was
amazed that Mary could even talk after coming to like that after not having been able to breathe
at all."
"She sounded pretty lucid talking to that dark haired paramedic for those few minutes.
What was his name again?"
"John Gage." supplied Hutch, moving on to the next room. "Let's try
looking in the bedroom."
"Ok, Hutch, I'll go along with your line of thinking. So, ....You're
saying, she changed her tune, once she woke up the rest of the way in that alley, because she
wanted to try and handle the situation with Metford on her own. I'll buy that. She was scared for
her boy." Starsky surmised. "But then, at the hospital, the seriousness of her condition must've
convinced her to change her mind about getting some help with him when she realized that she was
heading into surgery. She must've figured out that going under the knife would run over being able
to keep Metford's ransom delivery deadline."
"Most likely."
Both detectives stopped when
they spied a very masculine black briefcase, sitting on a nightstand by the bed that didn't jive
with the rest of the floral or child's home decor around them. They rushed over to it and flipped
open the lid. Jewels and a large sum of money sparkled up at them. "Bingo."
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Starsky picked up some documents lying next to the case and started reading out loud. "I, Mary Malone,
co-signer of the contents of this safety deposit box, so avow, affirm and agree that I have made
this withdrawal in good faith and sound mind...." He looked up at his partner. "Metford coerced her
to get into her dead grandmother's savings withdrawn."
Hutch had found a notepad next to the phone,
written in a curling feminine hand that was also shaky looking with stress. "This says eight o'clock,
tonight, Starsky. At Tower's Plaza.. the 1010 Interchange Building." and his face fell into shocked
angry lines. "This whole day's turning out so like Metford's usual MO. A targetless shooting spree
for kicks to celebrate a heist going his way...."
"He's gonna conclude this deal and then
go back into deep hiding again where we'll never find him. We're taking all of this with us! Who can
say Toby won't get on his nerves and get beaten up like Mary did?" Starsky said, shutting the briefcase
and snatching up both the bank withdrawal papers and the phone notepad along with the money and
jewels.
"No one." said Hutch. "That little boy's still in danger even if it isn't deadly danger."
"We don't have time enough to go to headquarters to get the FBI in on this whole deal. It's 7:10,
Hutch."
"We're gonna haveta find time," he said in a burst of an idea. "I know, we'll make arrangements
on the way to the Plaza through Captain Dobey and call all the watch dog units to close on in." agreed
Hutch. "Most of those offices at that tower are empty now and unoccupied. It's way after their business
closing hours."
"We'll startle Metford out of any target practicing on the streets by calling
in the fire department."
The two detectives ran out of the house, secured its front door tightly,
and raced for the red Gran Torino as fast as they could in the falling night time darkness.
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*********************************************************************** From: Katherine Bird <kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:50 pm Subject: Ring of Fire
Roy DeSoto and Johnny Gage skidded
into Station 51's kitchen, each doing fair imitations of Bonnie scampering claws on the slippery floor,
but with their shoes, in their hurry to get to their plates.
Marco was grumpy, having just finished
peeling twenty potatoes to go along with the steaks Kelly had grilled up. "Hey, watch it you guys,
you'll scuff up the tiles! I just got done mopping that."
Gage and DeSoto ignored him as they
scooted their wooden chairs a little closer to the table and their silverware.
"Ah, I can't
wait to sink my teeth into... Sorry for winning the bet, Chet. This looks absolutely fabulous." he
said tucking a napkin around his neck. "What'ya sauteed them in?" he said reaching for the steaks
platter for a taste of the marinate glistening there.
Chet smacked his fingers. "Shittake mushroom
and yellow onion. Mitts off until you get served." he said. "Cap wasn't too pleased about being suckered
into the bet. But he did his part. He's got a couple of bowls of salad chilling in the frig."
Johnny looked around, stuffing a dinner roll into his mouth as Kelly forked over two steaks onto the
paramedics' blue and white swirled china plates. "Where is he? Usually he'd be here pulling rank on
all of us to get the biggest steak."
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Mike Stoker looked up from some carrots he was shoving into his mouth as quick as he could. He mumbled.
"He's on the phone with somebody named Captain Dobey from the Bay City Police Department. Do you
know anything about that?"
Gage and Roy exchanged glances. "A fair amount. That police medical
standby call turned into an assault and kidnapping. Our victim was a mother and her four year old
son's now missing. The cops think he's being held by her attacker."
"Ooo, that's rough. She
gonna make it?" Kelly asked.
"Yeah. Rampart was really on the ball today. Her anesthetist was
already in the room when we got to the hospital. She's got a head crack that seemed to be just epidural
in nature. Easily mended." Roy replied, cutting his steak calmly and chewing on a center piece stabbed
onto a fork. "Pass me the pepper, Stoker. Thanks."Johnny was eating so fast that Roy was amazed
that he didn't choke. DeSoto frowned a little and tried not to watch.
Johnny added his two
cents worth. "The whole run was just plain weird, guys. Bullet casings lying around us like scattered
acorns. Cops running around everywhere. Our two detectives' car had its windshield shot through
with a couple of bullet holes. "
Marco's eyes got real big. "We're you in danger?"
"Nah.
It was over by the time we got there." Roy reassured Lopez.
"The shorter cop reminded me a lot
of you, Chet. Complete with moppy hair and tennis shoes." Gage interjected.
"No kidding..."
Kelly said with feigned interest. "Didn't know I had a twin out there. What'd he do for you guys?"
"He got our lady breathing again. She'd been choked and thrown too hard onto some concrete. Starsky
did pretty well considering the fact that he thought he shot her with his gun the whole time he and
his partner were helping her out."
Stoker chuckled. "Starsky? What kind of name is that?"
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"It's probably Jewish." Marco guessed.
"Probably. His taller partner was named Hutch." Roy nodded
reflectively.
"As in a piece of furniture?" Chet laughed, stuffing a pile of potatoes into his
mouth.
"I think it was a nickname." Roy said. "But I sure appreciate them both and what they
do for a living. They ran escort for us on the way in and played chicken with a train to slow it down
long enough for the squad and ambulance to get over the tracks before the gates came down."
"Now
that took guts." Gage agreed. "They seem like a real crazy pair of partners. Funky and impulsive."
"Kinda like the pair of partners sitting in front of me right now, huh?" Chet quipped.
Johnny
nailed Kelly in the shoulder with a towel. "I meant that in a good sense."
"So did I." Chet
said, mildly, tossing the kitchen towel right back at him. The whole thing turned into a tossing war
between the two, until Cap's entry into the room, suddenly ended it.
Nonetheless, Cap's eyes
had missed nothing. Hank hurried to his chair and sat down. "No horseplay at the table, you two.
You know the rules."
"Not unless you can get away with it.." Chet said under his breath to the
others.
Cap was too busy filling his plate with food to notice him.
Hank ate half his steak,
before he flipped open a file filled with hand written notes that he had hastily scrawled onto a blank
log sheet. "Johnny. Roy. Gang. We're all on special duty for the rest of the day. Apparently there's
a man hunt going on downtown for some nut case the cops want real bad. They think they've cornered
him in a high rise office building somewhere near Tower's Plaza and we're gonna be part of a fire
back up response crew in case any tear gas's needed."
"That's probably our kidnapper.." Johnny
snorted, chewing his third dinner roll loudly.
"What?" Hank asked.
"Nothing, Cap. When
do we move into position?" Roy wanted to know.
"They'll call us just as soon as they get a
bead on their perpetrator. He could be anywhere inside that building. And sixty stories is a lot
of ground to cover manually. We'll probably make it through dinner."
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"Knowing the pace our two detectives like to work at, better hurry up with your steaks everybody.
We're bound to be called out sooner than you'd think.." Roy warned.
The tones went off.
All the firemen stood bent over their food and they shovelled in a few last hasty cheekfuls, before
they fled for the vehicle bay and their trucks.
##Station 51. Truck 99. Foam 127. Battalion 14.
L.A. and Bay City Police request a non code R multiple station response to 1010 Tower Plaza Drive.
Cross street Interchange Blvd. 1010 Tower Plaza Drive. Cross street Interchange Blvd. Time out: 19:12.##
"10-4, Station 51, KMG 365." said Cap into the alcove mic.
They rolled out. . ------------------------------------------------------------------
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