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Richter Six, by Michael Donovan, is a written, but never filmed writer's script from the actual TV series Emergency! |
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************************************************************ From: "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com> Date: Sat May 5, 2007 4:23 pm Subject: Shake, Rattle and.... Richter Six, Mark VII Limited and Universal Studios Production # 35716 Original Teleplay Character Dialogue was written by Michael Donovan, August 30th, 1972. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The day was warm at Los Angeles County Headquarters. Rescheduling had been the same as always from the chief with all the senior paramedic firefighters getting rotated through the training and breaking in of the new students who were now pouring into the mobile intensive care unit program in droves from elsewhere in the fire department. Johnny Gage didn't know what to think of the teaching requirement newly installed by Dr. Brackett. But it helped that all the classroom time going over the books and drilling skills contributed to his continuing education credits now deemed necessary to maintain his own certifications. He was tired, but smiling a bit as the experience brought back memories of Roy giving him the hard sell to join the paramedics when he had been a student. |
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The promise of a full coffee pot went far to redeem the whole process in his mind's eye. Right along with the free donuts and the chance to lecture all the grunts while wearing doctor white. Roy figured his partner was probably still grinning like the Cheshire cat when his watch went off. It was time to begin day two of the paramedic orientation course. He walked into the classroom set aside for them in a fire training trailer on the fire academy cadet grounds, carrying the orange advanced life support books their class would need. He perked his ears as he opened the door and went inside. Johnny Gage was looking almost comical but in a way, slick in the long white lab coat as he spoke to the class clustered around him. "...and after the academic part, you'll spend a few weeks working in the hospital." A student raised his eyebrows, chewing absently on a pencil. "Why the hospital? We're gonna be doing everything in the field,...why not train there?" |
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Roy dropped his stack of books on the table in front of him and began handing them out one by one after motioning to their students to come up and take one. "That'll come too, ....later." He smiled, leaning over the desk. "You learn in the hospital first, .. the RIGHT way. Then when you have a handle on that, you learn how to adjust to every goofball situation imaginable in the field." One nervous young firefighter, fidgetted with his new manual, goggling at the thickness of the soft bound text of pages. "Was it tough? I mean, you know, making it?" Gage made sure he didn't smile too much. "Having second thoughts?" The thin man nodded. "It's been on my mind." he admitted. "And it always will be." said Roy, sitting down near them. "The only advice we can give, is shoot your best shot." Then he smirked a bit. "I think Johnny here, was the first casualty." he teased. Gage made a mock insulted face and chuckled. "How's that?" asked the second student. |
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DeSoto pursed his lips and picked up an old newspaper from the stack of them on the demo table outlining the success and media coverage Dr. Brackett's paramedic program had attained over the years. He handed the newspaper to him, pointing at the bold printed headline. "Well, if you recall, the quake hit at six in the morning. We'd had about five calls in the night before and had only been in bed about an hour.... "Tuesday, February ninth. I'll never forget that day. Our station was a pretty good distance from the center of the quake, but believe me.. we felt it!" Roy recalled. ------------------------------------------------------------ A rumbler shook the whole fire station, jolting the gang out of their beds. Johnny was thrown from his bed, his arms still wrapped about the pillow and his head struck the concrete block partition next to his bunk. Cap, Stoker and the others shot out of theirs and began scrambling into their turnout pants and boots, even as they winced and flinched and ducked as drinking glasses, pencils and even telephones slid off table tops to shatter and rattle on the tiled floor. |
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Roy was dressed almost instantly. He hastily threw the sheets tangled around his boots away from him as he hung one arm on the brick divider next to Stoker's bunk to steady himself. He heard a groan from Gage, who hadn't yet gotten to his feet. "You okay?" he asked. Johnny, shaking his head dizzily even while he probed his hair for blood, muttered. "I'm not sure...what the devil?" Cap interrupted them. "Stoker, check the garage door. Make sure we're able to get the equipment out of here." Mike nodded and dashed out of the room as the quake finally died slowly under their feet. Hank continued to snap out orders. "The rest of you. Get to it. We'll start a patrol of the area for gas leaks and fire." he decided, going by the book. Chet Kelly went to his side as he pulled on one last suspender strap. "How bad do you think it is, Cap?" Stanley sighed, eyeing up the radio on the table by the window to make sure that it still had power. "That's the problem, we don't know." he said seriously while he jogged out to the apparatus bay to survey for damage. Gage convinced himself that he was all right from his jolt to the head. He smiled to reassure his partner. "Ever been in an earthquake before?" |
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DeSoto shook his head in the negative. "You?" he asked. Johnny frowned and shuddered, burning off the last of his adrenalin jitters as he matched Roy's reply. "That scared the h*ll out of me." Roy helped Gage steady himself on his feet and together they ran to join the others. Relieved, DeSoto saw that the main door was just fine, rattling up in its tracks smoothly as ever. By the alcove, Hank hung up the mic on its spigot. "Dispatch says they're getting reports from all over the county. They're guessing we're at the edge of the quake." Johnny cracked his knuckles in anxious anticipation. "That means there's gonna be heavy damage." Stanley nodded, agreeing."We'll start checking out our area. If they need us, they'll call." Everyone began running for the trucks. Hank stopped his paramedics by gripping their elbows. He met their eyes significantly. "Gage, DeSoto. Better load up what extra medical supplies you can." he suggested. The abnormal advice served only to stir their fears of the possible scope of the disaster they had yet to see in their city. Without comment, they moved out. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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************************************************** From: "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com> Date: Sun May 13, 2007 4:31 pm Subject: Act 2, Richter Six.. Richter Six, Mark VII Limited and Universal Studios Production # 35716 Original Teleplay Character Dialogue was written by Michael Donovan, August 30th, 1972. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Roy DeSoto drove slowly, picking no regular direction to travel in as they listened to the radio chatter over their frequency. The engine had split off from behind them long ago to cover different territory and to him, not having the Ward's reassuring bulk in his rear view mirror, somehow discomforted him. Johnny was trying to at least look relaxed, resting his elbow on the open window frame of the rescue squad. "Things look quiet enough. Guess all it did was rattle the area pretty good." he commented. DeSoto, worried but holding his roiling emotions at bay about things a little closer to home, finally reached over and grabbed up the mic. " Squad 51, is there any info on the Chatsberry area?" he asked L.A. L.A. responded. ##Squad 51, negative. Please restrict radio traffic to necessary messages...## replied Sam Lanier, before he resumed checks and relaying search reports from other units patrolling service areas like Station 51 had begun to do. DeSoto, biting his lip, sighed with anxiety as he mentally chided himself for tying up the emergency channel. Gage, leaning a couple of fingers on his chin, studied his partner in calm empathy. "Roy, anything can knock out a phone line.." he said. Startling, on the steering wheel, Roy's knuckles whitened as his attention was drawn back to the radio as aftertones began to sound. ##Engine 197, Engine 226. Patrol 67 reports extensive damage in Soledad area. Numerous fires, major structural damage. Respond to---## Tuning out the radio, Roy tried to relax back into the driver's seat as he licked his lips dryly when the airing failed to impart the one bit of information that he badly wanted right then. Gage didn't take his eyes away from Roy's tense expression. It was total uncharacteristic fretting he read coming from his partner. So he said it like it was. "If anything's happened, she'll know what to do, Roy." "Yeah.." DeSoto replied, not reassured nor convinced, still thinking about his family. |
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Johnny studied DeSoto, trying to convey firm confidence, when the tones from H.Q. sounded again. ##Engine 51, Squad 51...Engine 127, Truck 127, Engines 68, 225, 65 and 70. Patrols 65 and 68. Respond to Alameda Hospital. Soledad reports wide spread destruction.## Roy's mouth dropped open as Johnny snatched up the mic a little too fast. "Squad 51." acknowledged Gage quickly as Roy turned on their lights and sirens, doing a U-turn in the boulevard. Johnny hung up their radio. "That's about thirty miles from here." he estimated. Roy gaped as he forced himself to talk a couple of seconds later, working through a strong reaction that Gage could see visibly. "...and about five minutes from my house." Johnny's eyes widened in dismay when the fact he didn't know, sank in. Willing calm onto Roy, he set his hand firmly onto his shoulder in unspoken support as DeSoto jumped them into authorized emergency speed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was three minutes later and Roy and Johnny began to see signs that they were at the edge of the quake. Sewer caps were thrust through fractured sidewalks like bizarre toothpicks angling from the ground. There was already a stench of decay in the air. Gage pointed to the first indications and Roy nodded as they swept by the sight. Then there was no more time to notice details. Squad 51 pulled into the older suburban hospital's parking lot and there, both paramedics were stunned. "Dear G*d!" Johnny exclaimed aloud as they rushed to what they thought was a rudimentary fire department staging area. All they could see was the twisted structure of the hospital and ground eruption flipped cars. At its base, the lot was alive with fire equipment, police cars, white clad doctors and nurses and gurney wheeling patients moving in all directions. Pandemonium barely described the events now underway before them. |
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Swallowing, Roy slowed into cautious gear and he went where they were directed into the chaotic open maw of the forming disaster operation. There was a flurry of activity in and around the command post trailers. Roy and Johnny could see a Battalion Chief briefing a handful of fire captains, including Captain Stanley. They were all clutching newly plastic wrapped waterproofed HTs. Hank nodded minutely when Roy and Johnny parked and started unloading all their stokes and medical gear, making eye contact only long enough to let them know he was aware they had arrived. |
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| Pick your favorite title music. Click any of the three to play. :) |
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Putting on their turnouts and scba, Roy and Johnny swiftly got ready. The first thing DeSoto did was check their reception via biophone. "Rescue 51 to Rampart Base for radio check." he gasped, speaking loudly. There was no immediately reply and he and Johnny shared a single significant glance in concern when static poured out of the receiver. Roy tried again. "Rescue 51 to Rampart Base." he hailed turning up the gain and rechecking the terminal's antennae port. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nurse Dixie McCall looked up and saw the red light go on inside the base station at Rampart. She hurried into the room, barely avoiding a collision with a gurney in-pouring into her emergency department in the corridor. The silence from the din of the ongoing disaster, took her breath away. She paused only long enough to learn who it was who was hailing. ##Rescue 51 requesting radio check with Rampart Base.## DeSoto's voice repeated. Dixe lifted her head and pressed the talk button, frowning in concentration. "Rescue 51, This is Rampart, go ahead." she replied. ##Rampart, we've been assigned to Alameda Hospital. Verifying radio communication from this location.## Roy answered. In the background, Dixie could hear fire department chatter and the shouts of disoriented patients being evacuated from the shattered building in droves behind his voice. "10-4, I read you loud and clear. Doctor Brackett has sent Joe Early with a triage team to your location. How bad is it?" she asked, finally pausing and resetting the recording tape when she realized they weren't yet with a patient. |
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Roy's voice sounded stressed for a reason McCall couldn't identify. ##Extensive damage. There appears to be many injuries. Evacuation is underway.## DeSoto told her. "10-4." Dixie said, putting the channel on standby. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DeSoto closed up the biophone box and behind him, Captain Stanley and the other captains broke up from the briefing with the Chief. He crossed over to where both his station's trucks were angled and faced his men. Chet, Marco, and Stoker already had their gloves and air bottles on like Cap did. Stanley sighed, his voice charged with all business. "Okay, we've got a search and rescue detail..north half of the West Wing. We'll start with the first floor. Stoker and Lopez, you take the North end. Gage and DeSoto, up the middle. Kelly and I will work our way in from the South end. Check every room and mark it. If you need assistance, give us a holler." Gage eyed the building still spewing dust in front of them. "It looks like the first and ground floors got it the worst." he said. Hank nodded. "And they're the only way out for the people above them." Stanley said, sweeping a hand over the jumble of broken cars that were aggressively getting sprayed down by distantly placed water curtains. The mangled rows of displaced cars were acting as a barricade, preventing the full reach of the aerial ladders that were trying to extend out to uneffected windows. |
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One managed to connect at last and firefighters rushed up the handholds from the engine's receiving platform. Stanley gestured and the gang snapped into action. They gathered up flashlights and the most critical of the medical and extrication gear. The gang started separating when DeSoto hesitated and turned to Hank. The expression in his eyes spoke volumes.. "Cap..." Hank immediately understood having anticipated the question. "I'm sorry, Roy. There's been no reports on your neighborhood." Roy nodded under his helmet tightly, regarding Stanley with unspoken thanks. He looked away then and headed off after his partner. Hank watched him go until another call for him came over his portable radio. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Under the shadow of a lifted aerial ladder, Gage and DeSoto worked their way around fresh rubble, trying past the patient patio where they knew large glass doors must have been. Johnny located the entrance to the hospital proper and staff cafeteria. "This looks good as any.." he said. Roy agreed with a nod and together they forced the door open with tools and entered. A minute later, they were passing evacuating patients and other search and rescue teams rushing to other areas of Alameda's twisted bulk. As they passed a badly crushed and jammed emergency exit stairwell, Johnny hesitated at a sound, a questioning almost panicked vocalization from behind the warped door. "Wait a minute.." Gage said to Roy. Johnny moved closer to the door, carefully listening in his helmet. A knocking sound rewarded him as he looked up, probing for hinge weaknesses with a halligan. "Somebody in there?" he shouted. "....yes... please help me. " said a female voice. It was strained with pain. Reacting, Gage and DeSoto snatched a prybar from their gear and they began forcing their way through the door to get to her. Loudly, Roy gave an order. "Move away!" he said. |
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The two firefighters continued to exert their combined strength against the door until finally, it began to creak open, the spidered tiny glass window it contained splintered and broke apart as a gap opened. A small nurse in a dirty ripped uniform jammed her torso out of the darkened staircase and she coughed. Gage and DeSoto pulled her out into the corridor and helped her to her feet. Johnny held her arms, searching for blood. "Are you all right, Miss?" The young nurse wiped off dust and grit from her mouth as she reassured herself with her own running hands that she was truly uninjured. "Yes. I've been trying to find my way out of the ground floor for an hour. They need help. In surgery." she exclaimed. Roy took off his helmet and offered her a sit down onto one of their gear boxes. "What kind of help?" he said, crouching by her side, eyeing her up carefully. The shaken nurse shook her head. "I...I just don't know. No one can get in. They can't get out. The walls and doors are crushed. It's horrible!" she trembled. DeSoto stood, satisfied the woman wasn't in any danger from shock. He refastened his helmet. "We'll take a look." he told her as she stood once more with growing strength in the cleaner air. |
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Johnny and Roy gathered up their gear, heading for the stairwell again. She stopped them. "Try this way first." she said, pointing to a turn down the busy hallway. "Maybe we can get in through the ampitheater." she suggested. The two paramedics nodded for her to lead the way. The darkness of the shattered but still open aisled ampitheater was almost absolute and its tiled walls eerily reflected the light beaming off their flashlights as the trio made their way through the viewing door on the lower level. They made their way over to the viewing glass balcony in the observation theater and looked down. All three of them gasped. Fractured beams of light from the still powered patient floor shining through a broken ceiling beam above them was the only illumination in the pitch black surgery room. On a gurney, lay a young girl receiving oxygen and anesthetic from a blue gowned nurse. On the floor at their feet the paramedics could see another nurse looking up from an injured surgeon lying awkwardly on his back. Roy and Johnny aimed their flashlight beams downward and the two staffers looked up suddenly with urgency. The bright red gap of an opened body cavity glinted at the child's abdomen which was covered quickly with a sterile drape when a stream of dust began cascading down from the ceiling. DeSoto could see the kneeling nurse had already begun an I.V. on the unconscious oral airway aided doctor lying in front of her. They could see blood on his forehead. DeSoto turned to the nurse who came with them. "They're setting up a field hospital in front. Get a doctor... a surgeon if you can. We'll try to get down there." he told her. |
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The nurse nodded, accepting Roy's flashlight gratefully and she hurried back the way they had come to summon the help he requested. Johnny began testing around the viewing glass edges as he shined his torch onto the broken concrete buried door to one side of the surgery. "No telling how long it'll take to dig through that mess." he muttered, trying to see if the child was still breathing on her own without the surgical nurse's assistance. Roy peered around. "Then maybe going through the top here will be faster." he said, pulling their HT out of his pocket. "Squad 51 to C.P. Requesting screwdrivers, rope, lighting and two stretchers be brought to the surgical ampitheater. Entrance is located at the west end side of the hospital." he reported. Worried, Roy and Johnny looked down as the glass muted nurses below them looked up with anxious expressions as they worked to stabilize their patients. ##10-4, 51.# replied the incident commander posted outside. |
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************************************************** From : patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> Sent : Friday, May 18, 2007 8:34 PM Subject : Deliverance.. Richter Six, Mark VII Limited and Universal Studios Production # 35716 Original Teleplay Character Dialogue was written by Michael Donovan, August 30th, 1972. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was ten minutes later. Johnny Gage finished removing the last screw in the windowframe of the observation room. Carefully, he, Chet and Marco lifted out the glass pane and set it aside onto the floor out of the way. Other firemen entered the surgical amphitheater with portable lighting and there was a flurry of activity as it was plugged in and hooked up to battery power. Gage and DeSoto began lowering themselves into the surgical suite below on a rope with belts. Roy's feet touched the gritty floor. Disconnecting, he removed his gloves and moved towards the surgical table. "We've sent for a doctor." The nurse on the child's head nodded. "How long has it been?" she asked, over her bright blue surgical mask. Roy looked at his watch. "The quake hit at six. Just a little over an hour." He glanced down at the little girl, lying intubated and still on the bed. "How's she doing?" |
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"Critical." replied another nurse, looking up from where she was monitoring the girl's vital signs from a stool next to them. A thump turned Roy's head back the way he had come. Joe Early, his face twisting with effort, was being lowered on a rope. He was wearing fire turnout over his hastily zipped up triage jumpsuit and surgical top. Johnny was examining the surgeon on the floor in a fast survey. "Welcome aboard, doc." he said. "Sorry it took so long. Things are busy out there." replied Joe. He knelt next to Johnny when he gestured that the man was first to be treated. Gage sighed, lifting his hands away from a carotid pulse. "I recommend we move the doctor here out. He's taken a pretty good crack on the head from that surgical lamp." he said, pointing to the shattered one lying broken on the floor near them. Joe peeled back the head bloody surgeon's eyes. "He's stable?" Johnny nodded. "Nurse Wells has taken good care of him." |
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Early looked up at her after checking the doctor's I.V. flow rate. "Stay with him, Nurse. Tell the triage team to send him to Rampart." Wells assented as Gage got up to accept a stokes that Marco and Chet were lowering down to them from the opened window. Joe rose to his feet, peering in the darkness to avoid debris. He crossed over to get Roy's report on the little girl. "Things aren't quite as simple here, doc." DeSoto said. The nurse delivering oxygen to her spoke. "The doctor had just started an appendectomy." she said, lifting the sterile drape over the child's lower abdomen. "I've done my best to keep the incision sterile." Joe bent down and looked at the wound. "What do you think, doc?" asked DeSoto about her options for extrication. "I'd think we'd better finish the job, right here." said Joe, crossing over to a sink nearby. "Get some light on the patient." he said to the firefighters working above them in the viewing balcony. "I'll need surgical gloves." he said to the nurse as he turned the water spigot. Nothing came out. Joe frowned. "...and how about a bottle of alcohol?" he requested. A couple of minutes later, Johnny was free to help. Together, he and Roy got the trays Joe needed laid out. Sweating, Joe began where the M.D. had left off. Silence fell as the third nurse and the stokes were lifted out of the room. The heat was intense and Early's brow was covered in perspiration. "Hernostat.." he called out. The vitals nurse handed one to him using a sterile towel. Joe used it. Then,..."scalpel.." he said. The nurse caught her breath a minute later. "Doctor, her blood pressure is dropping." |
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Joe didn't look up. He started to work faster. "Respirations?" "Shallow." she replied. Nearby, Roy turned up the girl's new Ringer's I.V. "Just give me thirty seconds." Joe said to her. He reached into the incision with a precision scalpel slowly. He jerked it out again when the room suddenly began to shake violently around them. Everybody tensed nervously and cast their heads about, studying the swaying ceiling and especially, the ring of fragile glass windows ringing above them. They held and soon, the aftershock passed. Early returned to work as he made a careful cut and cauterized the bleeder he had made in the girl's intestinal wall from the snipped free appendix. A few seconds later, he slowly looked up. "Vitals?" The nurse at the girl's head smiled over the intubation tube. "Improving." Early nodded, shifting on a foot. "Let's close." Roy and Gage, beside him in surgical masks, also grinned in relief. They looked on with interest as the nurse handed Joe suturing equipment and a forceps fitted with a curved needle and thread. Early felt their concern and he winked at them, to let them know they were in the clear at last. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Outside the shattered hospital a while later, an ambulance opened its rear doors to receive the sleeping, recovering little girl being carried by attendants and overseen by the head surgical nurse. Gage and Roy left the building, brushing off earthquake dust from their turnouts. Nearby, Joe Early was talking on their biophone, set onto the ground. The anesthetic nurse, watching everything, leaned on the wall with fatigue as she finally gave into relief.. and some rest. Johnny, noticing, crossed over to her. "How do you feel?" he asked the nurse. "Like crying.." she replied, not smiling. "Only I'm too tired." Gage gripped her arm in comfort. "That was some job. Pitch black and you kept her going." |
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Biting her lip, she squeezed out a half grin as she looked down. She pulled out a penlight from her dirty pocket and flicked it on. It didn't light. " The batteries died just a few minutes before you came." she sobbed, smiling. Grinning, Johnny gave her his spare to replace it. Joe Early was deep into conversation with Rampart. "The McBurney type incision was used. I'm also sending along a culture for lab analysis. Conditions weren't the most sterile so keep the antibiotic therapy going a little longer than usual." ##10-4, Joe.## replied Kel Brackett over the line. ##What about the rest of it?## the doctor asked. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In the base station, Kel scribbled more onto his notes as Joe replied back. ##Evacuations still underway. I had a talk with the administrator about thirty minutes ago. Our best estimate then was about two hundred patients to go. That's not counting injured employees.## Sighing in dismay, Brackett told his colleague the straight truth. "10-4, Joe. We can handle about a hundred more,.. unless other areas pick up." Early copied him. ##Ten four.## Dixie entered the alcove from the busy, crowded corridor desk. "Kel, Obstetrics is loaded. Another one came in. Treatment One." Kel's eyebrows raised as he toggled off Joe's connection. "Premature?" McCall nodded. "One month. Mike Morton's with her." Brackett licked his lips, accepting the news as just another brick on the pile. "I'll give him a hand." he said, moving off. "Call obstetrics and ask them if they can accomodate a few more patients." Dixie frowned. "They've already doubled up on their rooms." Brackett held open the door. "Then suggest some partitions in the hallway." he told her. Kel moved off towards Treatment One, making his way through the throng of the injured and the sick. Dixie began to pick up the house phone when she was interrupted by the approach of Katy Anderson, a small elderly woman in her early sixties. She was favoring a left arm that was totally immobile. "Nurse.." she grimaced. "Please.. You must help me." she said with a sob. Dixie whirled, recognizing the woman immediately. "Mrs. Anderson, what are you doing here?" |
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Katy sagged visibly where she stood. "I.. I can't move my arm. ..I can't.. Won't someone please help me? It's.. paralyzed." McCall reclarified their situation. "Where's Nurse Collins? Wasn't she helping you?" Katy answered reluctantly. "She was called away." Dixie nodded in understanding. "We are terribly busy." she said, setting down Joe's patient tape recording. Anderson sensed Dixie's growing distractions. "But I'm paralyzed. Can't you understand?" she said wailing weakly, insisting. McCall stood and aided her to a seat in the Nurse's station, comforting her with a grip around the shoulders. "Certainly I can, Mrs. Anderson. Here, sit down." Katy did, still holding her arm. "There." Dixie smiled. "Now let me ask. Does your arm hurt anywhere?" Katy met her eyes, timidly. "No. It's... just paralyzed. I can't move it. Right after the quake is when it happened." Dixie reacted, thinking. "Yes, and you told the doctor that?" she asked. The older woman nodded. "I don't think he believed me." McCall checked the pulse in that wrist, feeling its temperature. "Sure he believed you. It's just that there's so many serious injuries coming in..." she broke off, realizing that a lecture was upsetting Mrs. Anderson. She rethought her plan of action. "Tell you what. We're so overloaded with work, we could use some help." she suggested, when her findings proved that everything was normal in the arm. "Help?" Katy piped up in a sniffly daze. Dixie met her eyes evenly, narrowing them in consternation, but mildly. "Is your right arm okay?" "Yes. I guess so." peeped Katy. "It would be a real help if you could write out some identification tags for us." Dixie told her. Katy reacted with hope and surprise. "Me? You want me to help?" Dixie smiled, nodding slowly. "And when we get caught up, maybe I can get the doctor to take another look." she said, patting the left arm significantly. "What do you say?" Katy was bewildered. "I...I guess it will be all right." Dixie gripped her chin briefly in encouragement and slid the tags and patient lists in front of her. "Terrific. Now,..here's the tags. Just make one for each name on these lists of paper, okay?" Katy was still uncertain and it showed in her voice. "O-okay." Dixie nodded with satisfaction and winked assuringly at her as she left the desk area. Anderson wondered a few beats but never figured out that she had been outmaneuvered. She shrugged and began her task like a shy librarian who had the pressure taken off on a heavy load of books. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Treatment One, 21 year old Kathy Williams lay in heavy pregnancy, wincing in pain and trying to breathe deeply. Brackett, with the intern Mike Morton and a nurse were preparing her for delivery. An orderly entered with an emergency incubator. Kathy grunted as she struggled not to push when she saw it." I.. I just don't understand. My doctor said it was a perfect pregnancy. It's too early. I...I have a month to go.." she panted. Kel looked up from his examination of her. "Now, don't worry. This earthquake has caused a lot of women to deliver early. You're going to be fine. Breathe deeply now." he ordered. |
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