godammit, guys, what are you doing to me? we're all backed up in here. christ, would you look at him? he's gonna need the works. what's wrong with him?
you told me he was dead. flatline.
i hate pronouncing people dead over the phone. better, huh? they're fixed and dilated. he's plant food.
he's our lowest priority now. he shouldn't even be here. all this technology. what a waste.
first-time heart attack, age 45. should have gone to the ccu ten hours ago. there's three bodies up there mike the one you just brought in. over there, two aids patients, one in twelve filling up with liquid. i'm gonna hafta intubate because the kid's mother won't sign the do not resuscitate. mercy killing doesn't translate well in spanish. it's a sin to tube this kid. three more ods from some new killer junk. they call it red death.
a mix of heroin and i don't know what else, some kind of amino acid maybe. stuff so strong they're drinking it with grain alcohol. you have to use ten times the usual amount of narcan and watch out when they wake up, liable to go nuts on you.
no, that's noel. used to be a regular off and on, hasn't been in in a while. he seized and almost coded--i gave him a hypertonic solution. he drank so much the kidneys were taking out salt. one for the textbooks.
i am helping you, noel. you could die if you drink more water.
what is it?
crupp, start cpr. milagros, get me an epi. odette wake up dr. stark. tell him i need a blood gas, stat.
burke. you won't believe it. he's showing cognitive signs. he started with spontaneous respiration, now he's fighting to pull out the tube. had to sedate him. he's in a cat scan. i'm giving him every test i can: thromboytics, steroids, nitrodrips, heparin.
who knows? it's all lower-brain-stem- activity. the heart refuses to stabilize--he's coded eleven times since he got here. this guy's a fighter. every time the valium wears off he starts yanking those restraints.
i wanted to bring them in, to see if he'd respond to voices, but they weren't in the waiting room. the guy's daughter was in my face all last night and when i finally have something positive to tell her, she's gone.
i'll be damned. it's movement, but i'm not sure how voluntary.
nurse crupp, i need ten milligrams of valium.
oh jesus, put her on the monitor. where's the pediatric code cart? odette give me that tube. all right, flatline--let's do cpr. step back, frank. how many months?
10 mil valium, stat.
christ. who the hell woke him up?
nurse crupp, we're going to need some valium here. he's waking up again.
where's that valium?
give me a hand, frank. i've got to get something between those teeth.
you can't believe how much he's improved.
fourteen. we finally got him a room upstairs. should be up there in a couple of hours.
that's good, frank. no, but they might surgically implant one, about the size of my thumb. it goes near the shoulder here, with two electrodes connected to the heart. it sends a shock whenever it senses a drop in blood flow. amazing, isn't it?
jesus christ. nurse crupp! anybody else hurt?
crazy fucker.
upstairs. 212. had to shock him twice more.
christ, what a way to start the day. he's in v-fib. shock him.
zap him again.
nothing. get the cart, start compressions, get an epinephrine in.
that's enough. i called it. let's get some coffee. you gonna tell the family?