Page 4 of Lost and Found

“Reid, I’m thankful you were already on the floor. We have two trauma victims coming in. Both have extensive injuries, but the male has what appears to be a severe head injury.”

I nod my head. “Okay, get them both prepped for a CT scan as soon as possible.”

“They both have internal bleeding and the female is suffering a miscarriage. They both need to be placed in surgery immediately,” Dr. Rettigner tells me.

I turn to Elena. “Call Dr. Leal and see if he can assist, if the male’s injuries are this severe, I won’t be able to check the female’s until much later. I don’t want her waiting in case hers is serious as well.”

The ambulance sirens blare through the early morning air. The storm outside is still raging on, chasing away the rising sun. The first ambulance backs in and the medics quickly pull the male patient out of the back. One look at him, and I know this is extremely bad. His condition is deteriorating rapidly. Dr. Rettigner starts to examine the damage in the abdominal region, while I examine his head. From what I can tell, his eye socket is broken and a piece of his bone has punctured a part of his brain. Not only is he bleeding internally, but also in his brain. “Was he the driver?”

Winston, the medic, nods. “Yes, from the position he was in, I’d say he slammed his head into the steering wheel.”

“That explains the broken eye socket.”

“Where was the wreck at and how long were they out there?” I ask.

Winston shakes his head. “The wreck happened just outside of town. Their car rolled over and down into the ravine when it went over the side of the road. The other car hit a tree. There was a child in their car and the other driver that were both DOA on arrival. Another car came upon the scene and called it in, but I don’t know how long they had been like that before that car found them.”

For a moment, I freeze as my mind tries to comprehend their child. This is one of the moments that I don’t understand why I can’t save them all. I’m supposed to be able to save their lives. “He’s flatlining,” Dr. Rettigner hollers out, and then everything around us becomes chaotic. Nurses pull over a defibrillator and start to work on him. There’s nothing else I can do for him until they get his heart beating again.

I move out of the way and over to the female. For one brief moment, I freeze, because there is something about her that is so familiar, yet I know I don’t know her. I’d remember a woman this beautiful. Despite the blood and dirt caking her face, I can still see her round cheeks and long, dark eyelashes. Her thick, dark blonde hair is matted to the side of her head. There is a cut on her plump bottom lip. She has tiny cuts covering her face, neck, and arms, but they are all minor injuries, nothing to be concerned about. However, her head wound is still losing blood as well as the miscarriage. If she is suffering internal bleeding as well, she could bleed out right here. “Prep her for surgery STAT!” Nurses rush over and take her down the hallway toward the emergency surgery area.

I rush back over to where they are still working on the male, but I can already tell we are too late for him. I place a hand on Dr. Rettigner’s shoulder and he sighs heavily. I know he feels the same weight that I do. Maybe, if they had been discovered earlier, we would have been able to do more, but this was the cards we were dealt. Dr. Rettigner tells Elena the time of death, and then I make my way to the surgery unit.

As I dress for surgery, I meet up with the on-call internal surgeon, Dr. Martinez. She discusses the procedures she’ll be performing. Luckily, while they prepped the patient for surgery, they got a CT scan done. The patient is suffering from a Hematoma, which is a collection or clotting of blood that occurs outside of the blood vessels. She is already suffering from the swelling that can be caused by this type of injury, so I’m going to go in and relieve the swelling for her. We need to move fast since we don’t know how long she’s been losing blood like this.

****

A few hours later, Dr. Mendoza and I have done everything we can. All the bleeding has been stopped. I relieved all the pressure and swelling I could. The patient is stable, now it’s up to her and her body to heal. We leave her with the nurses to be cleaned up and moved over to the ICU. However, I can’t stop myself from glancing back one more time at her. Something about her pulls me in. I walk back over and lean down, so that I can speak into her ear. “You’ve got this. I know it’s going to be a long hard road, but you can do this. I know you can.”

When I stand up, I notice that all eyes are on me. It’s not an unknown fact that I’m a big teddy bear when it comes to my patients, but I don’t think I’ve ever been caught doing that. Although, I’ve done it a handful of times.

I walk out of surgery. Once I’ve changed and made a much-needed stop in the bathroom, I head over to the break room. Elena is just finishing up her shift and she looks more irritated than normal. “Rough night?”

She scoffs and rolls her eyes, before handing me a large cup of black coffee. I swear, sometimes she can read my mind. “So, after dealing with everything else tonight, DJ was brought in.”

I bite back the chuckle that threatens to escape. I don’t want the wrath of Elena on me. DJ is a police officer that has become kind of a regular around here. He’s not afraid to take a bullet for someone, that’s for sure. He and Elena have a love-hate relationship. I mean, I think secretly they both have a thing for one another, but they both fight it. It’s kind of ironic how almost every time DJ ends up in the emergency room, Elena ends up being his nurse. “How’d that go?”

“Ugh, like normal. That man is impossible!”she sighs, before turning around to face me. “How’d surgery go?”

“As good as possible. We got her stable and she’s being moved to ICU. Did we ever get an identification on them?”

Elena nods. “Yeah, Codi and Paige Reynolds. The child in the car was their son, Corey. The other driver was Jimmy Pina.” I must have a look on my face, because Elena is studying me way too hard.But that name, Paige Reynolds, seems oddly familiar. “What is it?”

I shake my head trying to figure out why that name is tickling my brain. “Her name…it’s like I’ve heard it before.”

“You sure? Maybe, you just need to get some sleep,” Elena suggests.

“No, I know that name I just don’t know how.”

Elena sighs. “Okay, well promise me you’ll get some sleep soon. You’re going to collapse from exhaustion.”

I give her a smile. “I promise I’ll try. Enjoy your time off.” She smiles, waves, and then she’s out the door while Paige’s name keeps nagging at the back of my head.

Chapter Five

Reid

It’s been a long ass day. I’m basically dead on my feet and my shift is finally over, but I can’t go home without checking in on Paige. All day I have been trying to figure out why she seems so familiar to me. I’m still coming up blank, but there has to be a reason why her name triggered that feeling. I sigh, as I head over to the ICU. I check to see how her vitals have been since she was moved. Everything is steady, but she’s still out cold.

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