Interlude 2

After I’d kissed him, he groaned and I could tell he was in pain. His eyes were tearing up and the look on his face was screwed up, trying to brace against it. He was turning red and reached up for his chest and I was afraid his heart was in trouble again. I yelled for help and there were doctors and nurses pushing past me to try to help. He fought against them, not understanding what they were doing and then one of them pushed him back down with a hand on his chest and he screamed in agony and fury. The doctor barked instructions at a nurse and she bolted from the room, returning a moment later with a needle and a bottle. The doctor filled the syringe and jabbed Matt in the thigh.

Slowly the fight went out of him and they let him go. His screaming faded to a piteous whimper as he curled onto his side and wrapped his arms around himself protectively, shuddering as whatever had been in the syringe put him back under.

“WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!??!” I bellowed, shocked at how they’d mauled him.

The doctor took another moment to check his vitals and ordered an oxygen mask to keep his breathing from getting too labored before turning toward mother and I. “I apologize,” he said. “We’d discontinued Mr. Russell’s pain medication when the sedatives were stopped. It was hoped that the discomfort would bring him around more directly.”

“You WHAT??!” I spat. “That’s barbaric. Why not just administer random shocks and send someone in to hit him a few times an hour?”

“I understand your outrage, but until he woke up, there was no need for a pain-management routine.”

“And what if he’d actually injured himself when he woke up?” I demanded. “Was there a plan for that?!” I was furious at the attitude. It was like Matt wasn’t a person to these people. He was an intellectual curiosity and they were willing to take chances with his life and his health.

I didn’t wait for an answer. I turned on my heel and marched out of the room and found the rest of the family. “They stopped his pain medication.” I told them, seeing red, “so when he woke up, he was already in the worst pain of his life.”

The doctor had joined us and repeated his claim that it was to help bring Matt around.

“That’s like refusing to bring meals to a quadriplegic to try to force him to walk to the table,” I snarled, rounding on him. “Charlotte, it’s totally your choice, but I don’t trust this man to care for Matt. I think we should contact hospital administration to have a new doctor assigned to his case. Matt could have seriously hurt himself in there and they weren’t gentle with him.”

“Doctor?” Charlotte asked, looking for confirmation.

“It’s true that we discontinued Mr. Russell’s pain medication after his initial sedation wore off and he hadn’t resumed consciousness, but that’s not an uncommon treatment of short term coma. As you could see, we were in action right away to prevent him from doing himself any real harm and administered morphine immediately once it was clear he was in distress.”

“Your people put him in distress. He was in pain, but was managing until you filled the room with people trying to push him back down into the bed. I SAW one of them shove him back down onto the bed by the chest. He has cracked ribs and the duty nurse informed me that he’ll be in pain just breathing because of it.” I wanted to tear his smug face off and grind it underneath my heel.

Charlotte put a hand on my shoulder and stepped between me and the doctor. “Exactly which family member did you discuss this treatment plan with,” she asked quietly. “I don’t recall being consulted that you were planning on attempting an alternative treatment with my son. Why is that?”

He paled, but recovered well. “It was a decision that was made in the best interest of the patient,” he said as smoothly as he could. “As I said, it’s not uncommon.”

“You were required to consult me when you were making changes to his medication or treatment. This wasn’t an emergency decision. It was a callous one. You gambled on a 14 year old boy and then you roughed him up so that you could shoot him full of morphine to cover your screw-up. You took an oath to do no harm when you became a doctor. You harmed my son today. I intend to see that you don’t do it again. Doctor, you are not to have any contact with my family from this point. Tomorrow I will consult a lawyer over this disgusting lack of the empathy your profession is supposed to so value.”

She stalked away and I stayed with her as she went to the nurse’s station. “We need a new doctor,” she said simply. “Dr. Collins has admitted to stopping treatment on my son as an experimental method to force him to regain consciousness without consulting me as his legal guardian. I need to speak to the hospital administration and I need Dr. Collins specifically barred from contact with my son or his medical files, pending a review by legal council.”

The duty nurse looked shocked and practically lunged for the phone. She consulted a duty sheet and made a call. “I’ve had Dr. Spencer paged. She’s in the hospital and should be able to take over as attending physician. I’ll place a call to the hospital administration. I’m sure they’ll want to speak to you immediately to allay your concerns.”

“It’s a little late for that. My son was put in high distress and then physically put into submission in a way that caused him extreme pain before they panic-sedated him. I want blood drawn immediately to determine the dosage and exact medication Dr. Collins administered. I’ll want Dr. Spencer to review his complete chart and determine what else Dr. Collins hasn’t bothered to tell us and decided on his own.”

I had a grim smile on my face, knowing that the man would never be able to hurt Matt again. We returned to tell the rest of them what had happened and what they were doing.

It was about fifteen minutes later when a woman in her early thirties approached the nurse’s station and talked with them for another ten minutes before approaching us. “I’m Dr. Spencer,” she introduced herself. “I understand there was a problem with Dr. Collins earlier. Can you tell me exactly what happened.”

I spoke up immediately from the time that Matt woke up to the time that Dr. Collins was dismissed. She nodded at my account and her eyes widened at my description of the way he was handled.

She held up one finger, asking me silently to pause for a moment. She turned and spoke loudly to the duty nurse. “Sally, Mr. Russell needs to go for a full panel of x-rays. Specifically I want clear chest pictures and get me a set of his arms and legs too. If he was mishandled, I want to see it in pictures, not catch it when he gets a punctured lung from a rib that shouldn’t have been broken.” She turned back to me and apologized, asking me to continue.