Chapter 15

An ambulance from the Regional Hospital in Buckhannon arrived for Jerry twenty or so minutes after it was called. The EMTs took his vitals and started a Ringer’s Lactate drip. Next, they strapped a cervical collar around his neck. Then they eased him onto a backboard, strapped him down, and loaded him into the ambulance. All without Jerry regaining consciousness. The ambulance screamed into the night, lights flashing and siren wailing, and with Deputy Griggs right behind.

Twenty-two minutes later the ambulance backed up to the receiving doors of the Buckhannon Emergency Room. A nurse and orderly walked beside the gurney as the EMTs rolled it into exam room two. The EMTs regurgitated the patient’s vitals, and the treatment they had provided. The four of them transferred Jerry from the backboard to a hospital bed and the EMTs departed. The nurse started triage.

The nurse cut Jerry’s clothes away while the orderly took off his boots. Once they had him down to his underwear, they started cataloging his injuries. Deputy Griggs parked himself in the corner of the room, oblivious to the irritated glances of the nurse.

The Charge Nurse sent someone to wake up the ER Intern and five minutes later the doctor entered room. The doctor took one look at the patient and stopped dead in her tracks. She saw Deputy Griggs in the corner and got in his face.

“Who did this to him,” Doctor Lisa Bass angrily demanded.

Griggs held up his hands in front of himself as to fend her off, Her vehemence startling him.

“He got into a drunken fight with some bikers outside the Seven-Eleven in Cokerville. I’m here to arrest him for disturbing the peace and public intoxication as soon as you release him,” Griggs said in his most official voice.

“I know this man, Deputy, and I know he doesn’t drink because he doesn’t want alcohol to ruin his life like it has for so many of his people. However, I will order a blood alcohol test and provide the Sheriff’s Office with the results. In the meantime, you aren’t taking him anywhere. There is no way he won’t be admitted,” Doctor Bass stated with finality.

Griggs wanted to argue the point but by now, two other nurses were standing by the doctor. The three women and the orderly formed a solid barrier between him and his suspect.

“I’ll pass that along to Sheriff Thompson! He might have something different to say about this!” Griggs said warningly, as he stalked out of the emergency room.

“You do that,” the doctor sarcastically told his retreating back.

Doctor Bass checked Jerry over and listened to his heart and breathing. His pulse was steady, but his breathing was shallow and labored. She turned to the Charge Nurse.

“Get him to x-ray. I want a picture of his chest and cranium. Draw enough blood for a standard panel, type and cross match, and run a blood alcohol test. When he’s back, come get me,” said the doctor.

Jerry was back in exam room two in an hour and twenty minutes, his x-rays in a large envelope clipped to the end of the bed. Doctor Bass was reviewing the x-rays when Jerry regained consciousness. He moaned, tried to sit up, and then fell back on the bed. The Charge Nurse put a gentling hand on his shoulder.

“Relax, Mister Donavan, you are in the Emergency room of Buckhannon Hospital. Someone beat you up pretty good and we are trying to treat you. I’m Sarah Carter the Charge Nurse and your doctor is Lisa Bass,” the nurse said.

Jerry groaned and rolled his eyes. He thought he was through with nurses named Carter. Although this Nurse Carter was a petite blond with smile lines around her eyes. Carter shot Doctor Bass a curious glance and the doctor smiled back at her.

“I’ll tell you later. Go down to the lab and light a fire under Mister Jones. He is probably reading a Playboy Magazine and drinking Dr. Pepper.” Doctor Bass said.

Doctor Bass held the x-rays up to the light, grimaced and slipped the film under the clips of the light box. The x-ray showed three cracked ribs on Jerry’s left side and two on the right. His cranial film thankfully showed no skull fractures. Doctor Bass concluded that Jerry suffered a concussion to go with his cracked ribs.

After Sarah Carter nodded and quick timed down the hall, Lisa walked over to the bed and pulled a small pen light out of her pocket.

“This is not how I thought we’d meet again, Jerry Donavan,” the Doctor quipped as she shined the light in each of his eyes.

“Me neither,” Jerry whispered. Then he coughed and groaned, clutching his side.

“You were savagely beaten Jerry and your clothes reeked of urine and beer. What happened?” she asked.

Jerry concentrated and some of incident came back to him.

“Did Alice get away okay?” he asked.

Lisa Bass looked at him with arched eyebrows.

“My cousin Alice? What has she got to do with this mess?”

“Some bikers were harassing her at the Seven-Eleven, I told them to leave her alone. They let her go and she ran to her car. Then one of the bikers knocked me down and they all started kicking me,” Jerry explained.

Doctor Bass turned to the orderly standing on the other side of the bed.

“Keep an eye on him,” she said, “I need to make a phone call.”

Lisa Bass picked up the hand set and dialed the Chaney residence. Alice had followed in her Aunt Ida’s footsteps and taught second grade at Coker Elementary. She still lived at home and was always dieting to lose the thirty pounds she’d gained since high school.

Lisa’s aunt, her mother’s sister, answered the phone.

“Hi Aunt Betty, is Alice around?” Lisa asked.

“Thank Goodness it’s you Lisa, we were about to call you. Is Jerry Donavan there? Alice was attacked by some of those motorcycle hoodlums that hang out at the mine. She said Jerry rescued her but when she drove off the thugs had him on the ground. We called the Seven-Eleven and they said he left in an ambulance,” Betty Chaney said in a rush.

“Yes, he’s here, I just left him in a treatment room. He’s been badly beaten but he’ll recover. He told what he remembered of the incident, so I was calling to check on Alice,” Lisa replied.

“She’s shaken, but she was more worried about Jerry,” said Betty then she lowered her voice to a whisper. “Did you know he isn’t living in his family home? No one knows where he lives.”

That was news to Lisa, although she could understand him avoiding the memories associated with the house. That was the reason she hadn’t sought Jerry out; she knew until he healed, he wasn’t going to be good company. She kept up with Jerry’s life vicariously through her father and her Uncle Fred. Lisa was almost twenty-seven years old and pretty much married to her job. In college and medical school she’d been with a number of men, but none of them could make her feel like Jerry did. Nor did they treat her with the respect and concern he’d displayed.

“I didn’t know that Aunt Betty. I know he is working though. He works for my Uncle Fred, so he must be doing okay.”

After a couple of pleasantries, Doctor Bass hung up and returned to treatment room two. She arrived outside the door at the same time as Nurse Carter. Carter handed Lisa the lab report.

“You were spot on about Jonesey down in the lab, except it was Penthouse instead of Playboy. I stood over him until he ran the blood test. Everything was within normal limits. You were right about the alcohol; there wasn’t a trace of alcohol in his blood,” said Nurse Carter.

“I figured as much. Why do you think that deputy was so adamant about arresting him? He was obviously the victim,” Lisa said.

Nurse Carter shrugged, “Who knows? How do you know him anyway?”

“We went to high school together and he was the first boy I ever dated. He was so sweet and courteous. My parents were crazy about him. We were never serious because I was focused on becoming a doctor. I didn’t want to go to college clueless about boys, so we fooled around some without going all the way.

“Then he was drafted and sent to Vietnam. He spent nearly three years in Vietnam, and it took a mental toll on him. He was sent to a VA Hospital in Ohio. I haven’t seen him for probably eight years. Oh yeah, his Ward Nurse at the VA was named Carter and based on his letters, she ran a tight ship,” Doctor Bass replied.

Once in the treatment room Nurse Carter cranked up the head of Jerry’s bed until he was sitting up while Doctor Bass reviewed the lab results. Jerry winced from the pain of moving upright but admitted to himself that it was easier to breathe, and he was more comfortable sitting up. Once he was upright Nurse Carter took his blood pressure, pulse and temperature then annotated his chart. After vitals, Carter departed to check on another patient while Doctor Bass decided on a treatment plan.

“Okay, Jerry, here is what we are going to do,” she said,” I’m going to keep you in the ER for a few more hours and your job is to stay awake. Once I’m certain you aren’t suffering from any brain trauma that didn’t show up on the x-ray, we’ll move you up to the ward. You are going to be our guest for a few days.”

Jerry grunted at the news and replied, “I need to let them know at Gainey’s. I don’t want to be fired. I only have two more weeks till I’m a permanent employee.”

“I’ll call Uncle Fred for you, tomorrow and explain what happened,” Lisa volunteered.

After four hours in the ER, Jerry was wheeled up to the six-bed men’s ward on the second floor. There was one other patient on the ward, an older man with a broken femur. Being in an open ward was much different than having a private room at the VA. Although the rules on the ward were much laxer, and at least he wasn’t locked in like at Chillicothe.

The night ward nurse was an older woman with a sunny disposition. She got Jerry as comfortable as possible, gave him something to help him sleep and then left him alone. Even with his aches and pains, Jerry drifted off to sleep around midnight.

Jerry woke up the next morning at the seven o’clock shift change. He felt as if had been run over by a truck ... twice. The day ward nurse, another cheerful middle-aged woman delivered him a Darvon and a cup of ice water. She cranked up his bed and took his vitals and promised him breakfast was coming soon. Doctor Bass breezed in a few minutes later to check on him before her twenty-four-hour break. As an intern she was the low person on the totem pole. She worked seventy-two hours on, and twenty-four hours off.

Doctor Bass reviewed his chart and nodded her head in satisfaction.

“You slept through the night, Mister Donavan. That is excellent. How do you feel this morning?” she asked.

“I hurt all over, Doctor; but I reckon I’ll survive,” he replied.

She gave him a smile and patted him on his blanket covered leg.

“I suspect you will, Mister Donavan, and handily I’ll bet. I’ll call Uncle Fred as soon as I get home and explain everything.”

Jerry thanked her and she departed. He was reflecting on how good it was to see her again, when breakfast arrived. It wasn’t as good as what the truck stop diner served, nor was the service as good as that provided by the voluptuous Brandy, but beggars can’t be choosers. Right after breakfast a cute young candy striper pushed a cart into the ward stacked with books. Jerry snagged the latest Travis McGee novel off the trolley and thanked the bashful candy striper.