Chapter 47: Crash Team

Anaphylactic shock is a terrifying condition. The symptoms are extreme. The onset is rapid. The outcome can be fatal.

The Doc and I had planned the scenario carefully. She dosed Rachel's meal with the cocktail of drugs that she'd calculated would replicate the symptoms while I distracted the guard that was about to take it in to her. We wanted his response to be genuine.

The symptoms started to appear very shortly after she started eating. The guard hit the panic button when it became obvious that she was having a problem. I arrived with the Doc to find her clutching at her throat with one hand and her belly with the other. The Doc took her pulse. "It's racing like anything," she said. Rachel was coughing saying she couldn't swallow, that she had cramping pains in her stomach, that she was finding it hard to breath. She lost control of her bowels. She was groaning in a mixture of pain and terror, staring wildly around her trying to understand what was happening to her.

"Help me, I'm dying," she gasped. "It's all going — awwkkgh — so black. I can't..."

The Doc turned to the guard. "Get my bag," she said, "Quickly! It's in my office."

"I'm not supposed to leave her," he said.

"Do it, or you'll have to explain to Clegg why we've lost her," she barked. Sheepishly the guard padded off.

"What do you think's happening?" I said.

"It looks like anaphylactic shock," the Doc said. "I need to give her adrenalin." Rachel was clutching at the Doctors arm, choking and looking wild eyed in terror.

Rachel passed out before the Guard got back. The Doc grabbed her bag and grabbed a hypodermic, using it to administer supposedly, adrenalin, actually a glucose solution that would do no further harm. But then neither the Guard nor Rachel knew that the effect of the drugs would wear off quite quickly anyway.

She recovered in the Prep Centre's clinic, laying on a bed, a glucose drip in her arm, an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose and with me holding her hand.

She peered weakly at me. Muttering from behind the oxygen mask, "Whha ... what happened? Where am I?"

"Shh," I said, "don't try to talk. You've had a bad attack. The Doctor will be here in a minute."

She pulled her hand away from me. "Why are you here?" I didn't try to take it back.

"I was worried about you, Rachel." That at least was true. I'd really been concerned that she was going to die even though I'd known that it wasn't likely. I guess I hadn't wanted the horse to die so soon in the exercise. "But rest now. I'm sure you'll be all right."

The Doc appeared. "Ah, she's recovered consciousness," she said. "How are you feeling?"

"Weak," said Rachel, quietly. "But the pains have gone, I can breath again."

"The adrenalin worked."

"Why? What was it? I thought I was going to die?"

"You might very well have done. I shan't know for certain until I get the results of the blood tests but it looks like an anaphylactic episode. Are you allergic to anything? Nuts for example?"

"Nuh, no, I don't think so."

"It's just that it's a common cause of this sort of reaction. But yes, you could have died. Anaphylactic shock can kill. Extremely low blood pressure, breathing failure. They can be fatal."

Rachel tried to lift herself up, but fell weakly back. "I'm not tied or chained," she said.

"No," said the Doctor. "But you'll feel too weak to go anywhere. Just rest for now. Get your strength back."

She still had her collar on, of course. She wouldn't be going anywhere even if she did feel able to but it suited us for her to feel that she was being trusted. "I'll let you rest Rachel," I said. "Don't worry about anything, I'll see you later."

I looked in on the medical centre later. She was asleep. The Doc had given her a mild sedative. She'd been happy to have it administered. It was the first time she hadn't fought us about something.

The following morning she was sitting up in bed, wearing a white patient's robe and looking a whole lot perkier. She still had a drip in her arm. She was hooked up to a blinking and beeping ECG machine. What she didn't know was that the readings weren't always real. It's surprising how ill you can suddenly feel if a machine tells you your heart rate has risen and your blood pressure has dropped.