I had just finished a simple sutures procedure to close a wound on a young man. I was obviously impressed with his stoicism, but there was another side of him that concerned me.
The suturing was just a simple cut but deep enough to require stitches. The young man was tall, strapping and broad shouldered; the kind of man who used his size to his advantage. He'd come in with a few other facial injuries which I cleaned and stitched. I pulled out a handful of revolvers from the man's pack and placed them on the table where I could see them. Then I carefully sewed the little wound closed. I finished the suturing and moved the revolver from its hiding place.
This man's injury was a little more serious, but much less so than most. As I saw him sit down and start to remove his shirt, I knew that he was in good hands.
"Let's check out those other wounds first, shall we?" and I busied myself with the first suturing to his stomach and began to prepare the medications to heal him.
After the pills, gauze and the other first aid items I needed, I moved back over to my black bag on the counter and pulled out a pair of scissors. I cut the shirt out at the collar and tugged the rest of the fabric from the man's shoulder. With that gone, I could see more of the injuries. The large gashes on his shoulder and shoulder blade were from a blade at least one inch thick and only a few centimeters in blade length. The deep cuts across the front of his torso were a clear sign of his force pulling the blade out of his flesh. The swords and whips didn't come close to cutting him. The cuts weren't deep enough and just went a few centimeters into his flesh, causing only a few bleeding spots here and there.
I asked him about the cause of the injuries. He said that there was some trouble on the road and he was waylaid by a group of bad people. As a result of a conflict between the two groups, he was caught in the middle. ''I was just minding my own business and this group came out of nowhere and started to attack me. I don't know what it's about, and quite frankly I don't know why I was attacked. I didn't even know them. I just kept away from the situation and they took care of the rest.''
I checked his wound and observed the man's fair complexion pinking slightly in the wound. The bleeding had stopped but the two were obviously infected. I knew I was in trouble, if the infection was not controlled. His wounds looked fairly clean, which translated to they hadn't been infected before they were cut. I knew we would need a few antibiotics from the pharmacy. The man might have been in danger without them, but I was sure that he was not infected.
''I intend to make sure that you come through this with no complications, and when I do I am going to get you fixed up as good as new! With that celebration done tonight, I'll head home for a nap, and then I'll go to the pharmacy. I should be back by the time you wake up tomorrow. If you show signs of infection, call me. Not that you'll need to, but in case of emergency.
I gave him a quick look over and was happy to see that I had nothing to worry about in that area.
I took a look at his wounds, then glanced at the two revolvers. I took note of the fact that this man had even more firearms than I would expect to see. I didn't count them but over a dozen. A man who can carry so many guns usually has an agenda. I gave him a quick once over as I settled my bag and walked out of the room.
I spent the rest of the day in the back of the pharmacy, finding some antibiotics to help the flora pathogens. I found a fairly new set of gauze, iodine, and other items we would need to make each of his wounds as good as new. I worked well into the night. I finished helping the man with his second wound then went home and took a nap. I was going to need a lot of sleep after this and given the circumstances.
I didn't even make it home before the phone rang. ''Dr. Curtis, you'd better get right over here. Someone is in trouble. This man is unresponsive.''
My tired eyes darted to the clock and it was nearly midnight. What could have happened? As I reached the hospital, I saw my driver waiting by the car. I turned to him and nodded towards the emergency room doors to indicate I was already heading in. ''I'll catch you up quick'' I said, as I pressed the button to open the doors.
When I got in I saw everything set up to save a man in trouble. I knew that this was where it was probably going to start. I saw the monitor hooked up to the monitors, luckily I had the right equipment and supplies on hand. It would be an important step. I was thankful that I kept an extra set of gauze on hand for this use. I didn't even have time to make an appointment to see the man I was going to save. If I hadn't been so tired I would have been overcome with fear. I made small talk and checked his pulse. Then he looked up at me. His pupils were dilated and he was starting to bleed a little. He had a round eye and I could tell he was high. I called in the nurse and she performed an electro-cardiogram on him while I checked his pupil. It was only a little wider than normal and the ekg was normal.
I was not only found to be wrong in my judgement, but also in my assumptions. He was high on heroin. I checked his pulse again and he had faint pulses. He was definitely hypotensive, I looked up at the nurse and smiled, which I immediately killed. ''Time to get ready.''
The nurse nodded, then unplugged the ekg and prepared the medication. The man was going to have a bad time of it, but he was going to make it. He was going to be fine. When the meds had had enough time to take effect, I was ready to perform surgery.
I wasn't particularly excited about the prospect of performing the surgery at this late hour, but it was the right thing to do. He was a good man and it was the right thing to do. I made sure to calm him down, I needed to be prepared for anything. A rookie mistake had caused him to end up in this position. He was a cop, a detective and a friend. So that meant that I knew he needed better and we had it.
I assured him that I was going to fix him up and he was going to be back to normal as soon as I could get him out of here. I grabbed the wide container of antibiotics, syringed them in and then started the surgery. We both knew that he would not be putting his head on a swivel to get off the drugs I gave him. He was going to be out of it when he left here and he would stay out of it for a long time. It was going to be tricky, but I had a lot of drugs on hand that I cured women with menopause with. He was going to be just fine. I would have to track down his contacts and warn them.
''Officer Kline, wake up.'' I smiled as he looked up at me. When he saw me, he smiled. ''Time to head back to the station.''