Читать онлайн «Tunnel Vision»
Автор Гэри Брейвер
IN MEMORY OF ROBERT B. PARKER.
I MISS YOU, OLD FRIEND.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Several people have helped me with technical matters in the writing of this book, and I would like to thank them for their generous time and expertise: Dr. James Stellar, provost of Queens College; Dr. James F. English, Mount Auburn Hospital, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Karen Zoeller, R. N. , Massachusetts General Hospital. Thanks also to Cathie Gould for her insights on spirituality.
One book that was indispensable in writing this novel is
Also, a special thanks to Kathy, Nathan, and “Diamond Dave” Goshgarian, my ace in the hole.
As ever, thanks to my editor, Natalia Aponte, and my faithful agent, Susan Crawford.
—MARK 9:24
PROLOGUE
THREE YEARS AGO
PLYMOUTH, MA
Karen Wells was at the computer behind the ER desk at Jordan Hospital when a call arrived in from an ambulance unit. It was nearly three A. M. , and EMTs were bringing in an unidentified male about fifty years of age with minimal vital signs, possible cardiac arrest. She alerted the other nurses, the on-duty physician, Dr. Brian Kennedy, and two residents. They readied an empty cubicle specially equipped for cardiac patients.
It had otherwise been a slow night—a couple of victims of minor accidents, a drug overdose, a sprained foot, an elderly woman being treated for acute diarrhea—atypical for a Saturday night in spring. Just two weeks ago the place was bedlam, with a packed waiting room and patients from infants to seniors in various states of distress.
The ward was so quiet, it was almost spooky. So the possible cardiac would get fast and full attention.Within seven minutes of the call, two paramedics burst into the ER with a man unconscious on a stretcher in full CPR mode. They rolled him into the bay, where the resuscitation team transferred him to a bed, intubated him in seconds, and wired his chest to an EKG machine.
“Come on, guy. Hang in there,” the EMT said, still performing CPR.
Karen hooked him up to a blood pressure cuff while another nurse inserted an IV to his arm. “Shit. Seventy over palp. ”
“I can’t get a pulse,” said Barbara, another nurse.
The EKG showed agonal rhythm—slow, irregular complexes often seen as the heart dies.
“Come back to me, buddy!” the EMT shouted.
“Paddles!” Dr. Kennedy said.
Instantly, they slammed his chest with four thousand volts. The body lurched upward, but still no regular heartbeat, no pulse. Nothing.
They continued pumping and paddling the man until it was clear they could get no electromechanical activity at all. Dr. Kennedy then jammed a cardiac needle of epinephrine between the man’s third and fourth rib and directly into the heart. No response.
They continued the CPR, and the doctor called for another intercardiac injection. Karen pushed a second needle back into the right ventricle of the man’s heart and depressed the plunger, sending another bolt of epinephrine into him.
