Sophie's Path Read Free Page B

his bedside. She flung back the curtain and said, “I want to help you, but I have to go to her.”
    Jack reached out his aching arm to Sophie and motioned her away. “Save her, Sophie. Save her.”

CHAPTER THREE
    S OPHIE RUSHED AROUND the nurse’s station to the ER bay on the opposite side. Bart Greyson, an RN with a decade of ER experience, had just gone in there with a stainless steel defibrillator cart.
    Bart ran the ER with an iron fist and more stamina than the entire staff combined. He could pull over forty-eight hours on duty with only a half dozen, ten-minute catnaps while sitting at his computer. Bart had brains, insight and skill...and a case of Red Bull in his locker. He was a legend at Indian Lake. No one second-guessed Bart or his orders.
    â€œYou’re the first of the cardiac team here,” Bart said to Sophie as he shoved a medical chart into her hands.
    â€œDr. Barzonni is on call?” Sophie asked, never taking her eyes from her patient.
    â€œI just got word he’s upstairs with an emergency surgery. We’ve paged Dr. Caldwell. I left a message at the nurse’s station, as well. I don’t know who will show up,” Bart replied with a huff of exhaustion. He stuck his hands on his hips. “Figures. It’s a full moon. It’s always an asylum here during a full moon.”
    Sophie gently lifted Aleah’s eyelid and examined her. “I heard her scream but she’s unconscious,” Sophie observed.
    â€œShe was unconscious on arrival and except for that one time, she’s been unresponsive.”
    Sophie turned to the defibrillator. “She’s in arrest?”
    â€œNo. Arrhythmia. The Code Blue was for the other victim. Dr. Hill had to leave Aleah and see to the John Doe. He was the driver of the other car. The cops are working on getting an ID for us.”
    Sophie had worked with Dr. Eric Hill nearly every weekend since she’d begun her ER duties six months ago.
    Dr. Hill was five years past his internship and residency at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. He’d told Sophie that in those five years, he felt he’d seen everything emergency medicine could throw at a person. He’d come to Indian Lake for a change of pace. Well, he’d gotten it. Unless there was a major accident like this one, most weekends in the ER were run-of-the-mill household accidents—falls or injuries with tools—and relatively minor illnesses where the patients or their parents didn’t have medical insurance.
    Sophie watched Dr. Hill and three nurses work on a tall, overweight man in the next bay. He appeared to be in his late thirties. “He’s hardly got a scratch.”
    â€œDrug overdose. Cops said he had heroin in the car with him and as the paramedics were tending to the three other victims, he shot up.”
    â€œHow are they bringing him down?”
    â€œParamedics gave him naloxone on site. Nasal spray was all they had. They didn’t get to him right away because he didn’t seem injured, just confused. It wasn’t until he dropped to his knees and passed out that they noticed the dilated pupils and white patches on his mouth. Once they got him here, we gave him more naloxone by injection. What a mess.” Bart shook his head but continued to work.
    Sophie scanned Aleah’s reed-thin, very still body while two other members of the ER team hurried in to assist. Donna Jessup was one of Sophie’s coworkers on Dr. Caldwell’s team and worked one weekend a month in the ER. With her was Rob Seymore, a lab technician who quickly began drawing blood for the usual tests.
    Aleah’s brown hair was matted to her head with glass and blood, much like Jack’s had been. She was still in her street clothes, though her blouse had been cut away and twelve electrodes had been placed on her chest.
    â€œDonna, did you run an EKG yet?” Sophie asked.
    â€œWe had another cardiac patient just after