Thirteen West Read Free Page A

gloves. "You can apply the dressing," he told Alma . "Take the sutures out in seven days if it looks healed. Did you give him tetanus toxoid?"
    "Not yet, Doctor. He wasn't able to tell us if he'd ever been immunized against tetanus."
    "Go ahead with the toxoid—we'll assume he has been. Looks like a clean wound, he shouldn't need antibiotics."
    "Can I have an order for restraints?" Alma asked. "And for more Thorazine if he needs it?"
    "Where's his chart?"
    "I only have a partial ready but here's the doctor's order sheet."
    "The man who brought him in, Mr. Ron Morris, is waiting in the lounge," Frank said. "He can give you a history. Mr. Benning is a voluntary admit. He signed preliminary papers on the outside—we have copies."
    Crawford waved a hand. "They can take care of all those details on the day shift."
    "Do you want to talk to the brother-in-law?"
    "I suppose I'll have to. Send him into the office." Crawford took the chart papers Alma handed him and walked across the hall to unlock a door labeled: Physician.
    "Dolph was always kinda odd," Ron said when he was seated on the other side of the desk from the doctor. Crawford looked with distaste at the red-faced stout man with the wrinkled pants. A mingled odor of stale whiskey and sweat emanated from Mr. Morris.
    "He used to drink a lot and that made him really dingy. He got to thinking someone was after him. With knives. You know?"
    Crawford nodded wearily.
    "So then he'd get violent and have to be locked up in jail. Some judge had Vera—that's my sister—put him in a state hospital up north near where they used to live. After they let him out and he and Vera moved down here, he lost the pills he was supposed to take. Then he fell off the wagon and the booze got him to acting up again."
    "How old is he?" Crawford asked.
    "Thirty-six."
    My age, Crawford thought. I've lived thirty-six years and got a damn expensive education so I could sit in a room that stinks of sweat and listen to a moron rattle on about his schizy relative.
    "You won't let him out without he's okay, will you?" Ron asked. "Me and Vera can't take much more of this crazy stuff."
    "We'll take care of him," Crawford said automatically. People never seemed to understand their afflicted relatives never would be "okay." If this Dolph stayed on Thorazine or some other tranquilizer and off the booze he might be able to function outside. But who was going to make him do either once he left the hospital?
    "Think I oughta look in on Dolph before I leave?" Ron asked. "Sort of say goodbye?"
    "He's asleep," Crawford said. "We had to give him something to stitch up that hand."
    "Yeah, I heard him yelling."
    "You can be sure we'll take care of everything, Mr. Morris."
    Ron stood up, hesitating, as though he wanted to say more.
    Crawford, who'd already heard more than he wanted to about the new patient, rose, came around the desk and opened the door. Spotting a passing psych tech he vaguely remembered as David, he motioned to him, saying, "Please show Mr. Morris out, will you?"
    As Ron followed the P.T., Crawford heard him ask the man whether the hospital checked out the patient's belongings. "We go through everything," the tech told him. "You never know what a patient will take it in his head to do. We had one woman who ate her X-ray film when she was left alone in the treatment room."
    Crawford remembered that incident. Naturally he'd been on call—he always got the weird ones. She wound up being operated on to get the damn film out.
    He waited until the relative was well on his way before letting himself out.
     
    * * *
     
    Once he'd done what the doc asked, David Boyer took his break. Things were quiet now. The rain seemed to calm everyone down, he'd noticed—unless you were working on one of the outer west wards after a week of rain when you couldn't let the patients out into the exercise yard. Knock on wood, he wouldn't ever get transferred back there again.
    He entered the lounge where the other tech,