Matters of the Heart

Chapter 27

It was an unusually slow day in the Emergency Department at Rush University Medical Center. Cardiacthorasic specialist and surgeon Dr. Ryan Tenney did not like slow days in the ED. Because slow days always turned into so much more. It's what most ED physicians especially him and his favorite colleague Abbey Cooper now Soffer always called it The Calm before the storm. And today was one of those days, especially in the middle of another covid resurgence it was unusually and eerily quiet. He was waiting for the dam to break, so to speak. Suddenly a nurse at the nurses station held up a phone

"Dr Tenney, dispatch is on the phone for you, they asked for you specifically and say it's extremely urgent"

And here we go. Ryan thought as he grabbed the phone.

"This is Dr Tenney"

"Dr Tenney this is Laura Kennedy at Chicago EMS Dispatch. We just recieved a call from Dr Abigail Soffer, and we have paramedics enroute to her residence as we speak..."

Ryan paled. He knew this wasn't going to be good. He was supposed to operate on Jesse tomorrow, less than 24 hours.

"The patient is her husband, Jesse?"

"Yes he's experiencing an emergency cardiac event"

"Yes he had aortic regurgitation, he's scheduled for an aortic valve repair tomorrow morning"

"Yes she mentioned that"

"What is it? Is it a suspected MI?"

"No she confirmed that an EKG was negative for MI. But he is showing all possible signs and symptons of a ruptured Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm and internal bleeding. He developed immediate severe abdominal bruising and an abdominal pulsation was detected. "

Damn It.

"Is he conscious?"

"Dr Soffer mentioned he was in and out of conciousness. Now obviously Saint Joseph would be the closest hospital from their residence but she was adamant he be taken to Rush University since you are his physician"

"Yes he needs to be brought here"

"Ok she mentioned he is A negative.But our paramedics carry the universal blood types on board. They have O positive and o negative"

"Yes I will start gathering units of blood. Please relay to your paramedics to begin administering O negative en route to the hospital. And I will secure an OR for their arrival"