divulgence // luke hemmings au

38

Luke was asleep in the break room when his pager was going crazy, prompting Sierra to shake him awake. He freaked out at first.

"Hey! What! Who?"

"Luke there's a big pediatric emergency we have to go to the NICU like right now!"

Luke panicked because she startled him "wait I'm okay you're okay"

"What cmon on let's go!"

"I thought there was an earthquake" Luke mumbled as Sierra pulled him by the arm down the hallway. "You dozed off Luke there was no earthquake"

Sierra ran in front of him pulling luke by the arm and he was trying to keep up, seconds later they abruptly stopped because doctors, nurses, a parent and a baby being wheeled in the tiniest cot was now in front of them. "What's the emergency doc?" Sierra spoke up very concernedly.

"Baby Grayson here is a thirty six week gestation baby boy born minutes ago.. he's having respiratory distress and needs to go to intensive care right now" the on call doctor explained and started wheeling the baby and Luke and Sierra were now jogging along side everyone and the newborn.

"What are his vitals?" Luke asked as they approached the entrance of the neonatal intensive care unit. "Heart rate is 58, BP is 92 over 45 and his 02 stats are 86 percent."

"Quick we gotta get him on oxygen!" Luke exclaimed as they went through the doorway , Sierra scrambled getting supplies and Luke took his stethoscope his neck and put them in his ears he leaned over to listen to the baby's chest. "Doc what do you think the problem is?" Luke questioned as he listened to the baby's lungs.

"The baby's lungs are most likely underdeveloped go ahead and give him a steroid injection"

"Are you the father?" Luke turned his body now looking at a man standing next to the doctor. "Yes! Yes! My wife is downstairs in labor and delivery right now"

"Okay, do you give us consent to do whatever we need to do to ensure your baby's survival?"

"Yes, of course! Save Grayson!"

"Sierra hand me the smallest prefilled syringe of steroids please" Sierra reached into a nearby drawer as Luke used an alcohol pad to clean a spot on the newborns leg. Sierra gave him the medication where he ripped the cap off with his teeth and the baby let out an intensely painful cry. "So sorry" Luke whispered feeling bad, rubbing the spot with his finger in attempt to calm down the infant and to ensure that the medicine works quickly.

At first it looked like it was working to open up the baby's lungs to help him breathe better but then the shortness of breath got worse.

"Give him more!" The on call doctor screeched, Luke put his hand up to get the doctor to shut up for a minute. Luke watched the baby, the baby's skin was greyish and his lips had a blue tint. "Hey wait a second!" Luke raised his voice to listen to the baby's chest again, "doc you're wrong, it's not his lungs! It's his heart!"

"Sierra you gotta intubate, and doc you need to page cardiology!"

"What?" The doctor was confused and at a loss of words. "How are you able to determine it's his heart all within five minutes?"

Luke and the on call Dr Lenny were going back and forth as Sierra went ahead and intubated baby Grayson pushing additional medications as well.

"Because I've gone through it all with my own kids, with myself.. I seen a lot of this kinds of stuff when I was a medic"

"It can't be his heart!" Dr Lenny yelled trying to argue with Luke.

"Why can't it be? Heart issues are common in baby's who aren't born at full term.. he has all the classic signs, crap vitals, breathing worse with lung meds, skin not the normal color and plus I was able to hear abnormal heart sounds when I listened to his chest two minutes ago. Page cardiology, I can tell you never worked pediatrics a day in your life."