Doctor's Order

Chapter 4

Maine then headed for the nurses' station. She come across an elderly nurse to whom she was to report to. Nurse Rodriguez then led her down the corridor.

"Dr. De Leon directed me that I'll be on call for the next 36 hours, do all residents work those hours?"

"Only on the first 3 years." Nurse Rodriguez assured her.

Great. That's good. She thought.

"But you'll get plenty of rest, doctor."

"Really?"

Nurse Rodriguez, stopped in front of a door and turned the knob before speaking again. "This is the on-call room. She proceeded to enter and Maine followed her. You can sleep in here between calls."

Maine surveyed the room and she felt like the room was so rundown like an old house about to be condemned. The bed was already old and lumpy. The side have a small door which she thinks is the bathroom and on the side of the bed is a table with telephone on it.

"Either you will be paged thru the PA system or will be called thru this phone if there is a need for a doctor." The nurse said.

"Okay. Thank you."

"You're welcome." And with that the nurse left her.

Maine then decided to go to the cafeteria to get her dinner. She have not yet eaten half of what she bought when she heard her name on the PA system.

"Dr. Mendoza... ER three..... Dr. Mendoza.... ER three"

She then proceeded to the ER leaving her dinner half eaten.

The same thing happened until around 11PM. Her name was being called thru the PA system. He goes from one ER to another, left to right and back again. It seems like all sorts of injuries happened that night that at around 11.30 PM, Maine was so exhausted when she arrived at the on-call room. When she arrived, she just collapsed on the bed and fell asleep.

At around 1AM, the telephone beside Maine sounded. She reached for it and before she can answer a voice on the other end spoke, "Dr. we have a patient here at ER one."

"Okay, I will be there." She was still sleepy but she pulled herself together and went her way.

She came back to the on-call room at around 1:30AM, and was partly drowsing off. At exactly 2:30AM the phone again rang and she was requested to proceed to the ER.

When she reached the ER, she was directed to a patient who has a deep cut on his arm, she needs to repair it after cleaning. She haven't finished directing the nurse on how to clean the wound when she heard another page asking her to proceed to another ER room. She then proceeded to the other room and saw that there is a patient having a hard time breathing.

"He can't breathe." The nurse said "The patient vomited, aspirated and was choking."

"Suction him." Maine ordered. After a minute, she saw that the patient is now catching his breath. She then heard her name being called on the paging system.

"Dr. Mendoza.... Ward 3 please.... Ward 3 please...."

Maine run down towards Ward 3 and saw a screaming patient due to abdominal pain. She immediately approached the patient and started examining her. It could be her appendix. "Get me an ultrasound." She directed the nurse.

While attending at another patient, another call was made to the PA system directing her to the ER. She have been called to different emergencies for the past couple of hours. She must not panic. She said to herself. She didn't know who to attend to first as all of the nurses were trying to ask for her attention.

When finally, she was able to settle everything down, she went back to the on-call room and was about to take a breather when she was again called thru the PA system. That one final page have kept her all night either at the ER or in the ward. When she walked back to the on-call room at 4:45AM, she was just dozing off due to exhausting when the phone beside her.

"Hello..." she answered it.

"Dr. Mendoza, we are waiting for you." The voice on the other line said.

"What? Who's this?" she said groggily.

"Your rounds are starting doctor." The other voice said.

"My rounds?" this is just a joke right Maine thought. They can't do this to them. No one can work like this. But then they were waiting for her.

Ten minutes later, Maine was doing the rounds half asleep. She then stumbled to Dr. Ejercito and mumbled "Sorry, I haven't had any sleep..."

He patted her shoulder and was very sympathetic, he then said "You'll get use to it."

When Maine finally got off her duty, she slept 15 hours straight. She had collapsed on her bed that she didn't even had the strength to change her clothes.

The intense pressure and punishing working hours proved to be too much of some of the residents. Some simply dropped out of the program, while the others just simply disappeared from the hospital.

That's not going to happen to me, Maine vowed to herself.

Three days later, Maine was having breakfast with Valeen.

"I have a confession to make." Maine said.

"Sometimes, when I wake up at 4AM to give somebody some aspirin or something else and I happen to pass by the ward that is quiet and everyone is resting, I have this urge to bang the doors and yell, 'Everybody wake up'."

"Hahahaha...." Valeen extended her hand and said "Welcome to the club!"

The patients comes in all sizes, shapes, age and color. Some were frightened, brave, arrogant, know-it-all, demanding, and considerate and blabbers. But one this is common on all of them, and that is they are all in pain.