F | I'll stand by you (One Chicago)

Chapter One

Emily Doherty and Leigha Martin attend Central Chicago Academy (CCA), a small boarding school for girls on the campus of Central Chicago University, with only 300 students. Emily and Leigha are just finishing their last class for the day, English Language when Emily gets a wave of dizziness. She puts her pen down and takes a deep breath to try and stop the dizziness. 'Are you OK?' Leigha asks, who is sitting next to her. 

'Yeah.' Emily nods. 

'Are you sure? You look pale.' 

'I'm fine.' Emily tells her, as they pack their books and stationery back into their bag and stand up. 

'Seriously Em, you don't look right.' Leigha says, concerned. The teacher then dismisses the class of 22. Before Emily can move, she passes out, banging her head on the corner of a table of her way down. 'Emily!' Leigha exclaims. Everyone turns to see Emily on the floor and Leigha kneeling beside her, trying to get Emily out of her unconscious state. 

'Go to the main office, get them to call an ambulance.' The teacher, Mr David Shakespeare, tells one of the students, they nod and does as they are told. Mr Shakespeare then joins Leigha. As soon as he does, Emily opens her eyes and goes to move but Mr Shakespeare stops her. 'Stay still, Emily. You've hit your head quite badly.' 

'I'm fine.' Emily insists, trying to stand up but both Leigha and Mr Shakespeare stops her.

Meanwhile at firehouse 51...

Ambulance 61. Female down. Central Chicago Academy.

Gabby and Sylvie stop what they're doing, run out to the ambulance, get in and Gabby starts the drive to the school. Within a few minutes, they arrive. One of the schools administrators meets them and takes them to the classroom. By now, the rest of the class, including Leigha, has made their way to their next class.

They walk into the room and see Emily still on the floor. They kneel down beside her and David steps back. 'Hi there, my name's Sylvie, this is Gabby.' Sylvie says. 'Can you tell us your name?'

'Emily Doherty.' Emily says, still still a little bit groggy.

'What happened here Emily?' Gabby asks.

'She collapsed and hit on her head on the table on the way down.' David tells them.

'It's really important that Emily answers our questions.' Gabby informs him. 'Emily, does your neck hurt at all?'

'No.' Emily replies. Gabby then fells the Base of her neck to check for tenderness.

'We're going to sit you up gently.' Gabby says, helping Emily sit up. Sylvie hands her a gauze pad and she puts it on the wound. 'Hold that there.' Emily smiles and does so. 'We'll get you checked over properly in the ambulance.'

When they arrive at Med, Dr Halstead meets them. 'Emily Doherty, 16, collapsed and hit her head on the corner of a table and a result, she's got a nasty laceration to the forehead. Pulse is tachy at 160, SATs are 98, BP 110/80 temp is 104 and GCS has been 15 throughout. She was unconscious for a minute or two after hitting the floor. We cleared the neck on scene.' Gabby does the handover as they wheel Emily into the treatment room and help her over to the bed. Before Gabby and Sylvie leave, they pull Will aside. Whilst they do that, April hooks her up to the machines. 'As we were loading her into the ambo, one of her teachers mentioned that she's recovering from anorexia.'

'Thanks.' Will smiles. He then puts a pair of gloves on and walks to the bedside. 'Hi Emily. I'm going to be looking after you today.' Will introduces himself. 'Since the incident, have you had any dizziness, nausea or a headache?' He asks as he shines the pen torch in her eyes. 

'No.' She shakes her head. Will then puts the pen torch back in his pocket. 'Let me guess, when the paramedics pulled you aside they told you that I am recovering from anorexia.' Emily sighs and he nods. 'I can tell you now, what happened today has nothing to do with not eating.'

'I didn't say it did.' Will shakes his head. 'And I definitely didn't think so either.'  

'Sorry, it's just- it's just, whenever I'm taken into hospital and the doctors hear the word, anorexia, they always ask if I've been eating.' Emily apologises. 'I haven't been feeling well for a few weeks.' 

'What do you mean by that?' Will questions. 

'Dizzy spells, stomach pains, chest pains, feeling like my heart is beating out of my chest. Please don't say it's probably anxiety because  I have anxiety and this, this feels completely different.'  Emily tells him whilst April re-checks her temperature. 

'Temp is still 104.' April informs Will. 

'Shortness of breath?' Will asks and Emily nods. 'April, before we go any further can we get a head CT as a precaution and take a basic blood panel?' April nods and walks out to organize the tests. He then notices that she's started to wheeze. 'Emily, I'm going to listen to your chest.' She nods and he listens to her chest with his stethoscope. Once he's finished, her puts his stethoscope in his pocket. 'Emily, you've got a slight wheeze and some muffled heart sounds so I am also going to send you for a chest x-ray and call for a cardiothoracic consult.' He informs her. She then coughs, and Will realizes that it's dry. 'How long have you had that cough?' 

'A few days.' 

'Right, can you take me back to before you started feeling ill? What were you doing?' Will queries. 

'I work part time as a lifeguard at a small leisure centre. It was my turn to tidy away and lock up. I slipped and fall into the pool, I banged my chest off of something.  A few days later, I started feeling unwell.' Emily explains. 'I thought it was normal and returned to work after four days.' 

'You have pneumonia. It most likely isn't related to the fall you had. Instead of calling for a CT consult, we're going to transfer you there after your CT scan and once we've sorted out your head wound.' Will diagnoses. 

'Will I need stitches?' 

'Most likely, yes.' Will nods. 

After half an hour, Emily's CT has come back clear and Will has sutured the wound. Some porters arrive with Dr Rhodes to take her up to the cardiothoracic ward. 'Hi Emily, I'm Dr Connor  Rhodes, I'll be overseeing your care on our cardiothoracic ward. We're going to do some tests to find out why you collapsed. I already have a theory. I'll explain on the ward.' Connor explains.

As soon as they get in the lift, Emily starts to crash. 'She's crashing!' A nurse tells him. Connor looks at Emily who is slowly loosing consciousness and then at the screen. 

'She's in V-fib!' Connor exclaims before starting CPR. Just then the lift stops, the lights go out and an alarm blares. 'What the hell?'