Dogtag (completed)

4. treatment

Dei came by regularly to check on her patients in beds 2 and 4. Ramirez in bed 4 recovered quickly and was discharged in 2 days after his surgery to remove the bullet from his shoulder. Faulkerson, in bed 2, was in a more serious state having an IED explode so close to him that it caused shrapnel to lodge in his leg. The explosion also threw him a few yards away, making him land on his arm, which broke on impact.
“A…anong pangalan mo?” Faulkerson asked Dei, who was cleaning his leg wound and changing the dressing.

“Ahh!”

“Sorry po..sorry…”

“O…okay….okay lang….”

Faulkerson gripped on the sheet and arched his back while gritting his teeth.

“…Mendoza…Sir…I’m Lieutenant Dei Mendoza…”

“A…anong first name mo?”

“Dei po, sir…”

“Dei…parang Diyosa…” Faulkerson thought. “…wag mo na ako i-Sir…a…ako si…”

“"...Sergeant Richard Faulkerson, Sir….’Coach’ ang tawag sa ‘yo ng mga kasama mo..” Dei smiled as she adjusted tapes on Richard’s arm.

“Hmm…but...aahhh..” a wave of pain came again.

Dei notices sweat beading on Richard’s face so she gets a small towel to dab it. He holds on to her wrist and grips tightly until the wave of pain passes. “S...sorry…”
Dei nods and smiles. She understands.

“…I’m Richard but please call me Rj…”

“Rj…Sir…magpahinga ka na muna…lunch will be served in an hour…”

“Wag…wag na yung ‘sir’, pwede? Uhm..Dei?”

“Yes?”

“Wag mo ako iwan…please?” He reaches for her hand again.

“Okay…I’ll stay hanggang makatulog ka…”

He nods and closes his eyes. She pulls up a chair and studies his features. Once he is asleep and loosens his grip, Dei leaves to attend to other things.

Several hours later she returns to find Rj with food bits all over his face and clothes. He is propped up in bed but food had gone everywhere.

“S…Rj, anong nangyari?” Dei asks as she approaches him.
Rj lifts his hand, still holding his spoon but it’s trembling. “…t..tulong?” He looks tearfully at her. He’s never wanted or asked for help but he needed to bring his pride down in his current situation.

Dei cleaned him up a bit before feeding him the rest of his lunch. However, when Dei turned to push his table and meal tray away, Rj started coughing and he eventually vomited his food.

“Bakit?” Rj asked as Dei smoothed his blanket. Bits of food and vomit on her scrubs.

“W…wala…” Dei said softly. “…natatakot ako for you..” she thought.

“Sa totoo lang, takot na takot ako…parang mas nakakatakot pa ito sa pakikipaglaban sa bundok…ayoko dito…takot ako sa injection…ayoko ng may nag-aalaga sa akin…I’m a grown man…now, I can’t do anything on my own…I’m scared Dei…” Rj thought to himself as he looked at Dei. She excused herself to clean up and continue with her other tasks.

A check up from the doctors revealed that Rj had some internal injury to his stomach that caused him to vomit his food. A nasogastric tube was immediately inserted.

That evening, as Dei prepared Rj for bed, she noticed that he had a slight temperature and the urine in his catheter bag was slightly tinted red. She reported these to her superior who said that the camp hospital was not fully equipped to handle cases like Rj’s. Orders for immediate transfer were given.

In the middle of the night, Rj’s temperature rose even higher and caused seizures. He was thrashing violently that it woke Villafuerte who was in the next bed.

“Coach? Coach!"

“HHHNNGGGHHH!!!”

“NURSE! NURSE! DOC!”

“Seizure!”

“Remove all pillows and blankets…relax, Faulkerson…”

“Fever…103.8…Sir, his urine has blood…”

Rj started to drool as the seizure passed. Soon, he began coughing violently again and caused more vomiting. By the time the staff had treated and cared for Rj, he was completely naked on his bed.

“…if the chopper is ready…”

Rj was immediately airlifted from the camp hospital to Reyes Military Hospital. He was unconscious and needed immediate surgery on his leg. It was now severely infected and needed to be amputated. This was done at Reyes when his fever was managed, 2 days after he was airlifted from Camp Sikatuna.