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I’m Right Here
“You are not using restraints on him,” Felinus told the nurse as he turned his attention back to the man. He felt a small satisfaction when he leaned away from Felinus but he held his ground in front of the door; keeping Felinus in the hallway. “Get out of my way, now.”
“Jose, go back to your rounds,” a woman in a white coat said, patting the man on the shoulder. She was taller than most women, her hair pulled back in a simple braid.
“Are you sure, Doc,” Jose said, looking Felinus up and down.
“He’s not going to give us any trouble, are you- Felinus, was it?” She looked him up and down as well.
“Correct,” he said, looking at her then at the nurse. “And no, not so long as you stop upsetting Issac.”
“No one wants to upset him,” she said, giving Jose a little push. “I’d like to avoid having to use restraints as well, but he woke up and tried to pull out his IVs and I can’t have him doing that either.”
Jose sighed and walked out of the door; two more nurses, a man and a woman, slipped out as well. The doctor pulled the chart from the door, still blocking entrance to the room.
Felinus suppressed a growl as she flicked through the papers, glancing over her head to see Issac alone in the room, looking pale and small as he slept with tubes and wires all over him.
“This says there is no next of kin or emergency contact,” she said after a few moments, flicking one sheet back and forth. “But that vital medical history was provided by an unknown person?”
“That was me,” he said, gritting his teeth. “And I am his emergency contact. I tried explaining that to the nurse at the desk but she just kept telling me only family was permitted to know anything. His primary doctor can verify who I am.”
She looked up at him with a frown and flicked back through the papers again. “There’s no primary doctor listed here.”
“It didn’t seem as important to give her business card with his collapsed lungs and all the internal bleeding,” Felinus replied. “I had assumed I would be able to give that information once I moved my car from the ambulance parking, but again, I was told that only family was allowed and nothing else I said was listened to.”
She grimaced. “I’m sorry, I’ll have someone bring you a complaint form to fill out. Patient confidentiality is important but not when it inhibits information we may need for patient care.” She held out her hand. “I’ll call his doctor to confirm who you are and what information and insight he can give us about his condition.”
“She,” Felinus corrected, taking the card out of his wallet and glancing to the room.
“She,” the doctor repeated, smiling slightly as she looked at the card and nodded. “While I do that, will you please go tell the dozen scary men out in my waiting room to go home?” She glanced up at him when he didn’t answer, his eyes still fixed on Issac. “He’ll be asleep for a few hours. He won’t know that you were gone for ten minutes, and they are making people nervous sitting out there.”
“And how can I be sure that I’m not going to be prevented from coming back?” Felinus asked, not looking away from Issac.
The doctor sighed and looked past him to where Jose was doing his best impression of working while his eyes darted over to them constantly. “Jose, will you please follow Mr. Felinus and let everyone know that he is allowed to come back to sit with his…” she glanced at Felinus, then back at Jose, “with Issac.” She turned back to Felinus. “If I find out that you haven’t been honest with me,” she said calmly, “I will have security remove you and you will be banned from the hospital. But I’m going to trust that at the very least you can keep him from thrashing around like that again.”
Felinus studied her for a moment then nodded, giving the room one more look before going back to the waiting room to tell the anxious men to go home.
Ten minutes later, Felinus sat next to Issac’s bed holding his cold, limp hand as he watched his slow breathing.
“Thank you,” the doctor said, standing at the foot of the bed. “They were making people nervous.”
“I would be lying if I said that wasn’t the idea,” Felinus said softly, not looking away from Issac. “But they also wanted to be close when he wakes up.”
“Well, if I can be blunt, it will be quite a while before he’s in any state to know he has visitors,” she said, stepping around the bed and pulling a chair to sit facing Felinus. “I spoke with Dr. Najjar. She said that she has only been his doctor for a week?”
Felinus nodded, still keeping his eyes on Issac’s face.
“Do you have any medical history before that? Any family history, maybe?”
“No,” Felinus said softly. “His parents died when he was quite young and… He’s been on his own since then. Our… relationship is very new.”
“Najjar said that you were the one who brought him in to see her,” she said, studying him. “Something about finding out why he looked so unwell?”
Felinus nodded again.
Silence stretched for a time, then the doctor sighed. “We weren’t able to take vitals with everything that has happened to him,” she said. “But from our conversation, Najjar indicated that he sounds, at least, like he had put on weight.”
“I was supposed to take him for his follow-up appointment tonight after his classes,” Felinus said softly. “They want to monitor his weight gain and blood work weekly until he is out of immediate danger. My brother had already started making something he could eat immediately after his appointment. We were supposed to be having pizza last night. The extra dough was going to make handheld calzones for him.”
