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“Charlotte, you have to let her go. I’ll be right there with her. I’m going into surgery with her. She won’t be alone, okay?”
She nodded and leaned over to kiss her daughter’s head, “I’ll be right here when you get back, nugget. I love you; Doctor Young will be right there with you. You remember him from the park, right baby? So you aren’t alone, and I’ll be here when you get done.”
Charlotte lifted her gaze to mine, unshed tears in them, “Please take care of her, she is all I have.”
I nodded, “I’ll do my best.”
We began to roll away, and it was as we hit the doors that Marisol began to seize again. We stopped just inside the door, and I wished that we could have gotten further away, but there wasn’t time. Her mother could see us through the doors. Marisol flailed on the gurney, and I pulled the syringe out of my pocket that I had ready for her, just in case this happened. I slipped it into her IV port, and a few moments later, her body calmed, and the seizure was over.
I glanced at the door; Charlotte was white as a sheet. She stood in the middle of the hallway, looking lost and forlorn, and I wanted to race back to her, pull her into my arms and hold her. Tell her that it was going to be alright, but at the moment, I didn’t know if that was true or not.
Instead, I dismissed her and focused my attention on the little girl in front of me. Cliff was just starting to wash in the scrub room when I joined him, and one of the nurses poked her head in to ask a question.
“Can you let the ED know that I’m assisting Doctor Michaels, and have someone check on the mother, Charlotte Bennett.”
“I was just going to ask if there was a family member around to sign the papers.”
“She was outside the main door when I last saw her. Little woman, long dark brown hair.”
The nurse nodded and left to find her.
Cliff grinned at me, “And large puppy dog eyes that make me want to be the hero.”
I laughed, “Whatever, Cliff.”
He continued to scrub, “Just tell me this, are you involved with the mother? Because if you are, I can’t have you in the OR.”
“No, Cliff. I just met them today. I saw the child fall while I was running this morning. I was trying to check the little girl, and her mother tackled me, that’s how I got this.” I turned my cheek toward him, “She thought I was a pervert trying to hurt her daughter.”
Cliff laughed. “Okay, as long as nothing is going on.”
“No, nothing is going on. I guess maybe I feel a bit more attached to the girl since I saw it happen. Normally, they come in, and all we know is what we hear, but I saw it happen. Twelve-foot drop right to the face. I think she might have clunked her head on the monkey bars on her way down.”
“I guess that makes sense.” He replied as he started to rinse.
For a moment, the image of Charlotte outside the doors filled my mind and made my chest ache. She had looked so damn scared and alone. I stared through the window into the operating theater, and I swore I was going to do everything in my power to make sure that little girl survived.
