“Yeah.” I played with my food for a moment. “I'm actually thinking of applying at the hospital for a job. It's a commute, but people don't want me in town anymore.”
My mother frowned, but she didn't disagree with me.
“Bob? Bob, are you okay?” I heard my dad ask over the sound of the TV and conversations. There was something about his voice that made my internal alarms go off.
I looked over to see my dad standing next to Dr. Bob Taggert at the bar. Dr. Taggert was slumped over his drink and my dad was shaking his shoulder. Something about it made my skin crawl. My dad shook his friend's shoulder and Dr. Taggert groaned.
Something was definitely wrong.
“Hannah!” my dad shouted, followed by a heavy cough.
At this point, the fellow restaurant patrons went quiet. It might have been my name or the terror in my dad's voice, but suddenly all eyes were on me and my dad.
I hurried over to the bar. Dr. Taggert's skin was clammy and white. His eyes were glazed over and he had his right arm clutched to his chest.
“Dr. Taggert? Are you okay?” I asked, putting my hand on his left wrist.
He didn't answer me with more than a shake of his head. His pulse under my fingertips was thready and erratic.
The first thought through my head: Oh shit.
Then, my training took over.
“Dad, I need you to call 911. Mr. Abrams, I need you to call Dr. Matthews and tell him that Dr. Taggert is having a heart attack at the diner. He'll get here before the ambulance will.” I looked up long enough to make sure my dad nodded at me. I pointed to one of the younger men. “Help me get him on the floor. If he falls, he'll hurt himself. Everyone else, we need some space and a clear path to the door. Mr. Canes, please make sure that happens.”
I made sure to look at them and make sure everyone had a set job so that things would actually get done. I'd done several full Code Blues at the hospital and even there it was important to assign roles so nothing got forgotten and no one thought someone else would do it.
The room went silent as two men helped me get Dr. Taggert on the floor. I kept checking his pulse and making sure that he was breathing. His breaths were shallow, but there. His pulse wasn't much better.
I really didn't want to do CPR today. This was not how I had envisioned my evening going.
“Aspirin. I need an aspirin. Who has one?” I asked, looking around the room.
“I got one,” a voice said from the back. The owner of the grocery store came forward and handed me a bottle of pills.
“Thanks,” I told him, wrenching the bottle open and grabbing one of the tablets. I put it in Dr. Taggert's mouth and he thankfully started to chew it. He gave me a small nod as he swallowed down the medication. I was glad he was still conscious enough to help out.
“911 wants to talk to you,” my dad announced. He looked pale and like he might pass out at any moment, which I certainly didn't need.
“Okay. Give me the phone and go sit with mom,” I told him. I set his phone on speaker and put it on the floor beside me. “This is Hannah O’Leary. I'm a nurse here. I've given him one tablet of adult aspirin, which he has chewed and swallowed. Dr. Matthews is on his way.”
I was in full nurse mode now. It was science, medicine, and muscle memory. There was no fear, or nerves. I knew there would be if I stopped, so I didn't. I just kept doing assessment after assessment and reporting everything to the 911 operator.
I've done CPR twice in my life. I didn't want this to be the third. CPR is hard and doing it on someone you know is brutal.
“I'm here,” Dr. Matthews announced, running through the doors. He had his big black medical bag as well as an AED with him. If I hadn't been in work mode, I would have kissed him.
I rattled off Dr. Taggert's stats as we placed the AED and turned it on. No shock was advised, so Dr. Matthews handed me an IV kit to get started. I felt a lot better knowing there was a computer watching Dr. Taggert's heart instead of me just feeling and hoping for a pulse.
I had the IV placed when the shriek of the ambulance broke through m
y thoughts.
The paramedics had Dr. Taggert in the gurney and into the ambulance in two breaths. Everything blurred now that someone else was in charge. I did remember one of the paramedics telling me I did a great job on the IV, though.
Dr. Matthews went with the paramedics to the hospital. The energy and clarity of what I was doing vanished with them out the door. I stood in the center of the entrance to the diner, panting as the ambulance roared off with a shriek and a flurry of lights. I still had my gloves on from starting the IV.
The room was silent for a moment.