The Median

I talked to the paramedics that brought her in and found out that the young girl had jumped out of a car going 65MPH down highway E470. My mind races with questions like...What would compel someone to jump out of a moving car at that speed? Someone that doesn't want to live life anymore I suppose. I've never been able to connect with suicide.

We take her into emergency room #3, take x-rays, and pull them up on the screen...Dr. Palo establishes that she has broken virtually every major bone structure in her face, her right humerus, and right scapula. Dr. Palo orders emergency surgery and we take her up to the O.R.

With in minutes of arriving to the O.R. we see the family of the young girl and a group of about 5 of her friends. Everyone is hysterical. The police are in the corner of the waiting room questioning an older man...Possibly the father?

We retreat back to the ER and continue through the rest of our already strange day.

Patients come in left and right...one of the busiest Sundays we've had in quite a while. It must be a full moon or something. I can't seem to stop thinking about that young girl up in surgery. For some reason I begin visualizing a "reenactment" of the event in my head. I see the car door open...the solid yellow line zipping across the pavement of the highway. Then I see the young girl jump and hit the ground.

This image repeats over and over again in my head. No matter how hard I try...I can't stop it. At this point I realize that three hours have past. My good friend Scotty comes up to me and says... "Have you heard more about that trauma that came in?" I say no and he begins to fill me in. "I talked to Kathy in surgery and she said that the young girl jumped out of the car because she got into an argument with her father, who was driving at the time. "An argument?" I say. "Just an argument?" I have heard of troubled youth before, hell I was one of them, but I've never heard of anyone jumping out of a moving car just over and argument.

My mind continues to race. What if the father was beating her...or maybe she was on drugs? Only they know the real story.

Work continues on into the evening with little time to even breath...It's like everyone decided to hurt themselves/get sick all at once. In health care, you always have a customer.

T.B.C.