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“Pulling up now!” Cutler calls from the front of the aid car and Maya nods to herself before turning to her patient.
“Okay, we’re almost there. We’ll hand you over to the ER team and they’ll look after you from there, alright?” Maya explains to her patient, a college student who had been the victim of an unfortunate argument between his bike and a pothole.
“Thank you, I feel like such an idiot,” he groans.
Maya chuckles, standing up as the aid car comes to a stop. “I’ve been doing this job for a decade and trust me, I’ve seen way more idiotic people.”
The back doors open and together, she and Cutler get the patient out, wheeling him into the ER to be met by the team of doctors down there today. Maya isn’t on high alert for her wife though, she’s not working and instead, is taking the kids to the splash park for some late summer fun.
“This is Connor, he's 22. Was riding a bicycle when he hit a pothole and flipped over the handlebars. He has several facial fractures but is maintaining his airway. No battle signs, but possible fractured jaw and cheek bones. No runny nose. Obs are all within normal range. No loss of consciousness and Connor is able to recount the incident. No neck pain, the patient was up and mobilising on arrival so we didn't immobilise him. He has a cannula in his left arm and we have given him 1 gram of acetaminophen,” Maya reels off as they slide the gurney into a bay and then help the patient to slide over onto the hospital’s bed.
“Okay, thank you Bishop, we’ll take it from here. Millin, can you put in an order for an x-ray please?”
Maya nods, waving a goodbye to their patient and then heading over to the main desk to sign over the care so they can get back to the station. She’s just handed the tablet over to Cutler for his signature when the phone goes off that signifies an incoming ambulance and she pauses, listening in on the conversation slightly.
Her heart drops when she hears her wife’s name.
“Hey … hey!” She calls, trying to get the receptionist’s attention.
“Can I help you?”
“On the phone you just - you said my wife’s name. She’s being brought in?”
“Your wife?”
“Yes!” Maya shouts in frustration, jabbing her finger at the “DeLuca-Bishop” embroidered onto her uniform. “My wife, Carina DeLuca-Bishop, I heard her name on the phone, now tell me, is she coming here as a doctor or as a patient?”
The receptionist looks flustered and Maya is just getting more annoyed as the seconds go by. Then she hears Dr. Lincoln’s voice.
“Okay we’re expecting two ambulances people, and it’s one of our own, Dr. DeLuca-Bishop and her two children - oh. Maya.”
Maya can feel the nausea rolling through her and she grabs onto the edge of the reception desk to steady herself, her legs like jelly.
“Why … what’s happening … what is going on, why are my wife and children in an ambulance, why are you … why?”
She can’t catch a breath, she feels sick and dizzy. The ER is suddenly very very loud.
“Bishop, come sit.”
They’re interrupted by the ever-steady voice of Miranda Bailey and Maya looks to her desperately, although not without a stubborn shake of her head. “No, I need to know what’s going on.”
“I will tell you, but you look like you’re going to pass out. We don’t need all four of you incapacitated so come and sit,” Bailey says firmly, putting her hands on Maya’s shoulders and steering her around the back of the reception desk and sitting her down in a chair so she has a little more privacy from the rest of the ER.
She can’t help but bounce her leg anxiously as Bailey grabs a tablet, tapping around for a few seconds and then scanning over the information before she turns to Maya. “Right, there’s not a whole lot of information in here but it doesn’t concern me too much, it says they’re coming in two separate ambulances and they’re all conscious and aware. Carina may have an injury to her ankle which is why Link is here, but nothing other than that.”
Maya nods, swallowing the nausea sitting at the back of her throat and tries to calm her racing heart.
“I know it seems a bit chaotic, but it’s because we care about Carina and the kids.”
Maya nods again, chewing her lower lip. They were going to the splash park. Then they were going to take Liam to his toddler soccer club later.
“Bishop … hey, look at me.”
Maya’s eyes snap over to Dr. Bailey, who is crouched in front of her with a hand on her shoulder.
“Good. Now take a deep breath, you’re going to need to be calm when they arrive because Carina and the kids will need you, and they’re only around 5 minutes out.”
As much as she doesn’t want to, Maya follow’s Bailey’s instructions because she knows she needs to be as calm and collected as possible for her wife and kids. They must be so scared.
Maya keeps taking deep breaths as per Bailey’s instructions although the nausea doesn’t shift, still bubbling in her stomach. She can’t help but glance towards the doors at every little noise.
When she hears the chirp of an aid car siren, she shoots to her feet, already moving towards the double doors before she registers it.
The double doors open and Carina appears, on a gurney and her face blotchy with tears as she breathes rapidly, bordering on panic.
That makes the decision for her.
“No! I’m not going in until I see my kids!” She protests, loudly and fiercely but with an underlying shake to her voice that Maya rarely hears. She rushes forward, taking her wife’s hand that’s waving around anxiously.
“Maya?”
“I’m here, deep breath my love.”
“What? Why are you here?”
“I was dropping another patient off,” Maya explains gently, giving her wife’s hand a squeeze as they start to move further into the ER.
“Oh … the bambini? Where are they? I need to see them!” Carina protests again, almost hysterical, trying to move off the bed although Maya can see that her lower leg is immobilised in a vacuum split and concludes that wouldn’t end well for her.
“They’re in an ambulance right behind you,” Bailey explains as Maya helps her to move over to the ER bed and off the paramedic’s gurney.
“Are you sure?”
“Very, I will greet the ambulance too if that helps, but only if you let these paramedics do their handover.”
Carina’s chin is wobbling as she cries but she nods, tightening her grip on Maya’s hand as she tries to catch her breath.
“Okay, this is Carina, 38, she was the driver of a vehicle going 30mph down a residential street when she swerved to avoid an oncoming vehicle, lost control and crashed into a fence. She is presenting with a query fracture of her left ankle as there's swelling and she's unable to bear weight. She self extracted from the vehicle and got her older child out by the time we arrived. Obs are as follows: heart rate elevated at around 105, resps of 20 but she's quite distressed about her children, pupils equal and reactive size 3, sats 98 on air, BP 115 over 78, temp is 98 and her BM was 93.7. She denies any spinal pain and there's no other pain on assessment. She declined any pain relief and is worried about her children who travelled in a different ambulance,” the paramedic reels off and Maya nods.
Not too bad, all things considered, but she knows Carina isn’t going to fully calm down or allow herself to be treated until the kids arrive and she sees that they’re okay.
“Okay thank you, we’ll take it from here. Let’s get an order put in for an x-ray and can we get a status update on where the children are please?” Dr. Lincoln asks, coming to stand at the foot of Carina’s bed, looking over her left ankle.
“Ambulance with the children is about a minute out,” someone says and Carina turns to her, a desperate look in her eyes. “Go get them,” she pleads, her cheeks still shiny with tears and her lip trembling dangerously.
“I will go right to them when they arrive but I’m staying with you until they get here, okay? Link needs to look at your ankle.”
Carina looks like she’s going to fight it, argue again, but she nods her head slightly, still crying and breathing rapidly as Maya continues to try and calm her down although she feels like her efforts may be in vain until she’s had eyes on the kids and is reassured they’re okay.
“You’re okay, I’m here, you’re okay,” Maya whispers, stroking her head as Link carries out his assessment on Carina’s ankle, her face screwing up in pain.
“Bishop? Second ambulance just pulling up,” Bailey calls from the doors and Maya nods, placing a kiss on her wife’s forehead.
“I’ll be right back.”
“Go, make sure they’re okay.”
Maya nods and then jogs towards Bailey where she’s already standing out the back of the ambulance where two paramedics get out, one carrying Liam in her arms while the other carries Andrea in her carseat.
“Mommy!” Liam shouts as soon as he sees Maya, leaning forward and stretching his arms out. Maya hurries over, taking him from the paramedic and giving him a quick once over, scanning him for injuries before cuddling him close to her chest, rubbing his back soothingly. She follows the paramedics as they start to move the kids indoors and reel off their status to the paeds doctors who have appeared for them.
“This is Liam, he's 2 and was the rear driver's side passenger in the collision. He was in a car seat and rear-facing. He's not complaining of any injuries apart from a scraped knee which his Mom-"
"No, mamma." Liam interrupts, lifting his head from Maya’s shoulder briefly and causing a chuckle to ripple amongst the adults.
"Which his mamma said he had before the accident. Clinically he is presenting with no concerns, I have some obs if you want them."
"Go ahead,” Maya nods, needing to know even though she’s not here in any sort of professional capacity.
"Temp 98.2, resp rate 24, sats were great at 98, we didn't do a bp, his heart rate was 140 on arrival but settled to around 100. And his sugars were 91.8. Pupils were equal and reactive. Again no injuries present, not complaining of pain and is able to tell us what happened. Mo-mamma said he has a minor allergy to eggs and had no medication today.”
“Perfect thank you for that, and what about this little cutie?” The paeds doctor asks, gesturing to Andrea as they get closer to the cubicles, heading for the empty one next to Carina.
“This is Andrea, she's 9 months old and was in the rear passenger side seat at the time of the accident. She was buckled in her car seat and her car seat was rear facing. We've kept her in her car seat to support her spine in case there are any injuries, but she's presenting clinically well. Obs wise we have a heart rate of 112, resp rate of 32, sats 99 on air, bp was 90 over 62, and temp of 98.1, bm of 90. Pupils were equal and reactive. There are no visible injuries, and she calmed down on route when she could hear her brother. No allergies, and mo - mamma,” the paramedic explains, correcting herself. “Mamma said she had some tylenol this morning as she’s teething.”
Maya nods to herself, Andrea has been almost inconsolable as she teeths recently.
Upon getting to the cubicle, the paramedic carrying Andrea in her carseat places it down on the bed and then Maya sits on the end with Liam in her lap. Bailey then pulls the curtain back between the beds and Carina gasps in relief, fresh tears rolling down her cheeks.
“Mamma!” Liam shouts, trying to launch himself out of Maya’s lap. She has to wrestle to keep him contained and she tries to soothe him, but all he wants is his mamma.
“It’s okay, bring him here,” Carina says quietly so Maya stands up, bouncing him gently until she hands him over to the Italian, Carina immediately cuddling him tightly and rocking him back and forth despite it clearly jarring her ankle.
Maya goes back to the bed to sit beside Andrea where the paeds doctor is hovering, clearly waiting for her.
“You’re mom, correct?”
Maya nods.
“Okay, I’m going to take Andrea out of her carseat, I’m going to keep her head nice and still while I clear her spine. The likelihood of there being any spinal damage is extremely low because she was safely buckled but we just want to double check,” the doctor explains. Maya knows this is just a precaution but she still draws in a nervous breath as the doctor carefully lifts Andrea up, cooing at her to calm her down while keeping her head and neck supported and straight.
Unfortunately Andrea is going through quite the velcro baby phase and she is not happy about a stranger holding her and stopping her from moving her head to look at her mom.
“I know, I know,” Maya soothes as she stands up, standing behind the doctor so Andrea looks up at her rather than trying to turn her head. The baby screeches loudly, reaching her arms out and kicking her legs right into the doctor’s middle.
“Okay so … I'm pretty sure her spine is fine,” she jokes, completing her assessment and then handing a very angry Andrea over to her mom, who rests her on her hip and starts bouncing her automatically to soothe her. Andrea rests against Maya's shoulder, starting to chew on her little fist and drooling down the back of Maya's uniform jacket.
“She's okay?” Carina asks from her bed and Maya turns around, rubbing their baby's back with a nod.
“All good. Mad at a stranger touching her but physically just fine,” she breathes out. Now that both kids are out of the woods she feels like she can breathe a little easier, the nausea settling a little but not disappearing completely
“Good,” Carina smiles, adjusting her grip on Liam and brushing his hair out of his eyes.
“What did Link say about your ankle?” Maya asks, coming to stand next to her properly and brushing her fingers over Carina's cheek, wiping away a few stray tears.
“He thinks it’s probably broken, waiting on an X-ray then he’ll decide if it’s surgery and a cast or just a cast,” Carina explains, her voice wobbling again as fresh tears roll down her cheeks.
“Hey … hey what’s up?” Maya worries softly, cupping her crying wife’s cheek.
“I’m sorry, I crashed with the kids in the car, we’re going to have to get new carseats, my ankle is probably broken…” Carina hiccups, her face looking so guilty all of a sudden that Maya wants to cry too. She covers it up by leaning in and kissing Carina’s forehead softly.
“You’ve got nothing to be sorry for, my love. You did what was right in the moment and from what it sounds like, you managed to avoid a head-on collision with another car which would have been so much worse,” the blonde reassures, although Carina is still hiccuping through sobs, unable to catch her breath.
“But the kids, and my ankle I’m going to be so useless-”
“You got Liam out, and you would have gotten Andrea out if help hadn’t arrived so quickly. You did so well, and if you did break your ankle then we will deal with that, okay?”
Carina nods, looking down as Liam puts his little hand on her cheek, his face full of concern.
“Mamma sad?” he asks, looking between both his moms.
“Mamma got a bit of a fright and her ankle is sore, she might have to get a special sock on it,” Maya explains, deciding that’s the best way to describe a cast to a toddler.
“Oh … it get better?”
“It will, piccolo, but it might take a little while. What colour sock do you think I need?”
Carina’s voice is a little steadier now that she’s chatting to Liam and she takes a deep breath, trying to centre herself.
“Red!” Liam yells and Maya chuckles at Carina’s poorly concealed expression of horror.
“Red?”
Liam nods vigorously. “Spupermans is red,” he declares, patting his chest where the superman logo is emblazoned on his t-shirt.
“Can’t argue with that logic,” Maya shrugs and Carina sighs heavily.
Quite soon someone appears to take Carina down to X-ray and so she hands a slightly reluctant Liam over to Maya, who is now juggling a sleeping Andrea and a cranky toddler. However, the distraction of a snack and a toy from one of the nurses works a treat and he’s happily working on a little sticker book an hour later when Carina returns from her x-ray, now sporting a bright red cast up to her knee.
“Don’t even-” Carina warns, wiggling her index finger at her wife while Maya tries and fails to conceal her laughter at how ridiculous she looks.