“I want to go home,” Juliette repeated, obviously becoming more cranky.
“I do, too,” he said. He got out the collection of DVDs he’d brought. Thankfully Juliette started pawing through them while munching on a cracker until she came across a Pink Panther DVD. Without saying anything, she handed it to Brian and with a sense of relief that she had found something, he set her up watching it.
With Juliette occupied, he sat back and tried to be patient, but as time passed, he found himself getting progressively irritated. Finally, after a total of two hours, at which point he knew the funeral mass was probably beginning, he couldn’t sit still any longer. After making sure that Juliette had significant time remaining on her current DVD, he walked back to the information desk.
On this occasion, Brian had to stand in line before getting to talk with one of the clerks, and it wasn’t the woman whom he’d spoken to earlier. It was a youthful man with hair down to his shoulders.
“My daughter, Juliette Murphy, and I have been here for more than two hours,” Brian snapped, tired of forcing himself to be polite. “I’m beginning to think we are being purposefully ignored. I want to be reassured that is not the case and find out when we will be seen.”
The clerk treated him to an overtly questioning expression that was obvious even with his mask. After telling Brian to wait a minute, he got up and stepped over to speak with one of the free triage nurses. Brian watched them converse and had the impression the clerk was new to his job. After checking her tablet, it was the triage nurse who came back to speak with Brian.
“We’re sorry you’ve had to wait, Mr. Murphy,” she said consolingly and with respect. “We try our best to see everyone as quickly as we can, but with the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve been stressed, as I’m sure you have heard.”
“That I understand,” Brian said, struggling to keep the anger out of his voice but not succeeding. He told her he’d seen people arrive after them and already be seen, and voiced concern that he was being treated differently because he had outstanding hospital bills.
“Oh, heavens, no!” she said. “I can assure you that we have no idea of your financial situation with the hospital. We see the sickest patients first. Some of those people you’ve seen most likely came in for something very easy to solve, like a prescription refill. We will get to your daughter as soon as we can.”
Feeling frustrated and questioning that people might come into the ED just to get prescriptions refilled, he went back to Juliette and tried to rein in his growing anger. Despite what the triage nurse had said about the ED not being influenced by financial considerations, he still had his doubts. With Charles Kelley so focused on profits, such an orientation and culture had to trickle down into all corners of the hospital. He was sure of it.
It wasn’t until three-quarters of an hour later that Juliette was called, and by then Brian was fit to be tied. To him, as angry as he was and for having been forced to miss his wife’s funeral mass, there seemed to be no explanation other than that they were being overtly discriminated against.
To Juliette’s chagrin the nurse who greeted them wasn’t Olivia, but she quickly established herself as being equally as good with children. After leading them back to the same exam room they’d visited the day before, Nurse Jane pretended to take Jeannot Lapin’s vital signs as she took Juliette’s. And when Juliette asked for a hemostat to play with, Jane happily complied. She also acted impressed when Juliette demonstrated how well she could use the instrument by attaching it and releasing it at various locations on Jeannot Lapin.
“What’s the temperature?” Brian asked after the nurse took it. He made a distinct effort to keep his voice from reflecting his irritation.
“98.2,” Jane said happily. “Same with the rabbit.”
With this surprising news and despite his annoyance, it was time for Brian to roll his eyes, feeling mildly embarrassed as well as exasperated that the main reason for coming to the ED had vanished just as it had the day before. Of course, he was pleased the fever was gone, but he was also perplexed. Had she really had a fever or could the thermometer at home be malfunctioning? But then he reminded himself of the perspiration on Juliette’s forehead. That had been real, meaning something must have been wrong. Particularly because of his EMT training, he knew more than most people about symptoms and signs of disease, and a disappearing fever of 102.2 made no sense to him, nor did it make sense that Juliette’s sore throat had vanished when Jane asked her about it. The only symptom that remained was the headache. When Jane asked Juliette where she felt the pain and whether it was localized, Juliette motioned all over her head.
With the vital signs retaken, Jane said that the doctor would be in to see Juliette in a few minutes and left. Yet it was more than a few minutes; it was twenty minutes, long enough for Juliette to start crying, saying she wanted to go home, and long enough to allow his befuddlement to morph back to anger. In his mind, having been forced to wait three hours, two days in a row, couldn’t have been by chance. It had to be punitively deliberate, not to mention inconsiderate and unethical.
Suddenly there was a loud knock on the door and before Brian could respond, in walked an ebullient Dr. Robert Arnsdorf along with Jane. He was an athletic-looking physician, who Brian guessed was in his fifties, comparable in height with Brian but slenderer and with a bit of white hair protruding from beneath his surgical cap. A stethoscope was casually slung around his neck. Brian was relieved it wasn’t Dr. Kramer.
“Ah, I see Miss Murphy is a little unhappy,” Dr. Arnsdorf said friskily, seemingly for Juliette’s benefit. “What’s the problem today, my chickadee?” Without waiting for an answer, he looked down at his tablet and began reading.
In his agitated state Brian found the doctor’s breezy attitude and seeming unpreparedness galling rather than playful and certainly not endearing. Juliette didn’t buy it, either, and continued crying until Jane got her reinterested in playing with the hemostat.
“The problem is we’ve been waiting for over three hours,” Brian blurted out.
“Sorry about that,” Dr. Arnsdorf said simply. “Let me finish Dr. Kramer’s note.” After a moment he put the tablet down on the desk. “Okay, seems that we’ve had a repeat from yesterday: A phantom fever and sore throat along with a single episode of vomiting and diarrhea yesterday afternoon. Interesting.”
“I hardly think ‘interesting’ is an appropriate description,” Brian said.
“First, let me extend my sincere condolences about your wife,” Dr. Arnsdorf said, continuing to ignore Brian’s displeasure. “It’s entirely understandable that there have been psychosomatic symptoms, including a fever. But, to be on the safe side, let’s take a look.” He nodded as if agreeing with himself. Then after a brief wash of his hands, he quickly examined Juliette, starting by first looking into her mouth, throat, nose, and ears. He then listened to her chest and let her listen to his. Finally, he palpated her abdomen while she was lying on her back, managing to get her relaxed enough to elicit a little laugh. Brian watched the rapid exam and stayed quiet throughout although he already was concerned that the doctor had a low index of suspicion.
“You are in perfect health,” Dr. Arnsdorf declared to Juliette while playfully touching her on the tip of the nose with his index finger. He then turned to Brian. “I think she is fine, very healthy in fact. And I’m impressed with her size, having been a preemie. My guess is she’s out there on the positive side of the bell curve development-wise for her age.”