Miscommunication

After four and a half of hours of waiting, calls, emails, and the occasional mixup, the driver found himself finally in a private room. The events of the day not only mentally drained him, the combination of medicines was physically exhausting. Managing to gather a small appetite, he asked the nurse on duty if they had any snacks. Telling him he couldn't have anything to eat because of doctor's orders, the nurse started to walk out the door. Grumbling to himself, his temper slowly started to rise. Reaching for the paperwork he was given in the emergency room, he called the hospital number and asked for the doctor in charge of his care. The volunteer on the line apologized, saying that his doctor had already left for the day. Fuming, he asked to if there was anyone in the patient relations department. The volunteer sent him through the proper extension, and he waited until someone came on the line. Giving his name and room number, he spoke almost angrily to the staff member.

"Yes, I have a very large complaint," he exclaimed angrily. "I've been told that my doctor has left for the day, I'm not allowed anything to eat due to his orders, without any explanation, and I'm being treated very rudely, as if I'm some sort of drain on your resources or something. Whom do I need to talk to in order to get this problem resolved?"

"Well, sir," the man on the other end of the line said, "I'm the right department. I'll be glad to help you. Who is your doctor?"

Giving the doctor's name off of the paper, the driver replied, "I was told he had left for the day. How am I supposed to live off of nothing?"

"Sir, I can help you with your situation, but I need you to please calm down," the relations rep said. "I can help you, but unfortunately, it takes a little time, and being calmer makes things go much easier. I'm going to put you on a brief hold while I call the doctor at home to fix the situation. One moment please."

Listening to the music on the phone, the driver's temper subsided while he waited for the rep to get back. Catching himself humming to the music, he waited for the representative to return. Hearing the abrupt stop, followed by the rep's voice, he listened.

"OK, sir, I've reached your doctor, and he is sending orders over to have you able to eat something tonight, and he says he will talk to you in person tomorrow morning. Is there anything else that I can help you with?" the rep asked.

"No sir," the driver replied. "I'm glad you were able to resolve this situation so quickly. Thank you for your help. I'll talk to the doctor tomorrow and voice any other concerns to him."

"No problem sir, glad to help," was the rep's reply. "If there's anything else, this line is open 24 hours a day. Feel free to call if you need to."

"Thank you sir, and have a good evening," was all the driver could say. The rep hung up, and the driver waited patiently for the nurse to return. After about thirty minutes, he pushed the call button and waited for the nurse's station to pick up. Getting no response, he decided to get up and slowly walk towards the door. Opening it, he looked out into the hallway, scanning for any sign of life. Not seeing anyone, he decided to call out.

"Is anyone there?" he said loudly down the hall.

"We'll be right with you sir," he heard from down the hall.

"OK," he replied, and turned back towards his bed. Slowly, he made his way back, the room starting to spin from the medication in his system. Stopping for a second to steady himself, he finally made the last few feet, and sat back down on the bed. As soon as he swung his legs up, the door opened, and the same nurse from before came in.

"Can I help you, sir?" she asked rather abruptly.

"Yes, ma'am," he replied. "I'm starting to get a lot of pain back into my shoulder, and I've been told by my doctor that I'm allowed to have something to eat."

"The pain medication is going to have to wait," she retorted. "As for the food, I haven't received anything that says otherwise, so until I do, you can't have anything to eat, like I told you before."

Immediately, his temper flared. "Listen, ma'am," he began, "I don't what's gotten into you, but I just got off the line with the patient advocacy people here, and they've reached my doctor, and got the orders changed, which you should have received by now. As for the pain medication, I was told by the Illinois State Police that if I needed something, then I was to have it, no questions asked. They're the ones paying for all this, and I really don't feel like calling this number and telling the supervisor on duty that you aren't trying to be professional and do your job. Now, if you like, we can do this the easy way, or we can do it the hard way. The pain really isn't helping this situation right now, and the last thing I need is someone to tell me that they aren't going to comply. So, do I need to make the phone call or not?" he finished, as he stared at her with an icy glare.

The look on her face was one of astonishment. "I'm sorry sir, but as I said before, these are my orders, and you can call whomever you like to fix this, but until I've got those orders in hand, you sit and suffer like the rest of us," she snapped, as she walked out of the room and closed the door forcefully.

Going back to the phone, the driver pulled out the business card the supervisor gave him, he called the number to his office first. The phone rang 4 times, then a click came on.

"Supervisor's office, can I help you?" the super came on the line.

"Yes sir, this is the driver at the hospital that came in with the highway shooting," the driver said. "I seem to be having some difficulty here with the staff regarding my medication, or lack thereof. This nurse seems to be rather rude and disrespectful, and I've already talked to their patient advocacy hotline. She seems to think that I'm full of fluff, and I was told by her that I need to 'sit and suffer like the rest of us' by her."

"OK, who is your doctor?" the super asked.

Giving the doctor's name to him, the driver said, "The patient line has already talked to him and gotten the orders changed, but this lady seems to either not care, or is doing this on purpose. Honestly, it doesn't matter to me which way it actually is, because I'm still not receiving the care that I was promised. Is there something that can be done on your end?" he asked.

"Actually," the super replied, "there is. I know this doctor, he's a close friend and neighbor to me. I'll head over to his house and give him a heads up. Also, I can be there in about 20 minutes or so if you can let finish up a couple things here as well."

"That would be great, thank you sir," the driver gasped with a small sigh of relief. "Any help you can offer at this point would be super."

"Not a problem. Oh, and by the way, don't use the call button until I get there. I have a special surprise coming with me," the super said, the sound of happiness coming through the line.

"Yes, sir," was all the driver could say before the officer hung up. Ending the call, he set the receiver back down, and lay in bed as best as he could, trying to find a halfway comfortable position. Laying there, he got lost in thought for a few moments before he remembered that during this whole process, he forgot to call his wife. Cursing to himself, he got back up, and grabbing his phone, dialed her number. Two rings later, he heard her sweet voice.

"Hey baby," she said over the line. "How ya doin?"

"Honestly honey, not so good," he replied.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"It's been a rough few days," he replied, as he began to recount the past few days to her. "So as you can see," he said, "Things are pretty crappy right now, but I's working on getting them better."

"Oh geez, do I need to make a trip?" she asked, a tone of anger in her voice.

"No honey," he said, knowing his wife's temper, "I think I got everything under control here. Just to be safe though, make sure you keep everything ready. Not sure how far these clowns will go, but I don't want you caught unawares. God forbid if they try to do something really stupid."

"Not a chance of that here," she popped off. "They try something here, and they're in for a surprise. Me and Puff will have a present for them to remember."

Smiling at her thought, he replied, "Just make sure that Puff stays full, and he'll do you right." He looked up as the supervisor walked through the door. "Gotta go baby, the police are here."

"OK, you be careful," she said, a note of concern in her voice.

"I will baby," he replied. "Love you."

"Love you too, baby. Bye," she said, as the line disconnected. The supervisor came to the bed, and looked at the driver quizzically.

"Puff?" he asked.

Smiling, the driver replied, "That's what she named her shotgun. Puff the Magic Dragon, a Remington 870 12-gauge shotgun, loaded with Dragon's Breath ammo."

A look of understanding washed across the super's face. "Ah," he said, "and should me or any of my officers be concerned?"

"No sir, unless you plan on moving to my home state," the driver replied. "We don't live here in Illinois."

"That's right, you live in Texas, don't you?" the super asked.

"Yes sir, and that might be something you can help me with," the driver said hopefully.

"You need me to talk to them down there, and give them a sitrep?" the officer asked.

"That would be mighty nice if you could," the driver replied.

Smirking, the super chuckled. "I think I can handle that, a cake walk compared to the rest of it."

"Thanks, I appreciate it," the driver said, as a wave of pain caused him to wince.

"You OK?" the super asked.

"No," the driver said. "That nurse still hasn't brought any pain medication, and I'm starting to hurt real bad."

"I'll take care of this. I'll be back in a few minutes," he said, as he grabbed his phone and dialed a number while leaving the room. Closing the door, the driver heard him mumble through the door, but not making anything out he said. A couple minutes later, the super came back in, and said, "I'm gonna grab a chair from the nurse and have a seat outside. Go ahead and push that call button."

Nodding, the driver did as he was asked. A couple minutes later, the nurse came on the line. "What is it now sir?" she said spitefully.

"I need to have a chair brought down to my room please," he said nicely.

"You don't need a chair sir, you're supposed to be laying in bed," was her reply.

"Oh, it's not for me," he said gleefully, "It's for the officer that is stationed outside my door."

"Excuse me?" she asked.

"I have an officer stationed outside my door, and I thought it might be nice if you could offer him a chair, seeing as he's not going to be leaving anytime soon," he said, a note of satisfaction in his voice.

"I'll be right down sir," she retorted, cutting the connection.

A minute later, he could hear the officer talking again, presumably to the nurse, because there was both the super's and the nurse's voice on the other side of the door, just barely audible enough to make out that the officer was giving the nurse a thorough chewing out, and the nurse trying to complain to the officer about her orders. A couple of minutes later, the driver could hear the clang of a chair being set down, followed by silence. Shortly after, the supervisor came in, followed by another nurse, and a second officer. As the nurse came over, she told the driver, "I'm terribly sorry for the miscommunication. Apparently, the other nurse was busy doing other things than what she was supposed to be doing,which was taking care of you. I apologize on behalf of the hospital, and will make sure this does not happen again."

"So," the driver asked, "she wasn't doing her job?"

"No sir," the nurse replied, "she wasn't. However, I'm here now, and I'm going to make sure that it doesn't happen again." She produced a syringe full of medication. "This is a double dose of your medicine mixed with saline, and I have another one filled with nausea medication. I've read over your chart, and I have the other officer here to verify what is in the syringe." She looked over to the new officer, who nodded. "Please lie back while I administer your 'cocktail' sir."

Laying back into the bed, she smiled as the nausea medication went in first, followed by the pain medication. The familiar swimming, the strong feeling of pain dissipation, and the small familiar wave of nausea, followed by numbness. He looked at the nurse with a smile on his face.

"Nurse, I was only joking in the ER about the 'double'. Wow, that's potent," he slurred, the medication coursing through his veins.

"Well, that should keep you happy for a bit. I'll be back shortly with some food. Unfortunately, the cafeteria is closed, so all we have are some sandwiches and some snack stuff, like Jell-O and such," she offered.

"That shounds great," he slurred again, "I'll take whadever you got."

A small chuckle escaped her lips. "Yeah, you are definitely feeling the medicine now. I'm surprised you're still awake," she replied.

"That'sh what my wife shays," he chuckled.

"OK, Romeo," she laughed, "rest up. I'll scrape up some grub for ya, you just relax."

Laying back, he looked over at the super and the other officer. The lieutenant said, "I'm about to head out, too. I'm leaving Officer Nichols here to watch out for you. Any issues you have go to him, and he comes to me." Turning around and exiting, he called, "Don't be trying to run any marathons soon, champ."

"Aw, take the fun out of it," the driver joked.

Turning to Nichols, he asked, "Do you prefer inshide or out?"

Nichols cocked his head. "Excuse me?"

"You gonna sit inshide, or outshide?" the driver asked again.

"Oh," Nichols replied, understanding what he said, "I'll just sit in the recliner over there." He point to the chair in the corner. "This way I can be handy in case something goes wrong."

The driver gave him a thumbs up. "Copy that, offisher," he chipped, before his head tilted sideways, causing him to lose consciousness.