BEDSIDE JUSTICE
T. Robert Warren

Chapter One

A bitterly cold December night blows bone chilling winds into the doors of the ambulance bay at Eastern Jersey Medical Center. As predicted, the cold has brought the people of the night, the people of the streets, into the ER. Many come seeking shelter from the cold, warmth, nourishment, and compassion for their struggle to survive another day as a societal recluse.

One corner of the ER is occupied by a loud and abusively violent drug addict named Byron Pool. Pool is a thirty-one year old black, crack and IV drug addict that makes his rounds through the medical center five or six times a year. He is usually found in an alley or crack house, nearly dead from an overdose. Each time, no matter how far gone he is, he always makes it and has earned himself the nickname of "The Roach", it seems he just will not die.

Tonight however, Byron's luck may have run out. It seems he crossed paths with a crack dealer that he is into for more than a grand. He apparently had been successful avoiding his debts for quite awhile, but payment came due today. He was beaten violently about the abdomen with a bat or tire iron and then cut on his left side in four places. Still, with all this injury, his heroin-induced rage has been unleashed on most of the ER staff. The security guard, Nelson, is an elderly man, already retired from two careers and just working part-time at the hospital to pay off a motorhome. Nelson desperately tries to assist the staff in restraining Pool, but it is almost impossible.

"Mr. Pool! Byron! Listen to me!" "You are injured very seriously and we are trying to help prepare you for surgery, please can you just try to work with us?" Words spoken by Dr. Steven Cole, one of the ER doctors on duty. Dr. Cole delivers his request firmly but with true concern.

"Hey! Fuck everyone of you all, I said you ain't tying me the fuck down and you ain't sticking me with any mo' needles." Pool continues, "Leave me be and let me just fucking die!"

Dr. Curtis Shaw, the general surgeon on-call made it into the trauma bay just in time to catch the last half of the patient's statement. Shaw heads over to Dr. Cole to get the bullet. Dr. Cole begins, " Thirty-one year old black male, frequent flyer here, drug abuser, assaulted tonight, beaten with a heavy object to the abdomen. He has a positive belly tap and four knife wounds on the left, one deep in the lower back and one deep in the lower left quadrant." We have O.R Four being set-up and we are trying to get a type and cross match before he goes up, which he is just being a nasty son-of-a-bitch about quite frankly, Curt."

"Yea, I can see that!" "Sounds like we may have spleen and or liver involvement, and kidney, intestine, etc." "When we get done tonight our Mr. Congeniality here will be eating through a tube and shitting out a bag I would say Steve," Shaw smirked as the two doctors observe the commotion in front of them.

Currently at the bedside is the guard, Nelson, failing miserably at trying to hold Pool's arm down as the lab tech, Laura, preps to draw blood, two nurses, and Carrie Hall, the Patient Advocate, feebly attempting to calm the thrashing Pool. "Mr. Pool, now we need to draw this blood so relax and it will be over in just a moment," said Ms. Hall. The lab tech gets the site prepped and just as she inserts the needle and gets a flash back, Byron quickly rotates his arm inward. The needle darts out his arm right into the finger of the lab tech, nearly going through and through.

"Ahww!!" Laura screams as the needle pierces her finger. Simultaneously Pool yells, "Bitch! I said no needles!"

"Laura! go to the treatment room now! Clean up your finger and I'll be right over," said Dr. Cole.

Dr. Cole screams as he runs to the head of the bed, "That's it! I'm putting him down and tubing him before this bastard hurts someone else!" " Get me the intubation kit and give him some Versed in that line they started in the field."

"Dr. Cole, That is most unprofessional," squeaked Ms.Hall. Cole barks back, "Get your ass out of my ER now Carrie!"

Pool goes flaccid as the Versed injection hits him. Dr. Cole aggressively opens his mouth, inserts the laryngoscope, and forces the tube into his trachea. "Bag him!" yells Cole as he listens for breath sounds. "Ok I am in, Curt he is all yours, I have to go tend to Laura."

Dr. Shaw rips off his orders in a disgusted tone. "Get me a central line kit! I will put one in and get your blood for you, then send him up to four!"

As he enters the treatment room, Steve Cole finds Laura standing at the sink with the hot water on full and desperately scrubbing at her finger. She is crying with pain and crying with fear. "Oh that bastard! That worthless bastard of a druggie!" Laura screams.

"Let me look at it Laura," said Cole. "Oh my that water is way too hot Laura." "Your gonna burn yourself."

"I have to clean it, it is very important I clean it."

"Laura, it looks like you did a good job." "Come, sit here on the gurney," said Cole as he softens his