idioms...sayings understood by native speakers part sixty-nine

Jenny stood at the podium. How she got there was through mishap and circumstance. She was the only one left of the PR department of Lansing Memorial. It was up to her to give a statement to the press. The rest of the department? All at a workshop, and the one that was assigned to be on duty? Down with the flu. The CEO of the hospital handed her the statement that had been written by some part time secretary, and there she was. Caught. She had just finished her physical and got her tb test. The HR man that hired her, came running up with the news of the external disaster... and the involvement of her hospital... all of which she had only been employed by for three hours. She swallowed hard and put on her best face she used at all her proposal and projects meetings. It would be okay.

---

Rick and Carl stood at the bedside. Charlie's eyes were closed. His breathing even and relaxed, He appeared to be asleep, except that the teddy bear he was holding was in a death grip.

Rick spoke quietly.

"Can you imagine? To be him... I heard the van rolled and they found him like this. Do you think it was just over stimulation of his senses?"

"He could be in some kind of shock, Rick." Carl whispered. "But, physically, he is fine. That is a good thing. I just don't want him to wake up in a state of panic. God only knows, how he will react in a place like this. He could explode."

Rick sighed. His heart was growing heavy with worry and anxiety. He had not found Lynn yet. Josh escaped with a broken hand and ankle. He told them they were fine one minute and then the van skidded and rolled....

Rick glanced at Carl and pulled up a chair. He knew this bear. It was Charlie's borrowed bear. Rick reached to see if he could loosen Charlie's grip.

Carl slapped his hand. "What do you think you are doing? That is Charlie's only comfort where ever he is right now."

"You don't understand, Carl. A lot of things happend since you were in the hospital."

"Like what?"

Rick swallowed hard. "Just things."

"Give me a freakin' break cuz. I need to know. How can I help out if I don't?"

So Rick filled the man in with everything he knew...

---

Miss Katherine Hauser had been moved to the telemetry unit, since the ICUs and the PICUs needed to be cleared out. She lay in bed looking at the ceiling. She raised her hand and felt the long bandage down the middle of her chest. She tried to sigh, but the deep breath hurt too much. A police officer had come to see her just after she had moved to her new room... Her father was dead. An apparent robbery...on the day of her surgery... It did not make sense. Her father had promised her. Promised her that he would be there when she woke up. She reached higher and held the locket that was around her neck. When she had woke up, she found an old Teddy bear on her night stand and around its neck was an elaborate engraved heart shaped locket. Similar to the one she had seen in an old movie that could hold pictures of the one you loved in it. In the movie, there was a key to unlock the necklace. Katie caught her breath. Everything hurt. Crying would only make it worse. Daddy.. she thought ot herself. You promised. Tears slowly slid down her face. Then she looked around. Her bear had not made the move with her. She pulled herself up on the side of the bed, clenching the covers... she then hit the call light.

The nurse went into the room.

"Nurse? I was moved so quickly... I think my bear got left behind in the ICU."

"Ah, er, Bear?"

"Yes. A bear. Please could you find it for me?"

"Let me make a phone call and maybe on my break I can go down and get it for you. Will that be all right, Miss Hauser?"

"Thank you. I know it is silly, but, it was a gift from my daddy."

The nurse's heart felt her pain.

"I will definitely go look for it. All right?"

Katie nodded and murmured thank you.

"Now, let's just get you back to bed and get some pain medicine for you. I think that you pain level is about a ten out of ten from the looks of it."

Katie nodded. Thinking the pain inside her head and heart was ten times worse.

---

Carl pulled back and took a deep breath. All of that had happened? Steve Hauser was a decent man. He was smart.

"Do you think he might have left something in that bear?"

"I don't know." Rick reached in his pocket and pulled out a key. "All I know is Charlie had lent him the bear and got this "Magic Key" to the heart."

Carl reached up and held it.

"A key to the heart, eh?"

"Yeah. It looks like one of those old fashioned locket keys like the one my mom had when I was a kid."

"What did she have inside it?"

Rick smiled a little remembering. "Just a baby picture of me."

Carl shook his head.

A nurse came into the room.

"Excuse me, gentlemen. There seems to have been a mix up. I just want to retrieve that Teddy Bear for a patient of mine."

She went to the other side of the bed and reached over Charlie to take the bear.

"Miss, don't.."

Charlie's left hand was hanging onto the bear. His right hand came up reflexively and encircled the nurse's wrist, pushing it away.

"Huh?"

An ICU nurse who had followed the other one, exclaimed.

"He moved?"

"Please. Please listen to me. This bear does belong to Charlie here. He only let a man borrow it for a while." Rick stated.

"Really? I guess Miss Hauserwill just have to be disappointed."

Rick stood up excitedly.

"Miss Hauser? Mr. Steve Hauser was one of my employees. I am here because of our teams being involved with that horrible accident. Is there any way I could see Miss Hauser? I would like to report back to the company that at least she is okay. We are reeling from Steve's death."

"Ah, sure. Then you can explain to her about the "borrowed bear"." She looked at the man who appeared sleeping. "What is his name?"

Carl cleared his throat. "This is...

"Charlie. My name is Charlie." the words were spoken with eyes closed.

---

Jenny gave her most kindest smile to the group of reporters in the room.

"Hello. I am here to read a statement concerning the victims of today's horrendous accident on I 65 this morning around eleven am. Our EMS providers responded valiantly and triaged those involved efficiently. The twelve trauma victims that were brought to Lansing Memorial Hospital were all identified and families were notified. Here are the following names and their conditions."

She read the names. None of which were very familiar to her until she stated...

"Lynn Johnson" She caught her breath. "Um, er." She read ahead... She swallowed hard.

"Excuse me. I am sorry. I wasn't able to proof read this copy before coming to talk with you."

She squinted her eyes and focused. Pushing her emotions down so hard, she became almost robot like.

"Lynn Johnson. Critical condition."

Somehow, Jenny had finished the list. Light bulbs flashed at her and reporters started to throw questions.

Jenny walked to the side of the podium.

"I am sorry. That is all the information I have. I will bring updates when there are any." She turned and fled the room. The HR person held the door for her.

"Great job, for your first time."

"Look. I have to find my friend. Lynn Johnson, can you tell where she is?"

---

Dr. Clark asked for a sponge and offered his forehead. The liver was repaired and the spleen removed. Anesthesia then stated.

"Sam, her heart rate is now dropping and her pressure is down to sixty. I only have one until left."

"What?" He stared at the opened abdomen. "The bleeding here has stopped."

"Then she is bleeding somewhere else." He hung the last unit.

"Tiny, get the Cardiology surgeon in here right away."

"What?"

"Just do it!"

Sam took a deep breath.

"Give me an intracardiac needle with a sixty ml syringe. Prep the chest;"

He entered the space between the third and fourth intercostal. He felt the resistance and pushed a little more. It had been awhile since he had done this, but it was all he could think of. If there was a tear in the heart from the same rib fxs that had punctured her liver and spleen, this would help. if not, the patient would die anyway. The syringe showed a flash back of blood and only with a slight pull on the syringe, it filled immediately.

"Tiny, did you get a hold of that cardiac surgeon?"

"Yes. He is busy doing a by pass graft at State."

"Get him on the phone! Get me perfusionist and a heart lung machine, now!"

The Anesthetist looked at the general surgeon.

"Sam, this is not something you can do."

"I can try. If I don't, she will die."

"Sam, she should have been dead a while ago."

"Tiny, is he on the phone?"

"Yes."

"What is his name again?"

"Dr. Justin Ortega."

"Put him on speaker. Not a sound in here, okay?"

"Dr. Ortega?"

"Yes."

"I have twenty eight year old healthy white female who is status post a mva this morning. I have repaired the liver lac and performed a splenectomy. Her blood pressure is still dropping and her heart rate is also dropping. I did a cardiocentesis and she does have a tamponade."

"Then walk away. You cannot save her."

"If you were here, you could save her right?"

"But I am not there."

"I have a perfusioniston the way. I am licensed general surgeon with army experience under my belt. I want you to talk me through this."

"You have got to be f.... kidding me."

"Justin? My name is Sam. This is my operating room. Watch your language."

A heavy sigh resounded through the OR room.

'Get Harry Crookshanks on the phone. He is my assistant. He should be in the hospital making rounds. I will talk you through it. But only on the condition, he is in the room with you. You need to know, if the outcome is bad. I had nothing to do with this."

The anestesiologist spoke up. "Just for the record, this woman should have been dead already. I am willing to see this through."

"And who are you?"

"I am Dr. Jeremy Thompson."

"Ah, I remember you. Okay. with my assistant and the famous Dr. Thompson. myself and Dr. Sam Clark here... maybe this girl can have a chance."

---

Mrs. Smith sat at her desk. "Why not?"

She got on the computer and wrote a memo under the bosses' name.

"To all departments. I am asking you to consider donating blood. The local blood bank is getting dangerously low due to the horrible car accident this morning involving our own. . It is time for our company to step up and give. I have requested two of their mobile units to come to our parking lot and their estimated time of arrival will be in twenty minutes. Employees just need to tell their supervisor they wish to donate and they will be excused to go to the van. Sincerely, Rick Matthews, CEO."

She smiled as she looked up when the door opened.

There stood none other than the four brothers. Mrs. Smith's smile stiffened as the Chaiman came over to her.

"Mrs. Smith, I hear that Rick has gone to personally check on our people."

She nodded, then a small devious thought came to mind.

"I have come here to retrieve a few personal items."

The devious thought started to grow.

"So I will just go in and get my stuff."

The devious thought now had a mind of its own.

"Oh. Mr. Chairman. I am so sorry.... I really am. I threw that stuff out yesterday."

"What?????" He screamed. "Most of those magazines were collector's items. They were vintage. I had pin ups of Marilyn Monroe, Anne Bankroft and Mae West."

A.J. arched an eyebrow. So that is where my collection went...He glowered at his brother.

"Well, the trash might not have been picked up yet. Maybe you, four.... gentlemen..." she almost choked on that word, "Could follow me and we could all look for it. It is around back in the parking lot dumpsters."

She got up and turned off her computer, slowly... Put her phone on voice mail....slowly Picked up her purse and then accidentally dropped it, spilling the contents... and so retrieved them slowly. She pushed her chair in and then sighed, drinking the last dregs of her coffee.

"Any time, Mrs. Smith." The Chairman ground out.

She gave the man her brightest smile.

The four followed the woman around back. Two blood mobiles were parked. Each had a line formed at the door of the vehicle. Mrs. Smith linked arms with A.J. and the Chairman, and announced.

"Isn't this great? Our esteemed board members are here and wish to donate, in order to help out the victims in today's accident. Could you guys, see your way to let them jump to the head of the line?"

The lines parted and backed up allowing the four to go up front.

Clapping, cheering, and chants erupted from the crowd. The four brothers bit their tongues as Mrs. Smith smiled broadly, placing The Chairman and A.J. in the front of one line, and John and Chris in front of the other.

---

Allison stared at Stanley.

"With your wife so heavily involved with this organ trafficking case, you are going to have to be called on as a witness to collaborate her story. I cannot let you continue to work on this with me. It might be percieved as a conflict of interest and the defense would file for a mistrial."

"Allison, what are you saying?"

"I am saying, Stanley, that I need you to concentrate on the A.J. Matthews case."

Stanley nodded. "I understand."

He hit the remote of the TV. HIs favorite soap opera was off the air and a press conference was being held.

"Allison... look at this."

"Since when do you have time to watch TV?"

"I always watch it when I eat my lunch. There has been a huge accident on I 65."

A list of names and their conditions scrolled over the screen.

"Why does Charlie Johnson sound familiar?" Allison spoke, her eyebrows wrinkled with thought.

"Because, he is one of our witnesses on the A.J. Matthews case."

"Damn." She muttered.

to be continued.