A Rose in Shadow

Thursday

THURSDAY

Samantha pushed the gurney down the hallway, listening to the one squeaky wheel while it echoed in the quiet.

The patient on the gurney had been sedated and his arms had been cuffed to the sides of the bed, for his safety and for the safety of the medical staff.

Samantha's rotation today was in the psychiatric ward of the hospital and the current patient was being brought back to his room after having an MRI scan in another part of the hospital.

Suffering from severe schizophrenia, the patient, Charles Winston, was often violent.

On his first day at the hospital he broke the jaw of a male orderly when he managed to grab an IV pole and swing it at him. On his second day he dislocated the shoulder of a female doctor when she attempted to take his blood pressure during a routine exam.

Therefore, whenever Mr. Winston needed tests in other parts of the hospital there was always an orderly, a doctor and a nurse with him and he was placed under full sedation. The rest of the time, when he remained in the psychiatric wing, he was medicated only for his illness, which made him a little calmer but he was always strong and unpredictable and the hospital was not prepared to take any more chances with people's safety. He was currently on a short waiting list for permanent residence at a mental facility, which specialized in his disorder, but until he could be transferred they followed procedure and he was cuffed to his bed. Everyone knew the drill.

Once they reached his room, Samantha, Dr. Blakely and Kevin, the orderly, all helped to transfer him to his bed, where again he was restrained with a leather cuff to his arm and where Samantha and Dr. Blakely would monitor him until he came fully out of the sedative. Kevin would be outside of the open door in the hallway in case of trouble.

Samantha had just reattached the heart monitor and was checking to make certain that the machine was recording correctly when they heard a commotion in the hallway and Kevin poked his head into the door. "Dr. Blakely, Mrs. Sellers is having a reaction to her medication and appears to be in seizure. Dr. Graham is on lunch. Can you help?"

Glancing at Samantha and his patient he nodded his head. "I won't be long Sam. Keep monitoring his heart rate please"

"Of course, Doctor"

Samantha turned back to the heart machine and placed her hand onto Mr. Winston's wrist to check his pulse rate when the door to the hallway was suddenly pulled shut.

In this ward, because of the unpredictability of the patients, all of the rooms were interior rooms, meaning that there were no outside windows and the hallways accessing the rooms ran along the outside wall of the building. As well, all of the rooms in this ward had doors which locked from the outside only and these doors were never closed if there were staff members in with the patients.

Mr. Winston started to stir and Sam felt her own pulse start to race a bit. Determined to stay calm, there must be a logical reason for the door to have been closed; she wandered over to it to look out of the small window into the hallway. If she turned her head far to the right she could still see people rushing about, presumably to deal with Mrs. Seller's reaction. Mr. Winston moaned behind her and she glanced his way immediately noticing, in panic, that only one of his cuffs had been put back on. He now had his eyes open and was watching her.

Charles Winston was a wiry man with ropey muscular arms and coarse, rough bristly hair and whiskers. He had only had one visitor since he had been admitted to the hospital and that was a care worker from the group home he had been living in before he went off of his medication and had to be hospitalized.

Stay calm, Samantha told herself.

She somehow had to get back over to his bed and reattach the restraint before he realized and was able to get himself free. She gave a tight smile and walked slowly to him. "How are you feeling, Mr. Winston?" She reached down gently to touch the wrist of the hand that was not restrained hoping that he would assume that she was checking his pulse again.

She reached down with her free hand to discreetly pull up the restraint from where it hung beside the bed when she felt his fingers grip hers tightly. Her eyes went to his and she could see the confusion there as well as the blankness. She was attempting to pull her hand free from his when the door flung open and Kevin came in looking frantic. "Sam" he rushed over to her and pried Mr. Winston's fingers from hers while the two of them adjusted the restraint. He pulled her hand back to take a look.

"I'm fine Kevin, thanks." She gave a nervous laugh. "I didn't realize that we hadn't completed the restraints and he was starting to come to by the time that I did."

She tilted her head to look at him. "Did you close the door?"

Kevin, still looking frazzled pulled her toward the door, which was now open. "No, I didn't. I know better. If it hadn't been for the rose though I probably wouldn't have noticed that it was closed right away since I was still down the hall with Mrs. Sellers. As soon as I saw it, I came running. It creeped me out"

Samantha felt her stomach drop "What rose?"