| Mystery and Crime Fiction posted March 14, 2024 |
  |
A book Skeletons from my Closet re-opens bad memories.
Silence the Skeletons
by rburnett110
The author has placed a warning on this post for violence.
Ten- forty-seven p.m. glowed on the cars digital clock. A patient visitor unconcerned with the usual visitor hours, surveyed the parking lot for an appropriate place to park.
God’s Mercy Hospital was not a large multibed institution like Truman Medical Center in Kansas City. It was a small private 20-bed licensed facility with rooms that resembled a luxury hotel suite and reserved for the ultra-rich of the city.
Built back in the 1930’s, the three-story stone structure had four white pillars at the front entrance. Shinny green English ivy spider webbed up its old stone walls to the roof.
The grounds and outbuildings were kept immaculate for both patients and guests. Large plantings of red and pink bronze leaf begonias were used as borders along the patterned concrete pathways.
The patient visitor pulled up and stopped where a large sodium parking lot light flashed bright for an instant, dimmed, flickered again and went to black. The car moved forward to the darkened area provided by the burnt-out lot light.
The car door opened, and the interior lighting of the car flashed on and brightened the immediate area. At the same time, a bell chimed to signal the keys were still in the ignition. The kerfuffle caused the patient visitor to flinch from the unwanted exposure. The patient visitor grabbed the keys to stop the noise.
The interior light continued to glow but at this time of night few other visitors would be around to identify this visitor.
Reaching over the front seat, the patient visitor removed a decorative gift bag, then closed the car door softly to reduce any further noise in an otherwise dead silent night with the only noise being the rhythmic tsh,tsh,tsh cadence of an automated sprinkler system somewhere in the distance watering the landscape.
Red and blue tissue paper covered the top of the decorative gift bag concealing its contents. Swinging the bag back and forth, the patient visitor walked casually to the hospital main entrance.
The patient visitor recalled his earlier walk through the hospital and used the main entrance without fear of being noticed. The stairwell just inside the main door would bring him up to the second floor. The whole concept of revenge for the oppressed and death to the oppressor reinforced his resolve.
The second-floor landing to the side of the main elevator doors was empty so he carefully opened the stairwell door to the ward.
Cha-Ching, the chimes of the elevator door pierced the silence. The patient visitor froze. He was in the stair well. Was someone coming out or getting into the elevator? If someone came from the elevator to the stairwell and recognized the patient visitor, the mission would have to be aborted. The elevator doors closed with a clunk. The patient visitor listened, intently. No footsteps, nor did anyone appear on that side of the ward. It must have been someone leaving. The patient visitor continued his walk.
The elevator lobby divided the ward into east and west halves. Five patient rooms each lined the north and south sides of the short corridors.
A nurses’ station and equipment storage ran down the middle of the ward and serviced the five rooms on either side.
Another nurse’s station, a replica of the other was located in the opposite half of the ward: one nurse for each station.
State of the art patient monitors were located in a centralized monitoring lab on the first floor. Everything was radio controlled and wireless. It reduced the number of staff required to watch patient vitals. A simple call would send the waiting nurse to any room requiring her help. A call to the central monitoring station by the ward nurse would alert the on-call physician and a “Code Blue” Catastrophic Intervention Team would race to the location of the emergency.
The patient visitor pondered the signage at the elevator lobby, then turned to his right and then left heading for room 205 West which was at the far end of the corridor. The patient visitor carried the large decorative gift bag in his left hand and kept it motionless at his side to deflect any noise that would be unusual in this environment at this time of night.
Room 205 West was the last room on the right on the north side of the ward. Unfortunately, the patient in 205 west, was to be collateral damage necessary to complete the primary mission.
The patient visitor left the elevator lobby and headed for 205 west. To escape being seen the patient visitor squatted into a “duck walk” position below the counter at the nurses’ station. His knees snapped like the sound of cracking knuckles and the seams of his pants gave a slight ripping sound. When the patient visitor reached the end of the counter and peeked around the corner. The on-duty nurse was deeply engrossed in patient charts. Her shift replacement would arrive in a few minutes and the charts needed to be completed before she could go home.
The patient visitor moved past the nurse’s station until it was safe to stand and walk the rest of the way to room 205, west. The patient visitor went directly to the patient bathroom and emerged moments later in a white lab coat and white latex gloves. A faux ID badge made on a Kinko’s color copier hung from the breast pocket of the lab coat identifying him as an attending doctor visiting his patient.
The patient visitor removed a large BBQ basting syringe with a needle already affixed from the gift bag and placed it on the patient’s bedside table.
The cool green glow from the patients monitors provided just enough light for the task at hand. The visitor, with unruffled calmness bent beside the bed and raised the warm urine drainage bag attached to the catheterized patient. The patient visitor inserted the needle of the BBQ syringe into the top of the urine bag where the catheter tube from the patient entered the bag and then withdrew a full barrel of the patient’s dark yellow urine. Removing the needle, the patient visitor shook the syringe to mix the urine with a quarter strength solution of succinylcholine that had been added earlier.
Standing up, the patient visitor closed the IV drip and inserted the BBQ syringe needle into the IV connector pushing the plunger in, and emptying the contents into the line. Within one minute, the concoction would stop the patients breathing and send the patient into convulsions triggering every alarm in the ward. There would be a minute of confusion before the nurse on duty went into panic mode. Perhaps another minute as the patient’s vitals went crazy. The last resort, code blue. The nurse wouldn’t be able to handle everything by herself.
The patient visitor quickly gathered the instruments and threw them into the decorative gift bag. Glancing both up and down the hall to insure it was clear the patient visitor walked briskly out of the room to the visitors lounge at the same end of the ward as the gasping patient.
The sound of the nurses’ running footsteps towards room 205 west was the signal for the patient visitor to move to the opposite side of the lounge and move stealthily up the ward hallway to room 216 east the intended targets room.
The patient visitor stopped momentarily at the elevator lobby and made sure it was clear. Moving to the second nurse’s station, the visitor duck walked below the counter to avoid being detected.
The nurse on duty at this station had moved out to the opposite hall waiting to provide assistance if needed in the opposite ward.
Once past the nurse’s station counter it only took a few more running stealthy steps to reach the real targets room, 216 east. Three more steps to target’s bedside and to confirm his identity from the chart hanging off the rear rung of the targets bed. This time the visitor quickly removed a phlebotomy kit from the gift bag, rotated the drip wheel of the IV to the closed position to ensure the contents of the IV bag wouldn’t dilute the death potion to be administered.
Pushing the plunger forward he injected the premeasured amount of Succinylcholine into the patient’s IV coupler. Once injected into the line the drip wheel of the IV was turned to its normal on position.
With the patient already a high-risk Cardiac victim and with Succinylcholine used by the ambulance EMT when being brought to God’s
Mercy Hospital, the additional dose injected tonight would never be detected.
Suffocation trauma caused by the Succinylcholine injection would trigger another but more severe heart attack. The introduction of an air bubble into the veins of the patient would at the minimum, cause some confusion and provide a little time for another heart attack to ensure the patient’s life was over.
No extra needle trace marks would be found on the patient since the IV coupler was used and no residual chemical elements would be found due to the untraceable elements of Succinylcholine. Since the drug had been used by the EMT’s previously at the scene of the original heart attack it would take hours to pinpoint a little extra Succinylcholine in the blood stream.
“Code blue, room 205 west. Code Blue room 205 west.” the overhead announcement said. “Dr. Griswald please report to room 205 west , code blue. Dr Griswald please report to room 205 west, code blue.
The patient visitor now in room 216 east watched his target: saw his body shutter then stiffen from the trauma of being suffocated.
A signal sounded from a monitor in the room and a flat line appeared on the screen. As planned, the patient had another heart attack.
The second nurses’ station alarm went off.
Both nurses’ stations on the ward were momentarily unattended due to the code call in 205 west. The alarm ringing at 216 east went unanswered until the switchboard operator called on the overhead P.A. system.
Exiting the hospital, the P.A. system barked; “Code blue, room 216 east. Code Blue room 216 east. Dr. Griswald please report to room 216 east code blue. Dr Griswald please report to room 216 east code blue.”
The patient visitor deposited the empty gift bag and faux name badge in an outside trash container and tossed the used syringes in a street curb water drain.
CHAPTER 2
A tall wide shouldered man in a wrinkled dark blue suit stood at the second-floor nurses’ station.
“My name is Detective Raglan, Kansas City Police Department.” He glanced down at his black covered occurrence notebook in his left hand. “I’d like to speak to a Dr. Griswald,” he said using the information in the notebook for reference.
“I’m Dr. Griswald,” a man in a white lab coat said as he turned to face the Detective.
“Just stopped by to pick up a copy of the death certificate on the patient you called in,” Detective Raglan said. “Anything unusual?”
“I’m always at a loss to explain how a patient dies after he has shown such good signs of a full recovery. But I have to admit the body acts in mysterious ways. I would never have suspected a second heart attack was possible let alone one at a level to kill him.”
“Do you expect foul play?”
“No nothing like that,” Dr. Griswald said. “The bloodwork that was done immediately after we got to his room was reported clean. Although there is a slight elevation in the amount of succinic acid and choline in his system that most likely is caused by the injection of Succinylcholine by the EMT on the way here. I authorized it for endotracheal intubation.” “What’s that mean?” Rags asked.
When a person has trouble breathing due to a trauma, we insert a breathing tube down their throat. When we can’t insert the tube, we use Succinylcholine to relax the muscles in the throat enough to accept the breathing tube. No big deal, we do it every day,” Dr. Griswald explained.
“Okay so it’s not an uncommon procedure?” Rags asked.
“Not at all,” the doctor said. “Other than that, everything else points to his heart attack. Let me say and to put you at ease, there is not one thing to suggest foul play. We will however, as Hospital policy, and with his estate’s approval, delve into this more deeply to try and discover what we could have done differently that might have prevented this unfortunate situation.
“I fully understand,” Rags said. “When you get your final report, I’d like you to send me a copy.”
“Of course,” Dr. Griswald confirmed.
Ten- forty-seven p.m. glowed on the cars digital clock. A patient visitor unconcerned with the usual visitor hours, surveyed the
parking lot for an appropriate place to park.
God’s Mercy Hospital was not a large multibed institution like Truman Medical Center in Kansas City. It was a small private 20-bed licensed facility with rooms that resembled a luxury hotel suite and reserved for the ultra-rich of the city.
Built back in the 1930’s, the three-story stone structure had four white pillars at the front entrance. Shinny green English ivy spider webbed up its old stone walls to the roof.
The grounds and outbuildings were kept immaculate for both patients and guests. Large plantings of red and pink bronze leaf begonias were used as borders along the patterned concrete pathways.
The patient visitor pulled up and stopped where a large sodium parking lot light flashed bright for an instant, dimmed, flickered again and went to black. The car moved forward to the darkened area provided by the burnt-out lot light.
The car door opened, and the interior lighting of the car flashed on and brightened the immediate area. At the same time, a bell chimed to signal the keys were still in the ignition. The kerfuffle caused the patient visitor to flinch from the unwanted exposure. The patient visitor grabbed the keys to stop the noise.
The interior light continued to glow but at this time of night few other visitors would be around to identify this visitor.
Reaching over the front seat, the patient visitor removed a decorative gift bag, then closed the car door softly to reduce any further noise in an otherwise dead silent night with the only noise being the rhythmic tsh,tsh,tsh cadence of an automated sprinkler system somewhere in the distance watering the landscape.
Red and blue tissue paper covered the top of the decorative gift bag concealing its contents. Swinging the bag back and forth, the patient visitor walked casually to the hospital main entrance.
The patient visitor recalled his earlier walk through the hospital and used the main entrance without fear of being noticed. The stairwell just inside the main door would bring him up to the second floor. The whole concept of revenge for the oppressed and death to the oppressor reinforced his resolve.
The second-floor landing to the side of the main elevator doors was empty so he carefully opened the stairwell door to the ward.
Cha-Ching, the chimes of the elevator door pierced the silence. The patient visitor froze. He was in the stair well. Was someone coming out or getting into the elevator? If someone came from the elevator to the stairwell and recognized the patient visitor, the mission would have to be aborted. The elevator doors closed with a clunk. The patient visitor listened, intently. No footsteps, nor did anyone appear on that side of the ward. It must have been someone leaving. The patient visitor continued his walk.
The elevator lobby divided the ward into east and west halves. Five patient rooms each lined the north and south sides of the short corridors.
A nurses’ station and equipment storage ran down the middle of the ward and serviced the five rooms on either side.
Another nurse’s station, a replica of the other was located in the opposite half of the ward: one nurse for each station.
State of the art patient monitors were located in a centralized monitoring lab on the first floor. Everything was radio controlled and wireless. It reduced the number of staff required to watch patient vitals. A simple call would send the waiting nurse to any room requiring her help. A call to the central monitoring station by the ward nurse would alert the on-call physician and a “Code Blue” Catastrophic Intervention Team would race to the location of the emergency.
The patient visitor pondered the signage at the elevator lobby, then turned to his right and then left heading for room 205 West which was at the far end of the corridor. The patient visitor carried the large decorative gift bag in his left hand and kept it motionless at his side to deflect any noise that would be unusual in this environment at this time of night.
Room 205 West was the last room on the right on the north side of the ward. Unfortunately, the patient in 205 west, was to be collateral damage necessary to complete the primary mission.
The patient visitor left the elevator lobby and headed for 205 west. To escape being seen the patient visitor squatted into a “duck walk” position below the counter at the nurses’ station. His knees snapped like the sound of cracking knuckles and the seams of his pants gave a slight ripping sound. When the patient visitor reached the end of the counter and peeked around the corner. The on-duty nurse was deeply engrossed in patient charts. Her shift replacement would arrive in a few minutes and the charts needed to be completed before she could go home.
The patient visitor moved past the nurse’s station until it was safe to stand and walk the rest of the way to room 205, west. The patient visitor went directly to the patient bathroom and emerged moments later in a white lab coat and white latex gloves. A faux ID badge made on a Kinko’s color copier hung from the breast pocket of the lab coat identifying him as an attending doctor visiting his patient.
The patient visitor removed a large BBQ basting syringe with a needle already affixed from the gift bag and placed it on the patient’s bedside table.
The cool green glow from the patients monitors provided just enough light for the task at hand. The visitor, with unruffled calmness bent beside the bed and raised the warm urine drainage bag attached to the catheterized patient. The patient visitor inserted the needle of the BBQ syringe into the top of the urine bag where the catheter tube from the patient entered the bag and then withdrew a full barrel of the patient’s dark yellow urine. Removing the needle, the patient visitor shook the syringe to mix the urine with a quarter strength solution of succinylcholine that had been added earlier.
Standing up, the patient visitor closed the IV drip and inserted the BBQ syringe needle into the IV connector pushing the plunger in, and emptying the contents into the line. Within one minute, the concoction would stop the patients breathing and send the patient into convulsions triggering every alarm in the ward. There would be a minute of confusion before the nurse on duty went into panic mode. Perhaps another minute as the patient’s vitals went crazy. The last resort, code blue. The nurse wouldn’t be able to handle everything by herself.
The patient visitor quickly gathered the instruments and threw them into the decorative gift bag. Glancing both up and down the hall to insure it was clear the patient visitor walked briskly out of the room to the visitors lounge at the same end of the ward as the gasping patient.
The sound of the nurses’ running footsteps towards room 205 west was the signal for the patient visitor to move to the opposite side of the lounge and move stealthily up the ward hallway to room 216 east the intended targets room.
The patient visitor stopped momentarily at the elevator lobby and made sure it was clear. Moving to the second nurse’s station, the visitor duck walked below the counter to avoid being detected.
The nurse on duty at this station had moved out to the opposite hall waiting to provide assistance if needed in the opposite ward.
Once past the nurse’s station counter it only took a few more running stealthy steps to reach the real targets room, 216 east. Three more steps to target’s bedside and to confirm his identity from the chart hanging off the rear rung of the targets bed. This time the visitor quickly removed a phlebotomy kit from the gift bag, rotated the drip wheel of the IV to the closed position to ensure the contents of the IV bag wouldn’t dilute the death potion to be administered.
Pushing the plunger forward he injected the premeasured amount of Succinylcholine into the patient’s IV coupler. Once injected into the line the drip wheel of the IV was turned to its normal on position.
With the patient already a high-risk Cardiac victim and with Succinylcholine used by the ambulance EMT when being brought to God’s
Mercy Hospital, the additional dose injected tonight would never be detected.
Suffocation trauma caused by the Succinylcholine injection would trigger another but more severe heart attack. The introduction of an air bubble into the veins of the patient would at the minimum, cause some confusion and provide a little time for another heart attack to ensure the patient’s life was over.
No extra needle trace marks would be found on the patient since the IV coupler was used and no residual chemical elements would be found due to the untraceable elements of Succinylcholine. Since the drug had been used by the EMT’s previously at the scene of the original heart attack it would take hours to pinpoint a little extra Succinylcholine in the blood stream.
“Code blue, room 205 west. Code Blue room 205 west.” the overhead announcement said. “Dr. Griswald please report to room 205 west , code blue. Dr Griswald please report to room 205 west, code blue.
The patient visitor now in room 216 east watched his target: saw his body shutter then stiffen from the trauma of being suffocated.
A signal sounded from a monitor in the room and a flat line appeared on the screen. As planned, the patient had another heart attack.
The second nurses’ station alarm went off.
Both nurses’ stations on the ward were momentarily unattended due to the code call in 205 west. The alarm ringing at 216 east went unanswered until the switchboard operator called on the overhead P.A. system.
Exiting the hospital, the P.A. system barked; “Code blue, room 216 east. Code Blue room 216 east. Dr. Griswald please report to room 216 east code blue. Dr Griswald please report to room 216 east code blue.”
The patient visitor deposited the empty gift bag and faux name badge in an outside trash container and tossed the used syringes in a street curb water drain.
Ten- forty-seven p.m. glowed on the cars digital clock. A patient visitor unconcerned with the usual visitor hours, surveyed the parking lot for an appropriate place to park.
God’s Mercy Hospital was not a large multibed institution like Truman Medical Center in Kansas City. It was a small private 20-bed licensed facility with rooms that resembled a luxury hotel suite and reserved for the ultra-rich of the city.
Built back in the 1930’s, the three-story stone structure had four white pillars at the front entrance. Shinny green English ivy spider webbed up its old stone walls to the roof.
The grounds and outbuildings were kept immaculate for both patients and guests. Large plantings of red and pink bronze leaf begonias were used as borders along the patterned concrete pathways.
The patient visitor pulled up and stopped where a large sodium parking lot light flashed bright for an instant, dimmed, flickered again and went to black. The car moved forward to the darkened area provided by the burnt-out lot light.
The car door opened, and the interior lighting of the car flashed on and brightened the immediate area. At the same time, a bell chimed to signal the keys were still in the ignition. The kerfuffle caused the patient visitor to flinch from the unwanted exposure. The patient visitor grabbed the keys to stop the noise.
The interior light continued to glow but at this time of night few other visitors would be around to identify this visitor.
Reaching over the front seat, the patient visitor removed a decorative gift bag, then closed the car door softly to reduce any further noise in an otherwise dead silent night with the only noise being the rhythmic tsh,tsh,tsh cadence of an automated sprinkler system somewhere in the distance watering the landscape.
Red and blue tissue paper covered the top of the decorative gift bag concealing its contents. Swinging the bag back and forth, the patient visitor walked casually to the hospital main entrance.
The patient visitor recalled his earlier walk through the hospital and used the main entrance without fear of being noticed. The stairwell just inside the main door would bring him up to the second floor. The whole concept of revenge for the oppressed and death to the oppressor reinforced his resolve.
The second-floor landing to the side of the main elevator doors was empty so he carefully opened the stairwell door to the ward.
Cha-Ching, the chimes of the elevator door pierced the silence. The patient visitor froze. He was in the stair well. Was someone coming out or getting into the elevator? If someone came from the elevator to the stairwell and recognized the patient visitor, the mission would have to be aborted. The elevator doors closed with a clunk. The patient visitor listened, intently. No footsteps, nor did anyone appear on that side of the ward. It must have been someone leaving. The patient visitor continued his walk.
The elevator lobby divided the ward into east and west halves. Five patient rooms each lined the north and south sides of the short corridors.
A nurses’ station and equipment storage ran down the middle of the ward and serviced the five rooms on either side.
Another nurse’s station, a replica of the other was located in the opposite half of the ward: one nurse for each station.
State of the art patient monitors were located in a centralized monitoring lab on the first floor. Everything was radio controlled and wireless. It reduced the number of staff required to watch patient vitals. A simple call would send the waiting nurse to any room requiring her help. A call to the central monitoring station by the ward nurse would alert the on-call physician and a “Code Blue” Catastrophic Intervention Team would race to the location of the emergency.
The patient visitor pondered the signage at the elevator lobby, then turned to his right and then left heading for room 205 West which was at the far end of the corridor. The patient visitor carried the large decorative gift bag in his left hand and kept it motionless at his side to deflect any noise that would be unusual in this environment at this time of night.
Room 205 West was the last room on the right on the north side of the ward. Unfortunately, the patient in 205 west, was to be collateral damage necessary to complete the primary mission.
The patient visitor left the elevator lobby and headed for 205 west. To escape being seen the patient visitor squatted into a “duck walk” position below the counter at the nurses’ station. His knees snapped like the sound of cracking knuckles and the seams of his pants gave a slight ripping sound. When the patient visitor reached the end of the counter and peeked around the corner. The on-duty nurse was deeply engrossed in patient charts. Her shift replacement would arrive in a few minutes and the charts needed to be completed before she could go home.
The patient visitor moved past the nurse’s station until it was safe to stand and walk the rest of the way to room 205, west. The patient visitor went directly to the patient bathroom and emerged moments later in a white lab coat and white latex gloves. A faux ID badge made on a Kinko’s color copier hung from the breast pocket of the lab coat identifying him as an attending doctor visiting his patient.
The patient visitor removed a large BBQ basting syringe with a needle already affixed from the gift bag and placed it on the patient’s bedside table.
The cool green glow from the patients monitors provided just enough light for the task at hand. The visitor, with unruffled calmness bent beside the bed and raised the warm urine drainage bag attached to the catheterized patient. The patient visitor inserted the needle of the BBQ syringe into the top of the urine bag where the catheter tube from the patient entered the bag and then withdrew a full barrel of the patient’s dark yellow urine. Removing the needle, the patient visitor shook the syringe to mix the urine with a quarter strength solution of succinylcholine that had been added earlier.
Standing up, the patient visitor closed the IV drip and inserted the BBQ syringe needle into the IV connector pushing the plunger in, and emptying the contents into the line. Within one minute, the concoction would stop the patients breathing and send the patient into convulsions triggering every alarm in the ward. There would be a minute of confusion before the nurse on duty went into panic mode. Perhaps another minute as the patient’s vitals went crazy. The last resort, code blue. The nurse wouldn’t be able to handle everything by herself.
The patient visitor quickly gathered the instruments and threw them into the decorative gift bag. Glancing both up and down the hall to insure it was clear the patient visitor walked briskly out of the room to the visitors lounge at the same end of the ward as the gasping patient.
The sound of the nurses’ running footsteps towards room 205 west was the signal for the patient visitor to move to the opposite side of the lounge and move stealthily up the ward hallway to room 216 east the intended targets room.
The patient visitor stopped momentarily at the elevator lobby and made sure it was clear. Moving to the second nurse’s station, the visitor duck walked below the counter to avoid being detected.
The nurse on duty at this station had moved out to the opposite hall waiting to provide assistance if needed in the opposite ward.
Once past the nurse’s station counter it only took a few more running stealthy steps to reach the real targets room, 216 east. Three more steps to target’s bedside and to confirm his identity from the chart hanging off the rear rung of the targets bed. This time the visitor quickly removed a phlebotomy kit from the gift bag, rotated the drip wheel of the IV to the closed position to ensure the contents of the IV bag wouldn’t dilute the death potion to be administered.
Pushing the plunger forward he injected the premeasured amount of Succinylcholine into the patient’s IV coupler. Once injected into the line the drip wheel of the IV was turned to its normal on position.
With the patient already a high-risk Cardiac victim and with Succinylcholine used by the ambulance EMT when being brought to God’s
Mercy Hospital, the additional dose injected tonight would never be detected.
Suffocation trauma caused by the Succinylcholine injection would trigger another but more severe heart attack. The introduction of an air bubble into the veins of the patient would at the minimum, cause some confusion and provide a little time for another heart attack to ensure the patient’s life was over.
No extra needle trace marks would be found on the patient since the IV coupler was used and no residual chemical elements would be found due to the untraceable elements of Succinylcholine. Since the drug had been used by the EMT’s previously at the scene of the original heart attack it would take hours to pinpoint a little extra Succinylcholine in the blood stream.
“Code blue, room 205 west. Code Blue room 205 west.” the overhead announcement said. “Dr. Griswald please report to room 205 west , code blue. Dr Griswald please report to room 205 west, code blue.
The patient visitor now in room 216 east watched his target: saw his body shutter then stiffen from the trauma of being suffocated.
A signal sounded from a monitor in the room and a flat line appeared on the screen. As planned, the patient had another heart attack.
The second nurses’ station alarm went off.
Both nurses’ stations on the ward were momentarily unattended due to the code call in 205 west. The alarm ringing at 216 east went unanswered until the switchboard operator called on the overhead P.A. system.
Exiting the hospital, the P.A. system barked; “Code blue, room 216 east. Code Blue room 216 east. Dr. Griswald please report to room 216 east code blue. Dr Griswald please report to room 216 east code blue.”
The patient visitor deposited the empty gift bag and faux name badge in an outside trash container and tossed the used syringes in a street curb water drain.
CHAPTER 2
A tall wide shouldered man in a wrinkled dark blue suit stood at the second-floor nurses’ station.
“My name is Detective Raglan, Kansas City Police Department.” He glanced down at his black covered occurrence notebook in his left hand. “I’d like to speak to a Dr. Griswald,” he said using the information in the notebook for reference.
“I’m Dr. Griswald,” a man in a white lab coat said as he turned to face the Detective.
“Just stopped by to pick up a copy of the death certificate on the patient you called in,” Detective Raglan said. “Anything unusual?”
“I’m always at a loss to explain how a patient dies after he has shown such good signs of a full recovery. But I have to admit the body acts in mysterious ways. I would never have suspected a second heart attack was possible let alone one at a level to kill him.”
“Do you expect foul play?”
“No nothing like that,” Dr. Griswald said. “The bloodwork that was done immediately after we got to his room was reported clean. Although there is a slight elevation in the amount of succinic acid and choline in his system that most likely is caused by the injection of Succinylcholine by the EMT on the way here. I authorized it for endotracheal intubation.” “What’s that mean?” Rags asked.
When a person has trouble breathing due to a trauma, we insert a breathing tube down their throat. When we can’t insert the tube, we use Succinylcholine to relax the muscles in the throat enough to accept the breathing tube. No big deal, we do it every day,” Dr. Griswald explained.
“Okay so it’s not an uncommon procedure?” Rags asked.
“Not at all,” the doctor said. “Other than that, everything else points to his heart attack. Let me say and to put you at ease, there is not one thing to suggest foul play. We will however, as Hospital policy, and with his estate’s approval, delve into this more deeply to try and discover what we could have done differently that might have prevented this unfortunate situation.
“I fully understand,” Rags said. “When you get your final report, I’d like you to send me a copy.”
“Of course,” Dr. Griswald confirmed.
Ten- forty-seven p.m. glowed on the cars digital clock. A patient visitor unconcerned with the usual visitor hours, surveyed the
parking lot for an appropriate place to park.
God’s Mercy Hospital was not a large multibed institution like Truman Medical Center in Kansas City. It was a small private 20-bed licensed facility with rooms that resembled a luxury hotel suite and reserved for the ultra-rich of the city.
Built back in the 1930’s, the three-story stone structure had four white pillars at the front entrance. Shinny green English ivy spider webbed up its old stone walls to the roof.
The grounds and outbuildings were kept immaculate for both patients and guests. Large plantings of red and pink bronze leaf begonias were used as borders along the patterned concrete pathways.
The patient visitor pulled up and stopped where a large sodium parking lot light flashed bright for an instant, dimmed, flickered again and went to black. The car moved forward to the darkened area provided by the burnt-out lot light.
The car door opened, and the interior lighting of the car flashed on and brightened the immediate area. At the same time, a bell chimed to signal the keys were still in the ignition. The kerfuffle caused the patient visitor to flinch from the unwanted exposure. The patient visitor grabbed the keys to stop the noise.
The interior light continued to glow but at this time of night few other visitors would be around to identify this visitor.
Reaching over the front seat, the patient visitor removed a decorative gift bag, then closed the car door softly to reduce any further noise in an otherwise dead silent night with the only noise being the rhythmic tsh,tsh,tsh cadence of an automated sprinkler system somewhere in the distance watering the landscape.
Red and blue tissue paper covered the top of the decorative gift bag concealing its contents. Swinging the bag back and forth, the patient visitor walked casually to the hospital main entrance.
The patient visitor recalled his earlier walk through the hospital and used the main entrance without fear of being noticed. The stairwell just inside the main door would bring him up to the second floor. The whole concept of revenge for the oppressed and death to the oppressor reinforced his resolve.
The second-floor landing to the side of the main elevator doors was empty so he carefully opened the stairwell door to the ward.
Cha-Ching, the chimes of the elevator door pierced the silence. The patient visitor froze. He was in the stair well. Was someone coming out or getting into the elevator? If someone came from the elevator to the stairwell and recognized the patient visitor, the mission would have to be aborted. The elevator doors closed with a clunk. The patient visitor listened, intently. No footsteps, nor did anyone appear on that side of the ward. It must have been someone leaving. The patient visitor continued his walk.
The elevator lobby divided the ward into east and west halves. Five patient rooms each lined the north and south sides of the short corridors.
A nurses’ station and equipment storage ran down the middle of the ward and serviced the five rooms on either side.
Another nurse’s station, a replica of the other was located in the opposite half of the ward: one nurse for each station.
State of the art patient monitors were located in a centralized monitoring lab on the first floor. Everything was radio controlled and wireless. It reduced the number of staff required to watch patient vitals. A simple call would send the waiting nurse to any room requiring her help. A call to the central monitoring station by the ward nurse would alert the on-call physician and a “Code Blue” Catastrophic Intervention Team would race to the location of the emergency.
The patient visitor pondered the signage at the elevator lobby, then turned to his right and then left heading for room 205 West which was at the far end of the corridor. The patient visitor carried the large decorative gift bag in his left hand and kept it motionless at his side to deflect any noise that would be unusual in this environment at this time of night.
Room 205 West was the last room on the right on the north side of the ward. Unfortunately, the patient in 205 west, was to be collateral damage necessary to complete the primary mission.
The patient visitor left the elevator lobby and headed for 205 west. To escape being seen the patient visitor squatted into a “duck walk” position below the counter at the nurses’ station. His knees snapped like the sound of cracking knuckles and the seams of his pants gave a slight ripping sound. When the patient visitor reached the end of the counter and peeked around the corner. The on-duty nurse was deeply engrossed in patient charts. Her shift replacement would arrive in a few minutes and the charts needed to be completed before she could go home.
The patient visitor moved past the nurse’s station until it was safe to stand and walk the rest of the way to room 205, west. The patient visitor went directly to the patient bathroom and emerged moments later in a white lab coat and white latex gloves. A faux ID badge made on a Kinko’s color copier hung from the breast pocket of the lab coat identifying him as an attending doctor visiting his patient.
The patient visitor removed a large BBQ basting syringe with a needle already affixed from the gift bag and placed it on the patient’s bedside table.
The cool green glow from the patients monitors provided just enough light for the task at hand. The visitor, with unruffled calmness bent beside the bed and raised the warm urine drainage bag attached to the catheterized patient. The patient visitor inserted the needle of the BBQ syringe into the top of the urine bag where the catheter tube from the patient entered the bag and then withdrew a full barrel of the patient’s dark yellow urine. Removing the needle, the patient visitor shook the syringe to mix the urine with a quarter strength solution of succinylcholine that had been added earlier.
Standing up, the patient visitor closed the IV drip and inserted the BBQ syringe needle into the IV connector pushing the plunger in, and emptying the contents into the line. Within one minute, the concoction would stop the patients breathing and send the patient into convulsions triggering every alarm in the ward. There would be a minute of confusion before the nurse on duty went into panic mode. Perhaps another minute as the patient’s vitals went crazy. The last resort, code blue. The nurse wouldn’t be able to handle everything by herself.
The patient visitor quickly gathered the instruments and threw them into the decorative gift bag. Glancing both up and down the hall to insure it was clear the patient visitor walked briskly out of the room to the visitors lounge at the same end of the ward as the gasping patient.
The sound of the nurses’ running footsteps towards room 205 west was the signal for the patient visitor to move to the opposite side of the lounge and move stealthily up the ward hallway to room 216 east the intended targets room.
The patient visitor stopped momentarily at the elevator lobby and made sure it was clear. Moving to the second nurse’s station, the visitor duck walked below the counter to avoid being detected.
The nurse on duty at this station had moved out to the opposite hall waiting to provide assistance if needed in the opposite ward.
Once past the nurse’s station counter it only took a few more running stealthy steps to reach the real targets room, 216 east. Three more steps to target’s bedside and to confirm his identity from the chart hanging off the rear rung of the targets bed. This time the visitor quickly removed a phlebotomy kit from the gift bag, rotated the drip wheel of the IV to the closed position to ensure the contents of the IV bag wouldn’t dilute the death potion to be administered.
Pushing the plunger forward he injected the premeasured amount of Succinylcholine into the patient’s IV coupler. Once injected into the line the drip wheel of the IV was turned to its normal on position.
With the patient already a high-risk Cardiac victim and with Succinylcholine used by the ambulance EMT when being brought to God’s
Mercy Hospital, the additional dose injected tonight would never be detected.
Suffocation trauma caused by the Succinylcholine injection would trigger another but more severe heart attack. The introduction of an air bubble into the veins of the patient would at the minimum, cause some confusion and provide a little time for another heart attack to ensure the patient’s life was over.
No extra needle trace marks would be found on the patient since the IV coupler was used and no residual chemical elements would be found due to the untraceable elements of Succinylcholine. Since the drug had been used by the EMT’s previously at the scene of the original heart attack it would take hours to pinpoint a little extra Succinylcholine in the blood stream.
“Code blue, room 205 west. Code Blue room 205 west.” the overhead announcement said. “Dr. Griswald please report to room 205 west , code blue. Dr Griswald please report to room 205 west, code blue.
The patient visitor now in room 216 east watched his target: saw his body shutter then stiffen from the trauma of being suffocated.
A signal sounded from a monitor in the room and a flat line appeared on the screen. As planned, the patient had another heart attack.
The second nurses’ station alarm went off.
Both nurses’ stations on the ward were momentarily unattended due to the code call in 205 west. The alarm ringing at 216 east went unanswered until the switchboard operator called on the overhead P.A. system.
Exiting the hospital, the P.A. system barked; “Code blue, room 216 east. Code Blue room 216 east. Dr. Griswald please report to room 216 east code blue. Dr Griswald please report to room 216 east code blue.”
The patient visitor deposited the empty gift bag and faux name badge in an outside trash container and tossed the used syringes in a street curb water drain.
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