Code 4

I work in a level 1 trauma center, so we are used to hearing constant calls for "codes" (a patient emergency that requires a medical team to take emergency measures) and to hearing the medical helicopter coming in & out bringing with patients. It's routine for us, so we give way to teams rushing by or wheeling patients to tests, scans or the operating rooms.

Tuesday was a typical day for our team. I work for Dr. Fracture, and we were seeing a wide array of patients in clinic that day. After we finished seeing our morning patients Dr. Fracture, the residents (Dr. McBroken and Dr. ScutMonkey), our medical assistant (Ms. Organized) and I, headed down to the cafeteria for lunch. We inhaled our hospital food (no taste, so we eat fast) and reluctantly headed up.

On our way up, we saw a gurney rushing down the hall. It was loaded with machines, oxygen, tubes and a very small appearing patient. (We are attached to a children's hospital, also). There were 3 medical personnel guiding the gurney and they were intent on moving this patient along.

Dr. McBroken jumped back to get out of the path the gurney, Dr. Fracture and I pinned ourselves up against the wall. Our entourage split like the "Red Sea".

As the gurney whisked by with a breeze, we all quickly looked at the patient.

It was a baby doll. She was intubated, on heart monitors and had IV's in place.

Dr. McBroken wondered if it would be a Workmen's Comp case if he would have been hit by the gurney with a baby doll.

...disaster averted...