Notorious D.O.C. (Hope Sze medical mystery) Read Online Free PDF

told me the error of
my ways. "That's the psych nurse's chair," he'd told me. "She
always sits there." Now I sat there with her.
    This envelope was the first concrete sign
that Mrs. Lee meant business. Last chance to listen to Tucker.
    Forget Tucker. I started to rip open the
envelope flap.
    Nancy shook her head and waved a
clipboard at me. "Hot off the press."
    I reached for the chart and laid the
envelope on the table, both disappointed and secretly relieved. "What've
you got for me?"
    "Reena Schuster. A twenty-nine
year-old female who says she's depressed."
    I was already scanning the triage note.
Normal vitals, allergic to Haldol, nothing else remarkable. I hadn't done any
psych-emerg before, but I'd done enough emerg last month to figure out the ER's
no-nonsense approach to young, healthy, mildly depressed women: see if she's
suicidal and if she's not, give her the boot.
    In a nice way.
    I could give her a prescription or tell
her to make an appointment with her doctor for a change in medication. If she
didn't have an M.D., I'd hook her up with someone. And I'd make a "suicide
pact." It sounds like something teenagers do with loaded shotguns under
their arms, but actually, it boils down to, "Promise you'll come back if
you feel like killing yourself."
    So I already had vague plans for Reena
Schuster before I even met her.
    Room 14, the psych room, was a white box,
usually empty except for the bed with restraining straps. Today its lights were
off, which was kind of weird, but the surrounding emerg's fluorescent lights
brightened the gloom of the room.
    A heavyset woman paced the room like a
caged lion. Another woman, thin with bad blonde highlights visible even in dim
light, sat on the bed and snapped her gum.
    I knocked on the open door. The
lion-pacer rounded the room to face me. She gasped and grabbed her chest so
suddenly, her Medic Alert bracelet clinked against her watch.
    Uh-oh. Ten-to-one, she was Reena
Schuster, dramatic before we even started.
    The skinny one narrowed her eyes at me
without unfolding her legs from the bed. "Are you the doctor? You look way
too young."
    I forced a smile as I flicked on the
light. We all blinked. "Hi, I'm Dr. Sze. I'm a medical doctor doing my
residency training." I turned back to the lion-pacer. "Are you Reena
Schuster?"
    "Oh, God." she said instead of
answering. "Oh. My. GOD." She threw herself on the bed and wrapped
her head in her hands, rocking back and forth so hard on the edge, the gurney's
wheels shifted. "It's fate. I know it is. I'm being punished."
    "Reena. Chill," said the
friend.
    I cleared my throat. I'm not saying all
patients love me, but was she really saying I was a punishment? Maybe it was
the depression talking, although from what I've seen, truly depressed people
don't have energy to pace or apply blue eyeliner like Reena. I tucked the
clipboard under my arm, an uncertain smile pasted on my face.
    Reena grabbed her own wavy brown hair
with her hands and twisted it with her fingers until I saw her knuckles blanch.
"Jodi? You see it too, don't you? We're coming full circle."
    The friend, Jodi, put her arm around her.
"Reena..."
    "No. I know you think I'm nuts, but
I'm serious. This is it. This is it !"
Her voice rose to a scream. She dropped her hair and pounded her hands on her
thighs.
    I glanced at the door. I didn't dare
close it. Rule number one: if you're worried, leave the door open.
    Nancy stood behind the Plexiglas,
frowning at us. So at least rule number two was covered: get help.
    "Reena—"
    "Don't say my name!"
    Jodi drew Reena's head toward her chest
and glared at me. "Could we get another doctor?"
    It would look weak to go back without
even asking one question. "I haven't done an assessment—"
    Reena burst into noisy, messy tears.
    "For God's sake, what do you want
from her? She can't talk to you!" Jodi's voice was so hard, it cut through
Reena's sobs.
    Both Reena and I got very still.
    I swallowed hard. Technically, I'm an
M.D., but so many