Mind the Bleep

17 | Lemon And Herb

TW: Mild medical gore

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"No, I haven't had the chance to look at Mr Campbell's CT scan results yet. What does it show?" She halted on the final step of the staircase leading to Juniper ward; her right hand meandering around the iron railing of the bannister, whilst her left hand nested upon her stealthily rising-and-falling chest as she caught her breath. "Or should I be asking how bad it is?"

"Get on the nearest computer and load up the images," Isaac guided Caliana from down the phone line.

Noting the urgency within Isaac's instructions, Caliana headed directly to Juniper. She settled down onto the only vacant computer at the nursing station, disregarding the incessant glowering of Nurse Jedd Maddox. She set Bleep 101 beside the computer monitor, dismissing its frequent blaring but making a mental note of the caller ID to redial back later. Now, she cast a sigh of profanity as she hastily typed her username and password incorrectly thrice. The fact that she had become increasingly receptive to Isaac's breathing from down the line was the probable solitary cause of her erroneous actions; the sheer sound transporting her back to their time in the Zoo cloakroom. She bobbed her head twice to evacuate her mind of the disfavored thoughts, as she finally inputted the patient identifier information, and Mr Campbell's images flashed upon the screen. "Okay, I've got the images up now."

"Now, go to the third set of images – the ones of his spinal canal. Trace down from the base of his brain, down to the cervical spinal cord, until you get to the tenth thoracic vertebrae — T10. The vertebrae appear bright white, but on his scan, you can see a layer of black surrounding the spinal canal. Are you able to distinguish between the two on the images?"

Caliana tracked her finger down the screen, counting the vertebrae out loud down to the tenth line, and sure enough, there was a gigantic black entity encasing the tenth level of the vertebrae obscuring the spinal column. "I see it. But it's actually tracking all the way down from the thoracic vertebrae to the lower lumbar vertebrae at L3?"

"Exactly," Isaac affirmed. "It's an abscess. An epidural abscess to be exact. A very very large collection of pus is surrounding his spine and compressing against his spinal column. Because of how large it is, and the fact that this specific type of bacteria created a protective capsule around them, it's unlikely that the intravenous antibiotics will penetrate deep enough to treat the infection. And, as you've correctly said, the epidural abscess is tracking down to the lumbar level, at L3. Which means what exactly, Doctor Monsoon?"

Caliana allowed her eyelids to flutter closed, as she desperately recalled her final year anatomy classes. "Which means...it means..." She stuttered out the words.

"Don't rush it. Think it all through logically. You know this."

She bit down on her lower lip as she endeavoured to quench her nerves. "Well...the spinal column terminates at the level of L4. So, if the infection is compressing at the level above the final level, then it means..." She ceased, emitting an audible gasp as the realisation dawned upon her. "It means that if the spinal nerves at that level are compressed for long enough, he'll lose all function from that level below. Which means being unable to control his bowels and bladder, and not being able to mobilise. Essentially, he'll be paralysed from his waist downwards."

"Precisely. So, we need to move fast now." Isaac exclaimed. Caliana's eyes remained fixated on the pixelated images glaring back down at her from the screen. Her hand clutched around the mouse, as she repeatedly traced around the area of compression. "Caliana, are you still there? Please don't go silent on me, it's rather unnerving."

"Sorry. Sorry." She muttered incoherently. "I'm just thinking...that all that running around trying to find a scanner to accommodate him was all for nothing. Because he might not be able to walk even when he does come around. It all just feels...futile. Like, I didn't help him at all. Not really."