Post by Mimi on Aug 18, 2006 10:32:07 GMT -5
“Something’s wrong with the baby,” Marlena whispered to John before she passed out.
“No Doc, no,” John said as he slowly shook her, trying to wake her up. “Don’t do this to me Doc,” he said to her lifeless form. “Roman,” he screamed as loud as he could, hoping that Roman could hear him from downstairs. Her cradled her still form in his arms. She was so cold. “Roman,” he screamed again, panic starting to set in. He slowly stood up with her in his arms and carried her to the bed, noticing that she was bleeding profusely from between her legs.
“Doc, you’ve got to be okay,” he said to her tenderly as he laid her down on the bed. He grabbed a blanket that sat on a nearby chair and placed it over her. “Roman, Alexie, Matrona,” he screamed as loud as he could.
Minutes later Roman ran into the bedroom, stopping at the foot of the bed. “What’s wrong John,” he said trying to catch his breath. Alexie and Matrona soon followed. John was on the bed with Marlena cradled in his arms.
“Something’s wrong with Doc and the baby…she said that something was wrong and then passed out,” John said looking to them for guidance. “She’s bleeding,” he said softly, not wanting to believe it. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her…you’ve got to help me.”
“Let me see her,” Matrona said as she climbed on the bed and knelt next to Marlena. She slowly lowered the blanket that John had places over her. “Would you mind,” she said looking at Alexie and Roman once she realized that Mrs. Black was nude. As she touched Marlena all the hatred, resentment and animosity she felt for her disappeared. Here was a human being that needed her help and she felt obliged to help irregardless of who the person was.
“Alexie, get on the VHF and get Mr. Black’s plane here now…Something is wrong, she’s losing a lot of blood. Her only chance is to leave now,” Matrona muttered to her husband in Yupik, knowing that Mr. Black and Roman wouldn’t be able to understand what she was saying. Alexie immediately left the room to go to the radio and call for a medevac or John’s plane, whichever would arrive first.
“Matrona, tell me in English…what’s wrong with my wife,” John said as he looked down at her pale and lifeless form. Her dark red blood was quickly saturating the white bed linens.
“I think that the baby is coming Mr. Black,” she told him in English as she felt for a pulse on Marlena. It was faint but weak.
“What,” Roman exclaimed as he turned around. He saw Marlena lying in a pool of blood. “Oh god,” he said as he turned back around. “Oh god, what are we going to do? Your plane John and the OB/GYN, we need to call them,” Roman said in a panic. He quickly walked over to the door prepared to make the call himself.
“Alexie already did,” Matrona informed Roman. “Everybody needs to stay calm. Panicking here isn’t going to help Mrs. Black….Now, I may not look it but I’ve had experience helping my people deliver babies…Roman, I need you to bring me so clean towels, a bowl of water and a washcloth,” Matrona said to Roman in as calm a voice as she could muster.
Roman went into the bathroom where he was quickly nauseated by the amount of blood that was on the floor. Sidestepping the bloody mess, he retrieved the items that Matrona asked for.
“Mr. Black….native women have delivered babies for hundreds of years without all your expensive doctors and hospitals…I’m sure that Mrs. Black and her baby will be fine.” Matrona continued checking Marlena’s pulse.
“That doesn’t matter….all that matters is Doc…Come on Doc, wake up please,” John said as he rocked her back and forth in his arms. “I need you Doc, I need this baby…Don’t do this to me,” he pleaded with her.
“Mr. Black, try to keep her still…I know with all the blood it looks bad, probably looks worse than it is, but still I need to check her, if that’s okay with you?” She asked. John nodded his head yes and watched as Matrona moved Marlena’s lower body so that she was lying on her back. She quickly parted her legs and inserted a couple of fingers into Marlena checking to see if she was dilated. John saw her move her other hand on top of her stomach and press down. John was overjoyed to see the baby move.
“That’s a good sign,” Matrona muttered under her breath. “The baby is still alive. Roman could you let Alexie know that need to see him now?” Matrona asked, trying to keep the concern out of her voice.
Roman left the room and ran down the stairs to find Alexie. Alexie was arguing with someone over the VHF and from the sound of the conversation Alexie appeared to be discouraged and upset. Upon seeing Roman he said his good-byes to whoever was on the other end of the radio and terminated the transmission. “What’s going on my friend?” Roman asked him.
“Roman, man, this is no good…no good at all.”
“What do you mean? What’s wrong?”
“John’s plane with the doctor and the kids made it to Anchorage but they can’t come back due to a storm that is coming. All flights in and out of Anchorage are grounded for the time being…that includes the medevac flights.” Alexie put his head in his hands wondering how he was going to tell his boss this bit of news.
“What about flights out of Fairbanks or Juneau for that matter?” Roman asked trying to think where else they could get a plane out of.
“Doesn’t matter…look outside Roman…it’s a mess…the storm is covering half the state. The wind alone makes flying dangerous if not impossible. Add to that the whiteout condition…no one is coming here or leaving here anytime soon.”
“That’s not good enough Alexie…Doc is in bad shape up there…I don’t know what’s wrong with her but it’s a mess. Matrona needs to see you now,” Roman said as he turned around and went back upstairs, Alexie following him.
Matrona looked up when she saw Roman and Alexie enter the room. “Alexie, we are going to have to get this baby out now or they are both going to die,” Matrona warned him in Yupik. “She losing to much blood too quickly…She’s not dilated enough for the baby to come out naturally…I don’t know what’s wrong.” Matrona was trying to be strong and not let John and Roman see the graveness of the situation.
“God be with them,” Alexie replied to Matrona in his native tongue. He looked down at Mrs. Black on the bed. Matrona was right. She was losing a lot of blood.
“When is the plane going to get here?” John asked, unaware of the severity of the situation.
“It’s not John,” Roman said as he put a hand on his shoulder. “All planes are grounded due to the storm. There’s no telling when things will clear up enough to get someone in here.”
“No, No, No. I won’t accept that,” John cried out as he placed both of his hands on his wife’s stomach. “Look at her, she’s bleeding for gods sake.” John removed one hand from Marlenas stomach and picked up a towel and attempted to soak up some of the blood. “We can’t let her bleed to death…someone has to get here and help her.”
“John, my friend,” Alexie said as he faced his boss. “There is no one out there that can help us. We need to work together and get this baby out now,” Alexie said in the most serious and stern voice he could muster. John needed to understand that help wasn’t coming. The only help that they had were themselves.
“How?” John asked. “She’s unconscious…oh my god, she’s going die….she’s going to die,” John stated in shock. “She can’t die, she can’t,” John sobbed as he held tightly onto Marlena torso. Roman looked on is disbelief. The strong John Black that he knew so well was falling apart at the seams. Matrona and Alexie stood by helplessly watching. John clutched Marlena to him tighter and moved her so that she was resting in his lap. “I love you…I love you…I love you…don’t leave me,” he whispered to her as he sobbed, planting small kisses along her lips and jaw line.
Roman, as heartbroken as he was at the site of his ex-wife dying before him, couldn’t take it anymore. She was going to die if they didn’t do something. “Goddammit John, snap out of it…this isn’t helping her.. Pull it together man or they are both going to die,” Roman warned him as he put his hand on John’s shoulder.
“No,” John cried.
“Give me to her,” Roman said as he attempted to pull Marlena out of John’s arms. “You can sit over there and watch or you can help, but goddammit I am not going to sit here and watch her die in your arms.” Roman successfully pulled Marlena lose from John and laid on her the side of the bed.
“Matrona, what do we need to do?” he asked her as he watched John out of the corner of his eye. John was quickly going into shock, unable to comprehend what was happening in front of his eyes. “We don’t have time to save your ass also,” Roman said as he walked up to John and punched him hard in the face, trying to bring him back to reality.
“What was that for?” John asked as he slowly rubbed his cheek. He looked down at the sight before him.
“This is not good,” he stated matter of factly, upon seeing all the blood.
“That’s obvious John…We need to get the baby out now,” Roman said as watched as Matrona took Marlena’s pulse again.
“She’s losing too much blood Roman,” Matrona said, “and her pulse is weakening. The baby needs to come out now.”
“She is not going to die, neither is that baby,” John said as he mentally grasped the severity of the situation finally. When Roman hit him, something in him snapped and the mercenary in him returned. All the medical training he received while employed by Stefano Dimera suddenly returned. “This is what we are going to do…I need to measure for dilation, but Matrona and Alexie I need you to roll her on her side first. I’m worried that her uterus may be compressing her inferior vena cava and her aorta, obstructing the venous return and arterial blood flow…If we don’t watch out, she could have a heart attack or bleed to death.” John watched as they rolled her to the side, then he quickly inserted three fingers into his wife and felt around, while his other hand pressed down on her pelvis. The baby wasn’t responding to the pressure. He withdrew his bloody fingers. “Roman I need you to switch places with Alexie…Alexie go to the kitchen and get the sharpest knife you can find, a candle, matches, a sewing kit, and as many bottles of alcohol you can find, nothing flavored…I need them now.” As soon as Roman switched places with Alexie, John turned his attention back to Marlena.
“Matrona I need you to count the beats per minute and let me know what it is. Roman, I need to know how far along Marlena is…I need to know what I am facing.”
“What do you need to know?” Roman asked as he looked down at his ex-wife and said a little prayer for her and the baby.
“How far along is she? Don’t fucking lie to me either. If the baby is less than 20 to 23 weeks old it’s not going to make due to its gestational age.
“I don’t know,” Roman said plainly. “At least six months.”
“Okay, that’s 24 weeks, we’d be cutting it close and the chance for the baby’s survival would be minimal. Assuming that I’m the father, she’d have to be seven months along or 28 weeks, much better chance of survival…This is going to be such a crap shoot, but we really have no chance…I’d rather know what I’m getting into before hand. If I can play the odds, there’ll be no surprises.” Roman was too stunned at what was going on before him to think about John’s logic…What the hell could he mean if the baby was less than 7 months, who else did he think it belonged to? And more than 7 months? God help them if that was the case.
“Matrona how’s her pulse?” John asked as he got up from the bed and went into the bathroom for more linens. Matrona shouted out the figures.
“Keep her on her side,” he shouted out as he grabbed as many towels and sheets he could find in the bathroom.
“I got the stuff John,” Alexie said out of breath as he ran into the room. He set all the items on the bedside table.
“Great,” John said as he moved Marlena on the bed, putting clean sheets under her. He opened the bottle of Vodka and poured some onto the wash cloth. “Roman, take this and clean her stomach area…Alexie, I need you to get two more items for me…go to the shed and see if there is a soldering iron in there and then check the medicine cabinets and see if you can find any drugs in the house that contain epinephrine, casopressin or dopamine. We need to decrease the blood flow to the uterus…Try the VHF again…I need an ETA on that plane.”
“What the hell do you have in mind?” Roman asked, hoping that what he thought wasn’t true.
“I’m going to do a cesarean section on Marlena.” John said as he lit the candle that Alexie brought and started to sterilize the knife in the flame.
“No fucking way John…No way…you’re going to kill them both.” Romans’ response was more of a plea. John could not be serious about cutting the baby out of Marlena.
“If I don’t do something they’re going to die anyway. The baby isn’t moving Roman. Yes, I admit, this is the worst possible setting…We aren’t in a hospital, we aren’t professionals and we sure as hell don’t have the proper equipment… So fucking what? We’re going to make do. My wife is not going to fucking die on me and neither is my kid.”
John poured the remainder of the bottle of vodka on Marlena’s bare stomach. “God, I sure the hell hope that she can’t feel this.” He bent over her in prayer, using his right hand to make the sign of the cross, tracing from forehead to breast and from shoulder to shoulder. “In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti…Forgive me for what I’m about to to do.” John picked up the knife and slowly made an incision into Marlena.
“No Doc, no,” John said as he slowly shook her, trying to wake her up. “Don’t do this to me Doc,” he said to her lifeless form. “Roman,” he screamed as loud as he could, hoping that Roman could hear him from downstairs. Her cradled her still form in his arms. She was so cold. “Roman,” he screamed again, panic starting to set in. He slowly stood up with her in his arms and carried her to the bed, noticing that she was bleeding profusely from between her legs.
“Doc, you’ve got to be okay,” he said to her tenderly as he laid her down on the bed. He grabbed a blanket that sat on a nearby chair and placed it over her. “Roman, Alexie, Matrona,” he screamed as loud as he could.
Minutes later Roman ran into the bedroom, stopping at the foot of the bed. “What’s wrong John,” he said trying to catch his breath. Alexie and Matrona soon followed. John was on the bed with Marlena cradled in his arms.
“Something’s wrong with Doc and the baby…she said that something was wrong and then passed out,” John said looking to them for guidance. “She’s bleeding,” he said softly, not wanting to believe it. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her…you’ve got to help me.”
“Let me see her,” Matrona said as she climbed on the bed and knelt next to Marlena. She slowly lowered the blanket that John had places over her. “Would you mind,” she said looking at Alexie and Roman once she realized that Mrs. Black was nude. As she touched Marlena all the hatred, resentment and animosity she felt for her disappeared. Here was a human being that needed her help and she felt obliged to help irregardless of who the person was.
“Alexie, get on the VHF and get Mr. Black’s plane here now…Something is wrong, she’s losing a lot of blood. Her only chance is to leave now,” Matrona muttered to her husband in Yupik, knowing that Mr. Black and Roman wouldn’t be able to understand what she was saying. Alexie immediately left the room to go to the radio and call for a medevac or John’s plane, whichever would arrive first.
“Matrona, tell me in English…what’s wrong with my wife,” John said as he looked down at her pale and lifeless form. Her dark red blood was quickly saturating the white bed linens.
“I think that the baby is coming Mr. Black,” she told him in English as she felt for a pulse on Marlena. It was faint but weak.
“What,” Roman exclaimed as he turned around. He saw Marlena lying in a pool of blood. “Oh god,” he said as he turned back around. “Oh god, what are we going to do? Your plane John and the OB/GYN, we need to call them,” Roman said in a panic. He quickly walked over to the door prepared to make the call himself.
“Alexie already did,” Matrona informed Roman. “Everybody needs to stay calm. Panicking here isn’t going to help Mrs. Black….Now, I may not look it but I’ve had experience helping my people deliver babies…Roman, I need you to bring me so clean towels, a bowl of water and a washcloth,” Matrona said to Roman in as calm a voice as she could muster.
Roman went into the bathroom where he was quickly nauseated by the amount of blood that was on the floor. Sidestepping the bloody mess, he retrieved the items that Matrona asked for.
“Mr. Black….native women have delivered babies for hundreds of years without all your expensive doctors and hospitals…I’m sure that Mrs. Black and her baby will be fine.” Matrona continued checking Marlena’s pulse.
“That doesn’t matter….all that matters is Doc…Come on Doc, wake up please,” John said as he rocked her back and forth in his arms. “I need you Doc, I need this baby…Don’t do this to me,” he pleaded with her.
“Mr. Black, try to keep her still…I know with all the blood it looks bad, probably looks worse than it is, but still I need to check her, if that’s okay with you?” She asked. John nodded his head yes and watched as Matrona moved Marlena’s lower body so that she was lying on her back. She quickly parted her legs and inserted a couple of fingers into Marlena checking to see if she was dilated. John saw her move her other hand on top of her stomach and press down. John was overjoyed to see the baby move.
“That’s a good sign,” Matrona muttered under her breath. “The baby is still alive. Roman could you let Alexie know that need to see him now?” Matrona asked, trying to keep the concern out of her voice.
Roman left the room and ran down the stairs to find Alexie. Alexie was arguing with someone over the VHF and from the sound of the conversation Alexie appeared to be discouraged and upset. Upon seeing Roman he said his good-byes to whoever was on the other end of the radio and terminated the transmission. “What’s going on my friend?” Roman asked him.
“Roman, man, this is no good…no good at all.”
“What do you mean? What’s wrong?”
“John’s plane with the doctor and the kids made it to Anchorage but they can’t come back due to a storm that is coming. All flights in and out of Anchorage are grounded for the time being…that includes the medevac flights.” Alexie put his head in his hands wondering how he was going to tell his boss this bit of news.
“What about flights out of Fairbanks or Juneau for that matter?” Roman asked trying to think where else they could get a plane out of.
“Doesn’t matter…look outside Roman…it’s a mess…the storm is covering half the state. The wind alone makes flying dangerous if not impossible. Add to that the whiteout condition…no one is coming here or leaving here anytime soon.”
“That’s not good enough Alexie…Doc is in bad shape up there…I don’t know what’s wrong with her but it’s a mess. Matrona needs to see you now,” Roman said as he turned around and went back upstairs, Alexie following him.
Matrona looked up when she saw Roman and Alexie enter the room. “Alexie, we are going to have to get this baby out now or they are both going to die,” Matrona warned him in Yupik. “She losing to much blood too quickly…She’s not dilated enough for the baby to come out naturally…I don’t know what’s wrong.” Matrona was trying to be strong and not let John and Roman see the graveness of the situation.
“God be with them,” Alexie replied to Matrona in his native tongue. He looked down at Mrs. Black on the bed. Matrona was right. She was losing a lot of blood.
“When is the plane going to get here?” John asked, unaware of the severity of the situation.
“It’s not John,” Roman said as he put a hand on his shoulder. “All planes are grounded due to the storm. There’s no telling when things will clear up enough to get someone in here.”
“No, No, No. I won’t accept that,” John cried out as he placed both of his hands on his wife’s stomach. “Look at her, she’s bleeding for gods sake.” John removed one hand from Marlenas stomach and picked up a towel and attempted to soak up some of the blood. “We can’t let her bleed to death…someone has to get here and help her.”
“John, my friend,” Alexie said as he faced his boss. “There is no one out there that can help us. We need to work together and get this baby out now,” Alexie said in the most serious and stern voice he could muster. John needed to understand that help wasn’t coming. The only help that they had were themselves.
“How?” John asked. “She’s unconscious…oh my god, she’s going die….she’s going to die,” John stated in shock. “She can’t die, she can’t,” John sobbed as he held tightly onto Marlena torso. Roman looked on is disbelief. The strong John Black that he knew so well was falling apart at the seams. Matrona and Alexie stood by helplessly watching. John clutched Marlena to him tighter and moved her so that she was resting in his lap. “I love you…I love you…I love you…don’t leave me,” he whispered to her as he sobbed, planting small kisses along her lips and jaw line.
Roman, as heartbroken as he was at the site of his ex-wife dying before him, couldn’t take it anymore. She was going to die if they didn’t do something. “Goddammit John, snap out of it…this isn’t helping her.. Pull it together man or they are both going to die,” Roman warned him as he put his hand on John’s shoulder.
“No,” John cried.
“Give me to her,” Roman said as he attempted to pull Marlena out of John’s arms. “You can sit over there and watch or you can help, but goddammit I am not going to sit here and watch her die in your arms.” Roman successfully pulled Marlena lose from John and laid on her the side of the bed.
“Matrona, what do we need to do?” he asked her as he watched John out of the corner of his eye. John was quickly going into shock, unable to comprehend what was happening in front of his eyes. “We don’t have time to save your ass also,” Roman said as he walked up to John and punched him hard in the face, trying to bring him back to reality.
“What was that for?” John asked as he slowly rubbed his cheek. He looked down at the sight before him.
“This is not good,” he stated matter of factly, upon seeing all the blood.
“That’s obvious John…We need to get the baby out now,” Roman said as watched as Matrona took Marlena’s pulse again.
“She’s losing too much blood Roman,” Matrona said, “and her pulse is weakening. The baby needs to come out now.”
“She is not going to die, neither is that baby,” John said as he mentally grasped the severity of the situation finally. When Roman hit him, something in him snapped and the mercenary in him returned. All the medical training he received while employed by Stefano Dimera suddenly returned. “This is what we are going to do…I need to measure for dilation, but Matrona and Alexie I need you to roll her on her side first. I’m worried that her uterus may be compressing her inferior vena cava and her aorta, obstructing the venous return and arterial blood flow…If we don’t watch out, she could have a heart attack or bleed to death.” John watched as they rolled her to the side, then he quickly inserted three fingers into his wife and felt around, while his other hand pressed down on her pelvis. The baby wasn’t responding to the pressure. He withdrew his bloody fingers. “Roman I need you to switch places with Alexie…Alexie go to the kitchen and get the sharpest knife you can find, a candle, matches, a sewing kit, and as many bottles of alcohol you can find, nothing flavored…I need them now.” As soon as Roman switched places with Alexie, John turned his attention back to Marlena.
“Matrona I need you to count the beats per minute and let me know what it is. Roman, I need to know how far along Marlena is…I need to know what I am facing.”
“What do you need to know?” Roman asked as he looked down at his ex-wife and said a little prayer for her and the baby.
“How far along is she? Don’t fucking lie to me either. If the baby is less than 20 to 23 weeks old it’s not going to make due to its gestational age.
“I don’t know,” Roman said plainly. “At least six months.”
“Okay, that’s 24 weeks, we’d be cutting it close and the chance for the baby’s survival would be minimal. Assuming that I’m the father, she’d have to be seven months along or 28 weeks, much better chance of survival…This is going to be such a crap shoot, but we really have no chance…I’d rather know what I’m getting into before hand. If I can play the odds, there’ll be no surprises.” Roman was too stunned at what was going on before him to think about John’s logic…What the hell could he mean if the baby was less than 7 months, who else did he think it belonged to? And more than 7 months? God help them if that was the case.
“Matrona how’s her pulse?” John asked as he got up from the bed and went into the bathroom for more linens. Matrona shouted out the figures.
“Keep her on her side,” he shouted out as he grabbed as many towels and sheets he could find in the bathroom.
“I got the stuff John,” Alexie said out of breath as he ran into the room. He set all the items on the bedside table.
“Great,” John said as he moved Marlena on the bed, putting clean sheets under her. He opened the bottle of Vodka and poured some onto the wash cloth. “Roman, take this and clean her stomach area…Alexie, I need you to get two more items for me…go to the shed and see if there is a soldering iron in there and then check the medicine cabinets and see if you can find any drugs in the house that contain epinephrine, casopressin or dopamine. We need to decrease the blood flow to the uterus…Try the VHF again…I need an ETA on that plane.”
“What the hell do you have in mind?” Roman asked, hoping that what he thought wasn’t true.
“I’m going to do a cesarean section on Marlena.” John said as he lit the candle that Alexie brought and started to sterilize the knife in the flame.
“No fucking way John…No way…you’re going to kill them both.” Romans’ response was more of a plea. John could not be serious about cutting the baby out of Marlena.
“If I don’t do something they’re going to die anyway. The baby isn’t moving Roman. Yes, I admit, this is the worst possible setting…We aren’t in a hospital, we aren’t professionals and we sure as hell don’t have the proper equipment… So fucking what? We’re going to make do. My wife is not going to fucking die on me and neither is my kid.”
John poured the remainder of the bottle of vodka on Marlena’s bare stomach. “God, I sure the hell hope that she can’t feel this.” He bent over her in prayer, using his right hand to make the sign of the cross, tracing from forehead to breast and from shoulder to shoulder. “In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti…Forgive me for what I’m about to to do.” John picked up the knife and slowly made an incision into Marlena.
