Chapter 20: The Hospital

Lost in thought, Laura Dell didn’t hear Dr. Feinman calling her name as she neared the exit.

“Miss Dell? You never came to my office so I assumed you failed to get the bird situation under control.” Laura Dell stopped in her tracks. She turned her attention from the exit to Dr. Feinman.

“No Dr. Feinman, we caught the bird. It is injured, but Dr. Walter’s colleagues are going to take care of it. The nets are still up, but I’m sure they will remove them immediately.” Laura Dell kept glancing at the door while she spoke. She wondered what Dr. Walters was thinking when he passed through them to head to the hospital.

“Well I expect you to take care of that right away. Make sure they are gone-”

“Dr. Feinman, the director of the board of trustees is on the phone for you. He says he needs to speak to you about an urgent matter.” Eddie winked at Laura Dell as he gave Dr. Feinman this information.

“All right Miss Dell, I trust you will have this situation cleared up by the time my phone call is finished.” Dr. Feinman gave Laura Dell a warning look as he walked away to his office.

“Miss Dell, do you want me to make sure that the nets come down while you go check on Dr. Walters?”

Laura Dell paused for a moment to consider the situation. The museum had just opened and Dr. Feinman would return from his phone call soon.

“Dr. Feinman already wants to fire me, I guess it can’t hurt me too much to disappear for a little while.”

“I will take care of everything here, don’t worry about the museum. We will be just fine.” Eddie looked more worried now than he did when he first told Laura Dell about Dr. Walter’s collapse. He never had time to explain how bad Dr. Walter’s condition was, but from the concerned look on his face, Laura Dell knew it wasn’t good.

Laura Dell thanked Eddie and hurried out the front door of the museum. She headed towards the L, the quickest way to get to the hospital. While she was riding, Laura Dell remembered how she felt the last time there was a scare like this, the night of her father’s accident. It had been a few years since that night, but Laura Dell still remembered it vividly. She was following her father to meet her mother and John William for dinner. She was pretty far back from her father’s car, but she could see the SUV coming towards her father’s car, ignoring the changing red lights. Laura Dell saw the car collide with her father and felt powerless to help. She slammed on her own breaks and pulled over to the side of the road. The intersection was busy and many other cars stopped as well. By the time Laura Dell turned her car off, there was a crowd gathering around the accident. Someone had called 911 and the police, fire department and ambulance were on the way. She tried to get to her father, but the crowd was backing away from the crash because the car was smoking. The police parted the crowd to let the ambulance in. Laura Dell got to the front of the crowd and paramedics were cutting her father out of his car. The doors were so smashed in that they would not open. They loaded him onto the stretcher and began wheeling him towards the ambulance. She ran forward and identified herself as the daughter of the victim. Laura Dell never looked around to see what happened to the car that hit her father, but was told later by the police that they were all perfectly alright. Instead, she focused on staying out of the paramedic’s way. They allowed her to ride in the ambulance to the hospital with them. She didn’t want to bother them with questions because she knew they were doing everything they could. Laura Dell could tell from the frantic way they checked his wounds and applied pressure to control the bleeding that her father was not okay.

Laura Dell felt that same fear on the L to the hospital. Eddie had tried to warn her that Dr. Walters’ condition was worse than she thought, but she ignored him. Now she wondered how bad it really was. He said he had a few months left. They planned to go see another play. He was so happy trying to catch the bird. Laura Dell regretted not asking Eddie more questions about Dr.Walters’ illness before she headed to the hospital. Not knowing what to expect was the worst part. Laura Dell willed the L to move as fast as it possibly could.

***

When Laura Dell finally reached the hospital, she ran to the nurse’s station that she visited the first time she came to see Dr. Walters in the hospital. She didn’t realize until she began explaining the situation to them that she needed the emergency room. They pointed her in the correct direction and wished her and Dr. Walters the best.

The nurses in the waiting room for the emergency room were not as friendly as the first nurses Laura Dell spoke too. She figured that after spending so much time dealing with frantic people, they realized that they couldn’t get emotionally invested in the people they treat. Whether the patients were okay or not didn’t matter, they almost never saw them again.

“I’m looking for Dr. Herbert Walters. The ambulance brought him here a few minutes ago. He collapsed at the Field House Museum.”

“Yes he is being treated right now. Have a seat and we will let you know when you can go visit him.” The nurse went back to her filing, showing Laura Dell that she had more important things to do.

“I need to know if he is okay. I didn’t see what happened. He was fine the last time I saw him.”

“Is he your father? Or your grandfather? We can only release that information to family.”

“No he’s not my family, but-“

“Then I’m afraid you will have to wait until he is awake and can give verbal consent to us to share his status with you.” The nurse looked at Laura Dell as though she didn’t belong at the hospital because she wasn’t family.

When Laura Dell arrived at the hospital with her father, the paramedics rushed him off to the operating room and sent her to the waiting room. The police told her they would call her mother and John William to inform them of the accident, but Laura Dell had to call them to let them know where she was in the hospital. The police gave her mother few details and the paramedics gave Laura Dell no details when they left her in the waiting room. When they were in the ambulance, she heard the paramedics mention internal bleeding, but she didn’t know how bad it was. They waited for over two hours with no updates before the doctors came out to give them the bad news. During the time they were waiting, Laura Dell didn’t know how to feel. She was scared. Scared that her father would die. Scared that her mother would blame her somehow for not preventing the accident. Scared that she didn’t know what to expect.

Laura Dell selected a chair right next to the nurse’s station, hoping to hear some news on Dr. Walters. She pulled out her cell phone to call Eddie. He said that Dr. Feinman was still in his office on the phone. Dr. Walters’ colleagues removed the nets and were still working on saving the bird. Eddie said that he would try to keep Dr. Fienman distracted for as long as possible. He said he found it hard to believe that Dr. Feinman would be capable of firing her for going to check on someone in an emergency situation like this. Laura Dell told Eddie that she thought Dr. Feinman wouldn’t think twice about it, but she didn’t particularly care at this moment.
She overheard the nurses talking about Dr. Walters and hung up the phone. The nurse she spoke to when she arrived waved her back over to the desk.

“Are you Laura Dell?” The nurse now looked embarrassed for the way she spoke to Laura Dell before.

“Yes I am. Is Herbert awake?”

“He is. He would like for you to come to his room.” The nurse gave Laura Dell a complicated set of directions to Dr. Walters’ room and told her to have a good day. Laura Dell forgot all about the rudeness of the nurses. She knew that if Dr. Walters was already awake, he couldn’t have been that sick to begin with. She laughed a little to herself at how worried she had been.

***

Laura Dell finally found Dr. Walters’ room. He was covered in tubes. He had an IV and an oxygen tube. He was wearing a hospital gown instead of his usual suit. His cane was lying on a chair in the corner of the room.

“Herbert?”

“Hello Laura Dell.” He smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Herbert, what happened? Eddie said you just collapsed. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Just a little tired now. How about you come back when you get done at work? That way Dr. Feinman can’t get mad at you and I can get some sleep.”

Laura Dell wanted to stay, but she could tell Dr. Walters wasn’t feeling up to company. She kissed his forehead and promised to be back soon.