Anna felt light-headed as her stomach grumbled violently.
"Are you okay?" Samantha whispered as they walked throughout the corridor.
"Yes, I am." Anna nodded. while bringing some of the charts under her arms. "I'm just hungry." She added.
"Well, you could eat after our rounds." Samantha smiled. "I'll cover you." She winked.
"Thank you, Sis!" Anna smiled back at her.
There were only a few doors left before they go back to the nurse's station.
"Alright," Their colleague took a deep breath. "These last three doors need a little bit of attention." She said while picking up the patient's chart.
"Patient Deodato." Samantha elbowed Anna. "How long has that old man been here?" She whispered.
"He's been in and out of the hospital." Their colleague answered. "If I'm not wrong, this is his sixth time this month." She added.
They knocked on the door and greeted the patient's son sitting in the couch. They explained to him that it was currently their rounds, and they were just checking with the patient. The son gave them permission to check his father.
It was a quick endorsement. Their colleague simply showed them the IV and the meds incorporated on it. At the same time, they were instructed on the positions they needed to place the patient every 4 hours and the medication needed to be infused on the IV.
Anna nodded to confirm the instructions, but she was obviously far from the bed. It was only Samantha who checked the IVs. Anna leaned on the wall, struggling to contain the pain from her cramping stomach. Her other colleagues looked concerned, but she signaled to them to continue with the rounds.
After visiting Patient Deodato, Anna asked Samantha to finish the rest of the rounds while she get her meds and be ready for the long shift ahead. Samantha and her colleagues agree and send her back to the nurse's station.
Anna immediately went for her bag and drank some antacid and an extra dosage of her medication. But her stomach couldn't stop cramping. She took out her lunch and ate it, hoping to quell her rebellious stomach.
After eating the food and drinking another dose of her medication, she was finally able to control her hunger. At that point, Anna wasn't sure if that hunger was just part of her normal appetite or the monster's. She stared blankly at the wall while praying that it was just some natural bodily reaction. However, something inside her was telling her otherwise.
Not long after, Samantha and the rest of her colleagues returned from the rounds. Anna immediately drank from her bottled water and stood up to help her colleagues with the charts.
"Anna, are you alright." One of their colleagues asked. "You looked pale earlier." She added.
"Ummm… I was just hungry." Anna immediately answered. "I wasn't able to eat my dinner at home." She lied.
Her colleague sighed in relief and told her to eat especially because of their hectic work schedule. Anna nodded and thanked her, before shifting her focus to the charts. Their colleagues waved their goodbyes and left her with Samantha for their shift.
Anna sat down on the table and wrote some notes on the chart while checking the specific medication for each patient. Samantha gave her the chart work after seeing her condition earlier and got to the medication table.
"Hey, Anna." Samanatha caught her attention. "I will be doing the medications for them. Just check the dosages and new orders, okay?" She said.
"Thanks, Samantha." Anna smiled. "I'm sorry if you have to do the meds today." She said embarrassingly.
"Nah, it's okay." Her friend said. "I also wanna take out some pounds off me. You I had this guy…" Samantha started to gossip.
Anna learned that Samantha was trying to lose a few pounds after matching with a guy online. She described the guys with having such animalistic aura that just by looking at him, turned her on.
"S-so, you really like those kinds of guys, huh?" Anna scratched her head. "Wait a second, what happened to the nice guys you preferred?!" She asked.
Samantha thought about her answer for a second. "Nah, I gave up on nice guys. There really aren't any…" She squinted at Anna. "Except for Rico. But he's already taken." She teased.
"Hey what does that supposed to mean?!" Anna annoyingly asked.
"I'm just kidding…" Samantha winked. "I envy your relationship to be honest. All I could say is Sana All!"
They giggled about it for a moment then went back to work. Samantha went on her first rounds of giving medications, it was 8pm then. Anna although worried about her current situation, went back to writing on the charts.
Anna was left alone inside their small station. As she reviewed the charts, she can't help but feel like there was something watching her. She put the chart down and looked around, but no one was around. She took a deep breath and focused herself to her work. She knew whatever that feeling was might've been just a product of her imagination. No one was there to get her.
No one does…
"Anna!" Samantha suddenly came out of nowhere.
It startled Anna and accidentally flung a few charts to the floor.
"Oh! What happened?!" Samantha was as surprised as her.
"Y-you… Just… startled me!" Anna pointed out.
"S-startled?!" Samantha squinted her eyes. "No time for that! Code Blue at patient Deodato!"
"What?!" Anna looked at the buzzer blinking.
She immediately stood up and called the doctor.
Anna and Samantha took their crash cart and rushed towards the patient's room.
As they opened the room, Anna was welcomed with a stench of urine and rotten meat. She was taken aback by the miasmic odor, but she had no choice. She went in and saw the poor old man unresponsive as the sound of the monitors shrieked his critical condition.
"Put on the AED Monitor!" Samantha said as Anna dismantled the crash cart.
Anna immediately opened the patient's shirt baring his chest. She checked on it, there were no signs of breathing. She took some lubricant and applied it on his chest before placing the AED pads and wires. Just as she finished, the resident physician went inside the room and asked for the patient's vitals.
"Working on it!" Anna immediately answered while pressing the power button.
The device went silent for a few seconds before it began beeping and printing out the results. Anna immediately tore the data and gave it to the doctor. As the AED administered the patient with a low-voltage shock, the doctor began giving his orders.
It was a short, yet hectic process. The medical team fought for the patient's life for more than thirty minutes, sadly, death claimed the victor.
"Juan Deodato… time of death...8:47 P.M." The doctor declared and spoke with the family.
The physician and the family went outside to discuss what happened, leaving Anna and Samantha sweaty and breathless as they cleaned the poor old man.
"Rest in Peace, Manong Juan." Samantha whispered wiping the sweat rolling on her forehead.
"It was a hard-fought battle… we did." Anna sighed. "Unfortunately, it was really his time." Suddenly flashbacks of her mother flooded her brain.
Anna tried her best to remained composed. This wasn't her first rodeo after all. She wiped the old man's forehead with a wet towel and whispered a prayer for his soul. As they were about to remove the IV lines, the doctor called for them.
"Ladies, can one of you help me out with this?!" The physician asked.
"On it, doc!" Samantha immediately answered and stared at Anna.
"I'll be alright with this." She confidently said.
"Are you sure?!" Samantha asked.
"I will be fine, Samantha." She smiled weakly. "Now, go ahead before the doctor losses his patience." Anna whispered.
Samantha left Anna to tend on the dead patient. She cleaned his face and took out the wires connected on him. After wiping the residual lubricant on his chest, Anna then began to remove the IV lines. There were IV lines on each arm.
Anna went for the left arm first and was able to remove it without any problems. She immediately dcovered the wound from the line, disposed of the IV and went to the other arm. As she was about to remove the line, she noticed the tape securing the line was too sticky. She tried to remove the stickiness using some alcohol-soaked cotton balls, but it became worse.e
Since their running out of time, Anna simply yanked the line. As she was doing it, her elbow accidentally hit the cleaning kit, spilling the cotton balls, scissors and other equipment on the tray. The sound of the crashing tray broke their emotional moment.
"What's going on?!" The physician immediately went inside.
"Oh! Hey doc!" Anna nervously smiled while her thumb was covering the patient's IV wound. "I just accidentally hit the tray." She pointed on the ground.
The doctor looked at the spilled tray and clicked his tongue. "Be a little careful next time." He then went back to the family.
Anna immediately cleaned her mess, reached for the cotton balls, finally sealing the wound. She immediately finished her post-mortem, she disposed of the items in the trash bin with care care and covered the dead body with his blanket before exiting the room.
As she left the grieving family, she noticed a scent following her. It smelled like rust and iron… like blood. She looked around but couldn't find any stain of blood anywhere. She was very meticulous to throw the trash in the proper trash bin inside the room.
As frantically looked for the blood, her stomach slowly grumbled sending a cold tingle running down her spine. Her body froze in horror as she soon realized that the monster inside her was growling. The scent of blood was getting stronger, and it was leading her to her left thumb.
She slowly lifted her thumb and saw a big blot of dried blood on it. Her stomach cramped violently, and she began to salivate.
"F-feed me…" The monster inside her growled.