The Dark Side - Danielle Steel Page 0,80
them what he thought.
“Do you have adrenaline, an EpiPen?” he asked them, and one of them nodded, as the other paramedic questioned Austin and picked Jaime up. “You’re going to need it in a minute, or even now,” the doctor said, and as he did, Jaime went limp in the paramedic’s arms and passed out as they rushed her to the ambulance. Austin threw two fifty-dollar bills on the table, and he and Zoe rushed after the paramedics, as he muttered a hasty thank-you over his shoulder to the doctor.
Austin and Zoe climbed into the ambulance with one of the paramedics, and they took off with the other one driving. The paramedic put an oxygen mask on Jaime and an IV in her arm with expert speed, and had a defibrillator near at hand.
“She’s having an anaphylactic reaction, probably to something she ate,” he said and fired questions at them about Jaime’s health and allergies. He never took his eyes off her. She was deathly pale, and her heartbeat was getting weak. He gave her a shot of adrenaline, and she opened her eyes for an instant and then lost consciousness again. Almost as a reflex, Austin called Cathy, got her immediately, and told her what was going on.
“What hospital are you going to?” she asked him and he asked the paramedic.
“NYU,” he said, focusing only on Jaime. Austin told Cathy what was happening.
“I’ll be right there,” she cut him off, and they were at the hospital by then. The paramedics rushed her into the familiar emergency room that they hadn’t seen in a while, and nothing had changed. They took her in through the ambulance entrance, and shouted to the nearest nurse that she was coding. She hit an alarm button, and half a dozen doctors and nurses came running, and changed the bag on the IV pole to something else. Austin heard the words “Benadryl,” “prednisone,” and others he didn’t know through a haze. They had Jaime in an exam room by then and her clothes off, with a defibrillator poised if her heart stopped. They expected it to and were prepared, as her parents looked on in horror and the paramedics watched. She was so tiny on the adult table with so many doctors and nurses around her and frantic measures. Zoe was gulping sobs and clutching Austin, and he was crying too. They gave her another shot, and Jaime opened her eyes and looked at them and started to cry, which was a good sign. She could breathe again and wasn’t choking. She was scared more than anything and didn’t know what was going on. As the panic receded, Austin was filled with terror again, wondering if Zoe had orchestrated it. It brought back everything he had recently learned, and all his most virulent fears.
Cathy arrived at that moment in workout clothes with wet hair, and glanced at Austin and Zoe. “Sorry, I’m a mess. I was at a spinning class.” She spoke to the doctors then, and explained that she was Jaime’s pediatrician. They filled her in on what had happened and what they had administered. It was clear to Cathy and all the medical personnel that Jaime had almost died. But the adrenaline, cortisone, antihistamine, and other medications they had given her had brought her back. She told Austin and Zoe that Jaime would be all right now, but she’d have to stay in the hospital for several hours, and she might have some minor residual allergic reaction for several days.
Austin and Zoe kissed Jaime then, and she told them she couldn’t breathe at the restaurant. “We know.” Zoe smiled at her. “That’s why we’re here.”
“Mommy called 911 for you,” Austin said, remembering to give her the credit she craved if she was MBP. But did Mommy poison her? It was the only question in his head now, as everything he’d read rushed back into his mind. It didn’t seem possible that a donut could have given her such a severe reaction that almost killed her.
The code blue team left the room with the paramedics, and a nurse and an ER doctor stayed with Jaime, talking to her.
“We have to take her to an allergist ASAP,” Zoe said to Cathy, and she nodded.
“I use a great one,” Cathy reassured her. “I’ll get her in tomorrow.” They asked Austin to register her, and Cathy went with him, while Zoe stayed with Jaime in the exam room.
“Oh my God,” Austin said, after they