Through these trials and tribulations, The Evolution of Dr. Steve Pratt transforms a young, cocky emergency room doctor into a mature, well-rounded physician. This book is based on characters that I've been writing for a number of years. It seems weird letting these characters out so that they can be enjoyed by others. It's like letting children out to play for the first time by themselves and I'm the nervous mother, watching at a near-by distance. I've been writing this story line with these characters, along with having a full-time job. I teach at Wichita West high school both Health Science and Physical Education. The Health Science class teaches medical career information, which ties in with the content of my book.

The Evolution of DR. STEVE PRATT

By Heidi A. Wimmer

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2012 Heidi A. Wimmer
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4685-4706-1

Contents

Chapter 1......................1Chapter 2......................16Chapter 3......................25Chapter 4......................42Chapter 5......................73Chapter 6......................93Chapter 7......................114Chapter 8......................123Chapter 9......................149Chapter 10.....................157

Chapter One

This book centers on Dr. Steve Pratt, who is the head of the Emergency Department at Bay County Hospital. The hospital is small but a powerful beacon to the surrounding community.

The head of the hospital is Dr. John Dobinson, who is the figure head of the hospital. The third member of this dynamic team is Dr. Dave Bradfield, who is head thoracic surgeon and director of medicine. Dr. Dave Bradfield is Dr. Pratt's boss, and through the years they have become friends, doing much for each other.

For example, one of Steve's friends from college, Dr. Wayne Moore, asked if Steve would consider a new job as head of the hospital in York, which would be an advancement in Steve's medical career. Dr. Moore was getting ready to accept a partnership in his fiancée's father's practice and thought Steve would make an excellent replacement.

When Dr. Moore called, it couldn't have come at a worse time because Dr. Bradfield was suffering through the unexpected loss of his wife, trying to keep him and his two children afloat. How could his best friend think of leaving now?

This was causing a great deal of mental anguish for Steve because he was thinking about putting his career before his best friend. Through many sleepless nights, Steve made lists of why this move was good; yet, he kept coming back to the fact that Dave was going through such a rough time that he couldn't abandon him. After all, Dave had done so much for him over the years.

The decision was continuing to take a real toll, both mentally and physically, on Steve. The doorbell rang and Steve knew that it was Dave because he had invited Dave over he had come to a decision. Dave hadn't seen him in a couple of days, and in those couple of days Steve hadn't eaten much and certainly hadn't slept much, and he looked like hell.

Steve opened the door, and Dave was shocked to see what kind of condition he was in. Dave asked as he sat down, "Are you okay? You look like hell!"

"I'll be okay soon. I apologize for looking like this, but this decision has been difficult both physically and mentally for me, but I have come to a decision, and I wanted you to hear it from me first," said Steve in a low voice.

"Whatever you decide will be okay with me."

Steve smiled at Dave, and Steve took a deep breath and said, "My decision is to stay at Bay County. I'm not ready to run a hospital on my own."

"Are you sure about your decision?"

Steve said with a smile, "Yes. I want to be here at Bay County; in fact, I've always wanted to be here."

The next day at work Steve worked with a renewed vigor that had all of his co-workers buzzing and at the end of the shift he gathered most of his co-workers around and told them what had been going on and his decision to stay at Bay County. Everybody cheered and patted him on the back.

Then at shift's end he got on the phone and called Dr. Wayne Moore at York and explained to him what his decision was. It was hard telling Wayne, but he understood, and Steve told him that he would see him at the wedding. Wayne agreed, and they both hung up the phone. Steve took a deep breath and was glad that was over. Now he could give his full attention to the emergency room at Bay County.

For the first time in a few days Steve ended up getting a restful night's sleep, and the next morning his appetite came back as well. It would soon become clear to him why he made the decision to stay.

Steve was in the ER waiting for blood work to come back on a sixty-two-year-old female who was complaining of numbness and tingling in her right arm, severe jaw pain, and a stiff neck. Immediately Steve asked the patient if she had any history of heart problems and that scared the patient and she wanted to know if she was having a heart attack. Steve calmed her and continued to ask questions about her medical history. He gave her an aspirin and patched her into an EKG machine or an electrocardiogram, which records the heart's electrical activity, and ran a quick strip. There was some elevation in her T-waves, but nothing that indicated a heart attack. Steve said to the woman, "I'm going to draw some blood and run a cardiac enzyme test and then we'll know more soon."

The patient seemed to understand. As Steve walked out of the exam room he gave orders to one of his nurses to draw labs for a cardiac enzyme test on the patient in exam room two. The nurse took the chart that Steve was holding, went to the medical cabinet, and got all the necessary equipment that she would need to get the blood tests done.

Steve was just about to check the board for his next patient when an explosion shook the floor that he was standing on. Steve at first couldn't figure out what happened, and then he thought radiology was directly beneath the ER. That was where he headed first. He ran for the stairs and went down them. As he approached the next floor down Steve could smell burnt plastic. As he went into radiology he could see several technicians frantically running around. Steve stopped one of them who had a look of a deer in the headlights and asked him, "What happened?"

The technician replied, catching his breath, "I think one of the x-ray machines blew up. There was a workman here just earlier this morning working on that very machine."

"Show me where," asked Steve in a huff.

The technician led him to a small interior room that now had its faux walls in pieces. Steve looked concerned at the mess before him and said, "Do you know if there was anybody in the room when the machine blew?"

"No. I don't know, but I can help you look," said the technician.

They both stepped over large pieces of the machine and started moving pieces of wall. The technician yelled at Steve, "Over here, Dr. Pratt. I found somebody!"

Just as Steve looked up at the technician, he also found somebody in the rubble. Steve said to the technician, "Get all the debris off him, but don't move him. I've also found somebody."

Steve moved pieces from the partition wall off the person who was currently laying face-down. As he finished moving all the debris, Steve knelt down and felt for a pulse. There was no pulse. Then he slowly and with great care rolled the deceased person over and came to the horrible conclusion that the deceased was Sam Neal. He'd been a radiology technician for a number of years. Steve lowered his head in sadness. The technician who found the other person had cleared all the debris from him and brought Steve back to reality. He yelled at Steve, "Dr. Pratt, this person is alive. Come quick!"

Steve stepped over pieces of partition and parts of the x-ray machine. This person was also on his stomach, and Steve felt for a pulse. It was strong and regular. Steve gave direction to the technician, and they turned the person onto his back. Steve looked and looked again and to his disbelief, but before he could process what he saw the technician asked, "Isn't that Dr. Bradfield?"

Steve couldn't speak at that moment, but he nodded slowly. Steve looked widely around and saw a gurney that looked undisturbed...