Unknown Tragedy by Mia Barchetti

Unknown Tragedy By Mia Barchetti

FADE IN: EXT. BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - LATE AT NIGHT It is 2:30 a.m. on a late Tuesday night and the city of Baltimore is as quiet as can be. It’s a calm night during the summer with the temperature at a comfortable sixty-five degrees. There are a few people seen coming in and out of bars and stumbling home by the light of the moon and the streetlights. Happiness fills the air with the carefree attitude of a summer night.

Baltimore is the home to one of the most prestigious and trusted hospitals in the country. John Hopkins Hospital is ranked nationally in 15 adult and 10 pediatric specialties.

It is known around the world as one of the best teaching hospitals. It lays in the heart of the city to ensure the lives in this town will be saved in this trusted place.

There are many well educated and devoted doctors that work at this special hospital. One goes by the name of Dr. Angela Ramirez. She is the chief of surgery and specializes in cardiac thoracic surgery. She runs the hospital with authority and respect for her co-workers. She is married to the head of neuro surgery, Dr. Calvin Ramirez. Together they make a great team and have two little girls named Sophia and Zoey. They get along with everybody and are very family oriented. Angela and her father have matching tiny infinity tattoos on the edge of their wrists to signify her forever being a daddy’s girl. Angela’s mother passed away when Angela was only 3 because of a massive heart attack. This inspired Angela all her life to become a cardiologist to save the lives to make up for the one she lost.

Angela’s best friend is the head of pediatric surgery here at John Hopkins, Dr. Ashley Robbins. They grew up together and went to the same med school. They have shared so many experiences together that they know that they can’t live without the other. They are each other’s person they go to for everything.

Everything seems perfect in Angela’s life. She gets to save the lives of strangers by doing what she loves most; surgery. She comes alive in the OR. Her smooth hands and quick repairs make her different from the other surgeons.

She is a powerful surgeon with deep patient care. She gives her patients her full attention and makes sure they understand the consequences and risks to every surgery. She is passionate about her work and the love she has for others.

INT. THE RAMIREZ HOUSE - LATE AT NIGHT

2.

It’s now about 3:34 a.m. when both Angela and Calvin’s pagers goes off. They were previously out for the night for Angela’s dad’s 70th birthday and just got in around 1:00 a.m. They knew it must of been an emergency since they were not on call for the night. The sound of the page made them both jump out of bed immediately and throw on their scrub coats and out the door. The girls are fast asleep with the babysitter next door so the parents weren’t worried in the morning. One of them just had to remember to call the babysitter.

INT. THE HOSPITAL Both Angela and Calvin were paged to the emergency room where the trauma was brought in to. Still having no idea what had happened, both doctors slid on their gloves and proceeded to the patients.

DR. ANGELA Who needs me?

PARAMEDIC This guy, Mike Gavigan, 27, severe impalement with glass through the chest.It seems to have penetrated his aorta. His pulse is weak and has already lost too much blood. He needs an OR right now!

Angela grabs his chart and starts pushing him towards the OR elevators. The paramedic still by her side as she walks.

DR. ANGELA What happened?

PARAMEDIC Car accident. A drunk driver swerved and hit another car and through the other man through the windshield. He’s coming in now with severe head trauma and needs attention from your husband.

Angela signals to her husband to come her way. He quickly walks towards her.

DR. ANGELA The next guy coming in is for you.

Sounds like he’s the victim here with massive head trauma. Work your magic.

3.

DR. CALVIN I will do my absolute best work like always.

Calvin smiles and Angela smiles back. He gives her a quick kiss on the check as the elevator doors close and Angela heads to the OR to fix this man’s heart. Calvin turns around to see his patient coming through the ER doors from the ambulance. He runs over to meet the paramedic.

DR. CALVIN What do we got?

PARAMEDIC #2 Older man, probably late 60’s, unidentified, wallet and ID were lost at the scene. He was thrown through the windshield of his car at impact and took it head first.

His face was injured severely.

DR. CALVIN Let’s get him to radiology now and get scans for any brain bleeds.

Calvin wheels that this man This concerns they can lead

him to get scans and within minutes he finds has massive brain bleeds in his temporal lobe.

Calvin because if he doesn’t fix them in time to strokes or even death.

DR. CALVIN Nurse, I need an OR for this man right now.

NURSE Right away doctor!

So the night is just beginning for Calvin and Angela as they work side by side in OR’S 1 and 2 to save the lives of these men. Angela finishes before her husband around 4:42 a.m. with the perfect save to her patient’s aorta. She goes to the cafeteria to grab a coffee when she sees her best friend, Dr. Ashley Robbins.

INT. HOSPITAL CAFETERIA Ash! Hey!

DR. ANGELA

DR. ASHLEY Ang? I thought you weren’t on call tonight?

4.

DR. ANGELA I thought the same thing but a massive cardio and head trauma came in that needed mine and Calvin’s attention.

They both grab coffee and a table in the cafeteria and continue talking.

DR. ASHLEY Oh wow. What happened?

DR. ANGELA My guy was a drunk driver that swerved in to another car and threw that guy through the windshield. He has massive head trauma taking the blow fully face on. I believe Calvin is still in surgery.

DR. ASHLEY That’s incredibly sad that a drunk driver caused this and could potentially taken a life. At least he will live to learn his lesson because you’re a kick ass surgeon.

DR. ANGELA Well thank you, Ash. We both are.

Have you been here all night?

DR. ASHLEY Ugh yes. And nothing has come in.

It’s been a slow night for me. I just slept for an hour in the on-call room. Trying to catch up on some sleep.

DR. ANGELA Yeah, that’s smart. We were out late for my dad’s birthday. We left at 1 though while my dad stayed with some of his old buddies and had a few cigars.

DR. ASHLEY Oh that’s right! How’s your dad doing?

DR. ANGELA He’s doing pretty well for a 70 year old now.

5.

They both chuckle and share memories about Angela’s dad from when they were in grade school. As their laughs and talk carry on for a good ten to fifteen minutes, Angela’s pager goes off.

DR. ASHLEY Is it your patient? Is he crashing?

DR. ANGELA No, it’s my husband paging me 911 to his OR. Something must have happened with this guy’s heart.

DR. ASHLEY Well go! I’ll find you after!

Angela nodded and smiled and turned for the door. She rushed through the hall down to the elevator. She jumped in and threw her scrub cap back on as the elevator proceeding down to the OR wing. She arrived to the scrub room and saw her husband. She scrubbed quickly and ran to his side as she could hear the alarms going off for the heart monitor.

DR. ANGELA What happened?

DR. CALVIN I fixed all the brain bleeds but his heart went in to V-FIB so we shocked him and got him back but his systolics are down to 72. There has to be a bleed in his heart but there was no indication of heart problems on his chart. It must of been from the impact of the accident.

DR. ANGELA Okay. Scapel. I’m going in. He needs to go on bypass while I work.

DR. CALVIN The ultrasound shows there’s a tear in his heart. You need to repair the left ventricle, right there.

Calvin points out to his wife where she needs to fix this man. She opens his chest and sees the tear. It’s a massive one, probably the biggest she has ever seen.

DR. ANGELA Okay. I need sponges and lap pads. and get me some suction in here, there’s too much bleeding.

6.

Just as she begins to tie a stitch and do her repair, the man begins to crash.

DR. CALVIN Grab the paddles, push a dose of epi, and charge to 120!

Clear!

DR. ANGELA

They shock him once but there’s still no cardiac response.

DR. ANGELA Charge to 200 and push another dose of epi! Clear!

The room remains silent as the sound of the flat line alarm fills the air. Angela refuses to give up on this man and shocks him one more time.

DR. ANGELA (Talking to patient) You don’t get to die when I saved the man who caused this. Don’t you dare!

DR. CALVIN Ang, he’s bleeding through his ears and nose. There’s blood in his IV. He’s lost too much blood. I think we lost him. You did everything you could.

Angela steps back from the patient fully disappointed that she was too late. She looks at the blood running down his arm from his IV when she notices something on this man’s wrist. She stepped closer to clearly identify what it was.

The matching infinity tattoo that lays on her wrist was on this man’s. Her heart dropped as she began to realize what just happened and who this man was on the OR table. As soon as she began to say something, her husband said three awful words at the same time.

Daddy?

DR. ANGELA

DR. CALVIN Time of death, 5:17 a.m.

SCENE ENDS.