The paramedics got there just over five minutes after Nick had
collapsed, but already, AJ could tell he was getting worse. His shallow breathing had gotten even slower,
and he was not responding to AJ’s desperate attempts to wake him up.
As soon as they got into the bar, the paramedics took over. They gently pushed AJ away from Nick and
surrounded him, attaching all kinds of pieces of medical equipment to him and
taking his vital signs.
“BP’s only 90/80,” a female paramedic shouted.
“Bag him,” another paramedic instructed.
“What’s this man’s name?” asked the third.
“Nick Carter,” AJ told him.
“Nick! Nick, can you hear
me?” the paramedic shouted to Nick, trying to get him to respond.
Meanwhile, AJ slumped to the floor, feeling completely numb. He couldn’t even think straight. It was as if he was in a fog.
Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see the
only female paramedic standing over him.
“My name’s Aileen,” she said.
“You’re a friend of Nick, right?”
“Yeah,” AJ said.
“Ok, we’re taking him to the hospital now. Do you want to ride in the ambulance with
us?” she asked kindly.
“Yeah, sure,” AJ said, climbing to his feet. He saw the other two paramedics had Nick on a
stretcher now and were wheeling him outside.
He followed Aileen out to the ambulance.
She opened the passenger door of the front of the vehicle and motioned
for AJ to climb in, which he did. Then
she went around back to help the two men load Nick into the back. She closed the back door of the ambulance and
climbed into the driver’s seat. She started
the motor, switched on the siren, and sped onto the highway, heading for the
nearest hospital.
AJ sat with his hands clasped tightly in his lap, his heart
racing. He could hear the two men in the
back calling out things that he didn’t understand. Then he heard a slow, unsteady beeping and
realized they had Nick hooked up to a heart monitor. He tried to block the beeping out of his
ears, but when it suddenly stopped and turned into a single, drawn out beep, he
whirled around, his eyes wide with fear.
“No pulse,” one paramedic said.
“Paddles,” the other replied.
The first opened a case and brought out the paddles that AJ knew were
for shocking people’s hearts into beating again.
As he watched the men charge up those paddles and press them to
Nick’s now bare chest, he felt as if he was watching an episode of ER. Surely this couldn’t be real. But as he glanced at Nick’s ashy gray face,
he knew how real it really was.
Luckily, the beeping started up again, very slow, but at least it
had started again, signaling that Nick’s heart had started again. AJ breathed a sigh of relief. He knew that Nick’s situation still looked
very grave, but at least he was still alive.
The question was, how long would he stay that way?
***
Soon, the ambulance pulled up the emergency entrance at Orlando
General. Aileen shut off the engine and
hopped out. The two in the back had
already opened the back doors and were preparing to bring Nick out. AJ climbed out of the front seat and walked
hesitantly around back. A group of
doctors and nurses came running out of the hospital to meet them. They all unloaded Nick from the back of the
ambulance and whisked him inside.
Aileen hung back. “Come
with me,” she said to AJ. “I’ll show you
where you can sit down.”
“I don’t want to sit down,” AJ said. “I want to see Nick.”
“You can’t do that right now, I’m afraid,” Aileen said. “The doctors are working on him now, and you
can’t be in the room while they’re doing that.
Just come with me.”
AJ nodded reluctantly and followed her into the building. They walked down a hallway to waiting room
filled with chairs, a TV, and a line of vending machines.
“Just take a seat here for now,” Aileen instructed. “One of Nick’s doctors will be out to talk to
you as soon as they know something, ok?”
AJ nodded, without saying anything.
Suddenly, Aileen’s beeper went off.
“Sorry, but I’ve got to go now.
Good luck with Nick,” she said and hurried off, leaving AJ alone.
He sighed and glanced around the room. There was only three other people in the
room, an old man, sitting in the corner and reading a newspaper, and a young
man and his daughter, who looked to be about three.
AJ figured none of these people would be likely to recognize him,
and that was good, for now was definitely not the time for him to be dealing
with fans.
AJ knew it could be awhile before he heard anything on Nick, and
so he picked up a magazine from a table next to him and glanced at the
cover. It was a Reader’s Digest. Sighing, he opened it up and tried to read,
but he could not concentrate and ended up just mindlessly thumbing through the
pages, his mind focusing on Nick and nothing else.
***