Episode Report Card 17 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT All In The Family
By Wing Chun | Season 6 | Episode 14 | Aired on 02.16.2000
Benton seems to have just completed the trach because he tells the room at large to "get ready to bag" Lucy. Chen appears at his side and tells him Carter needs him. Weaver and Benton both yell orders, and Chen manages to get a word in edgewise: "Carter's got a bad renal lac." Benton checks on Lucy's pulse ox, and asks Weaver, "You got another surgeon coming?" "Go, go!" Weaver yells in response.
Greene pulls up to the hospital in his Milquetoastmobile -- oops! I mean "mini-van." He and Elizabeth leap out, but not before Mark tells Holling to wait for them inside. Elizabeth and Mark jog up to a cop manning the security check; after the few moments it takes for them both to locate their hospital IDs, they are allowed to enter, on the condition that they move the mini-van. Mark seems to take his sweet time going back to the van to tell Holling to move it, and then hurries back toward the hospital. Holling asks to where he's supposed to move it, and Mama Corday replies rhetorically, "You're asking me?"
Carter is lying on a gurney on his way up for surgery, looking very groggy indeed. Chen is exhorting him to stay awake. Elizabeth catches the gurney as it rounds a corner and asks how he is; her coat is tight enough that the bulge of her body mic is visible at her back, but regardless she asks Benton how Carter is, and Benton tells her what's happened so far, and that they're "redlining him for the OR." Elizabeth asks Carter's blood pressure, and Benton tells her that he's got Carter, but that Weaver needs her. Now in the elevator, Benton tells Carter to hang on.
Luka has moved in to help Weaver with Lucy, and observes that Lucy's belly is distended, which probably indicates "an intra-abdominal bleed." Weaver asks why Paul wasn't sedated, and Luka snaps, "I don't know. Get ultrasound in here!" Weaver's like a dog with a big old bone, though, and demands, "Was he on a hold? Was there a sitter?" and Luka exclaims, "I don't know, Kerry! I never saw him!" Weaver squeals, "What?!" but before Luka can answer, Mark and Elizabeth are at the door getting gowned and Dr. Dave is pushing up the ultrasound machine and giving them the bullet. Elizabeth asks about blood loss, and Weaver says there's four hundred in the Thoraseal, and possibly as much as 2,000 before anyone found her. Cut to Lucy, whose throat wound still looks just as nasty as ever, if not nastier. Mark asks how long the blade was, but before anyone can answer, Haleh yells that Lucy's pressure's dropping. Mark says she needs pressure, "Now!" Elizabeth says it could be "tamponade" and they need to open a thoracotomy tray; Weaver shouts her down with an order to check Lucy's CVP, but Luka says it's too late, and that they've lost Lucy's pulse. Dr. Dave says they're in "PEA," and Luka starts compressions. Elizabeth says that they need to "crack her," and calls to anyone to prep Lucy's chest. Weaver asks Lily for the sternal saw; Elizabeth makes an incision down the length of Lucy's chest, and Weaver visibly screws up her nerve to use the sternal saw on Lucy. Because she's Weaver, she steps up and does the job; everyone else watches, their faces clearly communicating their gratitude that they didn't have to do it. Mark cracks Lucy's chest with the rib spreader, and Luka makes with the ultrasound. Lucy goes into v-fib, and Mark starts internal compressions. Weaver calls for internal paddles, and Mark notes, "We've got a major hemorrhage, here." Weaver says that it looks like the proximal aorta, and Mark tells her to keep her finger on it. Elizabeth calls for a needle. Luka, watching the ultrasound monitor, says that Lucy's belly is "full of blood," and that Paul "probably got the spleen." Dr. Dave confidently declares that they've got to "cross-clamp the aorta," and Elizabeth firmly replies, "One thing at a time." Weaver calls for the paddles to be charged. Elizabeth draws a thread upward and yells, "Cut! Cut!" Luka snips it. Weaver leans in with the internal paddles and shocks Lucy's heart, but she's still in v-fib. Luka calls for another amp of epi, and Weaver shocks her again. They get a regular rhythm for a second, then, according to Dr. Dave, "sinus tach." Elizabeth announces that they're "moving her to the OR now." They start to push the gurney out, but Lucy's still attached to the pulse ox monitor, which Weaver quickly unplugs. Mark asks whether Lucy's making urine, and Dr. Dave says there's only fifty cc's in the foley. Mark opines that that's "better than nothing," and Elizabeth yells at Lily to call the OR and tell them they've "got an open chest." Weaver crutches along at the head of the gurney, calling out last-minute orders. Luka asks whether they'll need anyone else, and Elizabeth, in the elevator with Haleh, Dr. Dave, and Lucy, yells, "I hope not." The doors close. Mark, Luka, and Weaver stand in the hall, still in their yellow gowns, looking shell-shocked. Mark pulls off his gloves and says, "I can't believe this," because that's constructive. Luka says, "I think we got it in time," and Mark agrees, "She has a good chance." Weaver takes a few deep breaths, and then quickly walks away. Luka calls after her, but you know she must be really traumatized because she actually doesn't answer him.