EIGHT HOURS

This is a short story written by a loved one who has been working in the medical field for about 20 years.



EIGHT HOURS

A nurse at a local community hospital triages a man with a fever and a sore throat (and an UNDIAGNOSED, highly contagious and deadly virus). She wonders, as she does almost daily, "Why do they come to ER with simple symptoms?, This is not emergent, and WE are paying for this useless visit". She asks the patient the new questions required by the CDC: "Have you traveled to or from "X" part of the world within the past 21 days?" The patient tells her that he has not, and that the last time he was even on an airplane was two weeks ago when he traveled to Disneyland with his young family. The patient is discharged with instructions to take two days off from work and rest until he feels better. He stops at a drug store a block from his house to buy medication to decrease his fever. After handling four bottles, he decides on Ibuprofen, and goes home to his family.

The nurse washes her hands, again, and heads home, toward her husband, who has promised to take her to dinner at a local casino. The two enjoy an "all you can eat" buffet with 80 other patrons in the restaurant. When the waiter hands her the bill, the nurse's hand brushes his shirt sleeve. He serves a hundred more customers before the restaurant closes for the night.

As they leave the restaurant, the couple stop at a card table. Before the nurse decides that she has lost enough money, she has had eight cards in her hands. All the cards go back to the deck. The dealer shuffles, and deals cards to hundreds to players before the end of his shift.

The nurse, feeling "lucky", stops at five slot machines, and wins $300. She takes her receipt to the cashier, who counts out her money. That cashier is now handling money for hundreds of winners throughout the night. The cash in her drawer either stays inside the casino, or is deposited in the bank for later use in ATM machines across the region.

At least thirty people play each game that the nurse has played.

She leaves toward home to begin another day at the hospital tomorrow.

As the casino patrons exit their evening of gambling, some enter their favorite bar, where they embrace their "friends". A few, thinking that it is still early, stop to watch a movie at a theater with a hundred other enthusiast. A few stop at a grocery store, sampling twelve apples before they decided on their perfect five. The rest simply go home and kiss their children goodnight.

Those children go to school or daycare the next day...

Eight hours.

a reply to: violence=answer

Great story and great reminder to stay aware of our surroundings.

We come in to contact with so many people and surfaces touched by other people, yikes!

a reply to: violence=answer

Nice little Tale! S+F for You!! I wanted to say basically what Jenny said above. We need to be aware of keeping ourselves clean. Especially our hands......

6 years later and this is more relevant than ever...
Crazy...