As if on cue, one of the young doctors assigned to receive new emergency patients met the arriving gurney and its two ambulance technicians.

“Ok.  What have we got?” asked the doctor.

The more senior looking technician relied.

“Woman in her twenties; she collapsed suddenly while at a store over at Green Valley Mall.”

“What are her vitals?” the doctor asked as he picked up the chart lying on the patient’s stomach.

“Well, that’s just it, she seems to be otherwise ok – BP is normal, no disparate dilation, extremities show no symptomatic signs of any kind. A store attendant said the woman was looking at garments began to ask the attendant about colors, stopped mid-sentence, looked at the attendant with a puzzled look, then went out like a light.”

The doctor performed a cursory examination himself to confirm what the ambulance technician had just reported.

“Alright, let’s get her into a room for now.”

Turning to one of the attending nurses the doctor gave out quick instructions.

“Please contact someone in neurology.  I’d like to see about having a scan done on this patient”

“Yes, Doctor” replied the nurse.

The doctor’s attention was already elsewhere as the flashing turrets announced another arriving ambulance.

The nurses relieved the ambulance technicians of the gurney and wheeled it into the interior of the hospital.

As the noise level increased and the waiting room patients adjusted themselves to see what arrived next, the doctor’s pager went off two more times in succession:  Automobile accident; multiple victims.

When the nurse announced the incoming load the waiting room denizens perked up, they began talking a little bit louder, more animated in gesture and vocal range.

Such was the scene at Trent Mercy.