Since the evening, the almost one-year-old grandson has been acting up. The temperature was measured by vigilant parents, but it was somehow not serious, about 37.5. Nothing threatening and suspicious. They shook me in their arms, tried to comfort and cheer me up. The boy did not react particularly to his parents, turned away, and kept putting his head on his father’s shoulder. It was kind of sluggish. With that, they went to bed.
Early in the morning, the young parents took care of the household (the house was private and there were enough worries). And the grandmother took over the child. Apparently the female, maternal intuition finally sounded the alarm. Some guy is «not like that», strange. With an elevated temperature, children fly around the house, just catch it. They get even more excited, they can put everyone and everyone on their ears. And this one is hanging on his hands like a rag and barely responds to the bumps, and jokes. Finally, Grandma’s suspicion won out and she sent her son-in-law to call a doctor at home. The guy, feeling his mother-in-law’s anxiety and calling an ambulance on a pay phone, without hesitation, said that the child had a high fever. And a piece of paper with a call code flew from the hands of the operator «103» along the conveyor to the dispatchers…
— Temperature early in the morning. Couldn’t you call the clinic?
— Ta z polikliniki likar priide tilki pislya obidu, ta y that … marvel at the skilki viklikiv yoma to write … Garazd, chogo vzhe there. Look, polikuemo …
— I don’t like the private sector! The people of the ashes of the furnaces on the road of wikidae, and to heat every fignea. Axis i is brought to the kolis potim «smazheni» tsvyakhi chi yakis inshi zakarlyuki vityaguvati …
So, peacefully and happily, we make our way to the labirinti vul’its z privatnih budinkiv. Parkans, booths, gates, public gardens. Yaki bagatshi, yaki vzagali rozvalyutsya. Chergoviy likar superconducts our car. On vulitsi early Autumn. Warm and dry. I smell girkotoyu rydkisnih vognishch z gilkami opal leaf. It’s a dumb brudu I sloti, ala doschi vzhe stayut chastishimi i trivalishimi.
We got there. So we need an address. A young guy is shifting at the gate. He wants to take the briefcase out of my hands. He says that he is the father of the child and is trying to tell something. The house is large, clean, tidy. I pass into the upper room. I am met by a woman with a baby in her arms and a very young girl with a bottle and a diaper. The child, resting his head on his grandmother’s shoulder, is dozing. While, rattling the washbasin, washing my hands, the women are vying to tell what and how it was… when the runny nose appeared, when the temperature, when vomited… what was given, and so on …
— Well, let’s see what happened there …
I take the child from the woman and ask her to put a blanket on the table. Indeed, the boy is kind of sluggish, does not resist, does not cry, does not try to examine me, hangs in his hands with a rag, his head thrown back. The eyes are closed and the vascular pattern on the eyelids is clearly visible. Too pale. I lay it down and begin to undress carefully. The room is dark.
— … Pull back the curtains and open the shutters on the windows. We need more light!
Then events begin to unfold at the speed of a mad movie projector …The child, protesting against undressing, whimpers and finally opens his eyes. The outer corner of the right eye, almost half of the eyeball is covered with blood under the sclera. Spot hemorrhages on the left eyeball. Hurrying, I take off his T-shirt. There are two vascular «stars» under the left clavicle. Right before my eyes, two more appear on my chest. It feels like large pieces of ice were poured into my stomach. There is instant panic, chaos in my head and, on top of everything, a couple of diagnoses with similar symptoms are burning, driven in by patient teachers. I jump to my suitcase. In the corner, an almost forgotten box, and in it prednisone, levomycetin, a pair of disposable syringes. «Meningococcal styling», let her go and be forgotten forever! It’s a strange state -my head is dry and cold. The movements are extremely precise and coordinated. The dose calculation is instantaneous. The injections are done as quickly as possible.
«What now?!!!»Against the background of all this, somewhere in the mind, a terrified little man sits in a corner and screams silently in horror. I turn around, and then it dawns on me that during all this time I have not said a word and the whole family is standing nearby and stunned watching my manipulations.
«Everyone away!!! … From home!!! Wait outside!!!
— …I’m not going! .. Kill me, I won’t go!!!»
«Dragonfly» clung to the edge of the table on which the child is lying, eyes — two wells.
«… Expel the rest! Infection is especially dangerous!!! .. ». In two jumps I skip the yard, jerk open the car door and, falling belly down on the seat, reach for the radio …
«…The Medic is In Charge !!! The Medic is In Charge !!! I am a Medic 23 … Urgently!!! Children’s shocks on me!!! Meningococcemia !!! Lightning — fast form … faster!!!»
I scream so hard that my ears pop. The driver pressed himself into the opposite door and stared through the crumpled newspaper.
— Explain to them exactly where we are and how to get there as soon as possible!!
I throw the microphone to the driver and run back into the house. I run into my parents in the hallway. Shadow people. I can’t see them anymore. Vision is amazingly concentrated on the child. The mind coldly records the symptoms. «So.It flows from everywhere. From the eyes, from the nose, from the ears, from under the nails… Chest, face, neck are sprinkled with spot hemorrhages. Some are already merging. DIC-syndrome in all its glory. It flows from the punctures of the injection needle … »
— My God!!! The Queen of Heaven !!! So what is it, huh? !!! Doctor, what is it… how is that??
A woman tugs at my robe. Seeing my face and apparently realizing something, he settles on a chair and starts howling.
— Shut up!!! Listen up!!! The child has a particularly dangerous infection. Meningitis. Lightning-fast form. Everything that can be done is done. There is almost no chance. As he survives, there will be a miracle. You can hold on-stay close. No-get out in the yard…
In the phonendoscope, you can hear an increasing squelching in the lungs and increasingly weak heart tones. The rhythm disturbance begins … Here is one «gap»… second… Respiratory and cardiac arrest !!! I gently shake the suddenly heavy body and gently squeeze the chest. My palms are enough to cover and thumbs exactly converge at the right point. I’m starting the massage. I put a gauze napkin on my bloody face and «breathe» through it. The siren » meningococcemia !!! .. Mouth to mouth!!! .. Completely stunned?!!!»Yes… Yes, I’m breathing… and he’s breathing.
At some point, just mysticism began. Apparently, having completely lost my mind and professional criticism from despair that I was losing a child, I clung to the blood-slick body and begged in my thoughts, probably for the first time in my life…
«… If You are there, help!!! Don’t let him die!!!»
.. The child started breathing on his own, started crying and tried to open his eyes…He lived when his grandmother kissed his legs and said something continuously, he stretched out his hands to her… He lived and cried when I tried to turn him on his side so that he wouldn’t choke on his own blood… he lived when at home, cars screeched to a halt…
I was sitting on a bench by the gate and indifferently looked at my hands, covered with a black crust of dried blood. My driver came over and handed me an old towel.
— I’m here, this… the edge is wet … and the other one is dry… You, this… wipe your face … and hands … or let me … I’m somehow more comfortable. .. and let’s take off the robe …
It wasn’t strange to me that an adult uncle gently wipes my face and hands, helps me get out of my robe… We shuddered at the same time. When they heard a shrill female scream. «Everyone…» they both exhaled.
.. Sometimes, remembering this case, I ask myself: What do we bring with us to people? .. And what do we leave when we leave? What are people left with??
… A handful of empty ampoules, pieces of cotton wool with a spot of blood, a package from a bandage or a cardiograph tape… or is it something more?
What has been torn from our soul forever…
