She Wanted It All - Kathryn Casey [112]
At Brackenridge Hospital just after 8:00 A.M., the physician on duty examined Steve, who complained of chest pains. Noting no indication of a heart problem, he examined a rash on Steve’s groin. Diagnosing it as a yeast infection, he saw no reason to admit him. Hospitals can be dangerous places, with infection a high possibility. Steve, he said, would be better off at home. But when Dr. Coscia examined Steve, he overruled him.
“Let’s keep him here a couple of days,” he ordered. “See if we can treat the rash.”
When she heard Steve was back in the hospital, Jennifer called Kristina on her cell phone to tell her what had happened.
“Did he look sick?” Kris asked.
“No,” Jen said.
“That’s so mean. She just doesn’t want him home.”
When Celeste called Tracey to tell her that Steve was back in the hospital, Tracey at first didn’t believe her. “Why?” she said.
“He’s really sick,” she said. “I think he has some kind of infection.”
“That HealthSouth is a disgusting pigpen,” Celeste complained to the case worker at Brackenridge. “He had a rash, and they didn’t do anything about it. They told me to put vinegar on it. He never should have been released. They said he could take care of himself, but he can’t. They sent him home too soon.”
Checked into another room, his fourth at the hospital, Steve was treated for the rash with antifungal creams and showers. He seemed well, ate, and talked to the twins. “I’m fine,” he said. “I’ll be home again in a couple of days.”
That afternoon, Steve looked so good that another debate ensued between Coscia and a physician who saw no reason he should be in the hospital. A social worker was called in to explain to Celeste that with no clear reason why he should be there, Medicare might refuse to pay the bill.
“I don’t care,” she said. “We have money. We’ll pay.”
The following day, Steve fared well. His rash had improved and the doctors argued again about whether he needed to be hospitalized. The twins and their boyfriends stayed with Steve as Celeste came and went, saying she had errands to run. While disappointed at being back in the hospital, he was in a good mood, watching television and joking.
“This is just a setback,” he told a friend who called. “I’m fine. I’ll be out in no time.”
The first real indication that more troubled Steve than he knew was the next day, when a cardiologist ran an EKG and did an ultrasound of Steve’s heart. “I don’t believe this is ischemic chest pain”—coming from any problem with the heart—the doctor wrote on his chart. “I am concerned about infection given his warm, tender lower region.”
Later that day blood work noted an elevated white blood cell count, another sign something was brewing.
In pain, Steve was given Vicodin, but his temperature had crept up overnight, another possible sign of infection. At just after three that afternoon it reached 102.5 degrees. More blood work was drawn, and this time it came back positive for infection.
Worried, Kristina called Dr. Handley, Steve’s physician, and told him that he was back in the hospital.
“Lots of people get infections in hospitals. If they caught it early, he’ll be all right,” he said. “Try not to worry.”
Meanwhile, Celeste seemed more preoccupied with her nail appointment. “I can’t make it today. I think Steve’s gonna die,” she said to Donna when she called. “Just don’t make an appointment for me.”
“Celeste, forget about the salon,” she replied. “Take care of yourself and Steve.”
“Okay,” Celeste said, and hung up.
By eight-thirty that evening drugs had brought Steve’s temperature back down to 100.2 and he was resting comfortably. Yet he slept little that night, with nurses waking him every hour to take his temperature. By three-thirty the next morning, his temperature was up again, this time to 102.3. And something else was wrong; his pulse had climbed to 120 beats per minute. He was delirious, talking but making little sense.
“You owe me money,” he told Kristina, who held his hand. “Twenty dollars.”
“Okay, I’ll