Tuesday, September 24, 2002

Critical Condition - 159

[Continued from last season] B in critical condition from an accident with a land mine where he lost his leg. Coats saved him w/ a tourniquet and by forcing immediate transport to a field hospital rather than waiting for paramedics to arrive. Dunston of ZNN reported. C notified Ht and sent her home w/ Tiner. He also got Mikey back from the academy to stay with Ht. Big B nowhere to be found. Surgeon Ferarro amputated below the knee but B continued to deteriorate and they had to go back to remove more non-viable tissue. On the table he "crashed" and they found that he also had a ruptured spleen as well. They tried resuscitation but failed and pronounced him dead at 21:04. Just at the same time back in Bethesda little AJ stopped playing with uncle Mike and went to stand in the corner. The camera cut back and forth between a zoom into Bs eye and AJ. Then AJ called out "daddy" and said "daddy come home." At the same time Ferraro was telling Coates that B had died B "jump started" himself back to life and the resuscitation resumed. They finished his surgery and reported to M & H that he was stable and had a good prognosis. [Highly accurate representation of cardiac arrest management.] H seen w/ tears in eyes when notified that B had rallied and would survive; M snuggled with him in the corridor. [Patrick Labyorteaux still has both legs]

T flew into the Seahawk from the Watertown where he had helped route Kabir and the "dirty nuke" missile he shot from a Russian sub. When they all three heard about B they called C who said that only one of them could stay- as his temporary replacement. T volunteered to return but neither H or M could decide who should stay so they both did. C was "pissed" and told Tiner to draw up willful disobedience papers. When T asked who for, then pointed out that only one was technically disobeying orders, C told him to use his law school knowledge and decide who to charge. T pointed out to C that Tiner would never be able to decide and C just grinned. C, H, M & Mikey have flash backs about episodes with B and all feel "guilty" about him being there.

Sen. Sheffield held hearings on the nuclear missile firing incident and C & S were called to testify. S was criticized for being at the "point" of the operation and having "no prior experience." C was criticized for being the lead of the operation whose "skills are rusty at best." He was asked under whose orders he was at the lead and he replied "the SECNAV." Then the director of the CIA was called and whined that the SECNAV intentionally excluded the CIA from "the loop" except for one field agent who "instigated the contact." He claimed that the SECNAV also intentionally kept the Naval Intel out because they would have told the CIA. The SECNAV was flabbergasted at the accusations to no avail and C turned to S saying "you've just watched a SECNAV loose his job."