The Night She Died: Double Addiction

Your blood alcohol level of 1.08,” Dr. Mick, a doctor-on-call for the Emergency department, told Nora, a young mother. “You should not have been driving.”

Nora had accompanied her children, Marty, her four-year old daughter and Max, her two-year old son, in the ambulance. She had driven through a red light and hit a pizza delivery truck. Out of control, her vehicle had careened over the side of a bridge and plunged into icy water.

“No, I don’t think so!” insisted Nora. “Check it again!” Nora was extremely argumentative and not aware her children were in critical condition because of head injuries and having been in icy water.

The pizza truck driver had called 911 immediately, and rescued all of them.

“I want to see my children, now!” she screamed.

“Not a good idea. You have to sober up.”

“I will order sedation,” Dr. Mick advised Beth, the young nurse on duty. “I’ll send an orderly to help, but we may need restraints.”

“Does anyone know this family?” Dr. Mick asked the group of people at the front desk, moments later. “Are there any relatives here?”

“I just contacted Bob, her husband,” advised Officer Herman. “He’s coming from work.”

“Only a whiplash,” Dr. Mick told the driver, a young man on his first delivery job for a pizza parlor. “You saved their lives.”

“The children were not in car seats, or wearing seat belts. Doctor, I may lose my job.”

“Have your boss contact me,” advised Dr. Mick.

“There are witnesses,” Officer Herman told him, later. “This was not your fault and you will not be charged.”

“I need cigarettes!” screamed Nora, at the orderly in her cubicle. “Get me some now!”

“If only you had gotten cigarettes for me before you went to work like you promised, this would not have happened,” she screamed at her husband, as he came through the doorway moments later. “It’s your fault, not mine!”

“If only,” Bob thought to himself. “Marty would not have died either. How do I tell her?”

"Now, you have to buy me a new car!"