Homeless

Chapter Nine

Sunita’s parents rush through the door of the County General Hospital’s emergency room. They look around frantically before they spot Dr. Mac and Sunita at the reception desk. Mother throws her arms around Sunita and asks to see her hand. Sunita slowly lifts her arm to show her red, swollen hand. She stammers that it’s not that bad. Daddy looks at it, commenting that it’s deep.

Sunita’s parents are usually calm during medical emergencies. Daddy is a cardiologist, a heart doctor, and Mother is an orthopedist. They’re both used to being around injured and sick people. But now, they look pale and worried. Sunita guesses that when the injured patient is your own kid, you feel a little different.

Mother turns to Dr. Mac and asks her how this happened. Sunita interrupts that it was her fault. She was warned to stay away from the wild cats, and she didn’t. Mother’s voice rises. Was it a cougar? Sunita shakes her head and says that it was Tiger. Mother loudly confirms that Sunita was bitten by a tiger.

Dr. Mac interjects. It was a feral cat, called Tiger. This cat is the same as a domestic cat, but raised without any human contact, so it reverted to a state of wildness. They just started a program to vaccinate and spay a colony of feral cats, and they have a few in the clinic. One of them bit Sunita.

Sunita reiterates again that the fault is only her own. She knows that Mother can tell her not to go to the clinic anymore, and that’s the last thing she wants. Dr. Mac explains that along with an antibiotic, Sunita should be treated for rabies exposure. Just then, the receptionist calls Sunita’s name from the end of the room.

Dr. Mac says that she will wait for Sunita out here. Gary will be here soon, too. Sunita isn’t sure why Gary is coming, but she’ll have to ask later.

They walk down a long hallway to a big room that has a lot of curtains separating beds. Sunita has seen emergency rooms on television, but she’s never been in one before. Everything is bright and clean. A nurse comes out and explains to Sunita’s parents some boring hospital things as he takes her blood pressure and temperature. He writes down Sunita’s vital statistics on a chart, and takes out disinfectant soap in a small base and out of a cupboard. Dr. Gabe already cleaned the bite, and Dr. Mac did, too. Sunita’s hand has never been so clean.

Despite the previous washings, the nurse washes the bite again, and lays gauze over it. Sunita’s hand feels hot and itchy. After the nurse leaves, Mother strokes Sunita’s hair. She says it was all her fault. Mother should have never agreed to let Sunita work around animals at the clinic. They’re dangerous. Daddy tries to calm her down. He says that things always happen to children. They get broken bones and bumps all the time. In fact, she’d be out of a job if they didn’t!

Mother smiles a little. She has to agree with him. But this proves what she has been saying about cats the whole time. They’re dangerous and can’t be trusted. They’re sneaky. Sunita knows that she’s not going to be getting a cat anytime soon.

When the doctor pokes his head in, he addresses Sunita’s parents by first name. They all know each other. This is good. Maybe having one of their friends treat Sunita will make her parents relax.

The doctor puts on a fresh pair of gloves and wheels over a stool to sit on. He lifts the gauze from the bite and studies the holes made by Tiger’s teeth. He says she was truly chomped. He asks Sunita to open and close her fingers, which Sunita does easily. The doctor comments that he doesn’t see any evidence of damage to nerves or the bones of her hand. Sometimes dog bites can break a finger, but that rarely happens with cats. Their jaws just aren’t strong enough, and puncture wounds don’t need stitches.

However, the doctor talked to Dr. MacKenzie and Gary Snyder outside. The cat was vaccinated only yesterday, so they don’t know whether or not it has rabies. Assuming Sunita had her last tetanus vaccination when she was six, she’ll need a booster today as well as an antibiotic injection. Cat bites are very deep, so the doctor is sure that Sunita has some nasty germs in her wound.

Furthermore, they have to think about rabies. Dr. MacKenzie says the cat was vaccinated before Sunita was bitten, but the shot may not have had time to take effect. The cat must be tested immediately. Mother gasps. The doctor says that over 70% of rabies cases are transmitted through raccoons and skunks, and another large percentage comes from bats. The chance of this cat having rabies is very small.

Sunita asks how they’re going to test Tiger for rabies. The doctor hesitates and looks down. Very quietly, he says the only way to test for rabies is by testing brain tissue. And the only way to do that is to kill the animal. It will be done very kindly. He’ll get an injection and won’t feel a thing.

Hot tears spring to Sunita’s eyes. She says that it’s not fair. It was all her fault. She never should have tried to open the cage to pet him. She’s very sorry.

Daddy asks if she would rather have rabies shots than have the cat put to sleep? Sunita says she can’t let him be killed because she was stupid. Dr. Mac put a sign on his cage and everything to warn people not to get close. It’s wrong to kill him.

The doctor says that there’s another way to proceed. The animal can stay in quarantine under observation. If he doesn’t show signs of rabies after ten days, then he’s not infected. But, Sunita will still need to receive two rabies shots tonight, and one more next week. If he is infected, she would need to receive three more shots after that.

Sunita says that’s a lot of shots. Why don’t they wait until the ten days are up? If Tiger has rabies, then she can start the shots. The doctor explains that that’s too late for Sunita. They need to start treatment immediately. If Sunita is infected, the shots will prevent rabies from developing. Thousands of people every year get these shots.

Sunita goes back and forth with her parents for a while. Her parents want them to kill Tiger to test the brain tissue, but in the end, Sunita wins. Tiger will get to live.

The doctor cleans the skin on her right arm near the shoulder and gives her the first injection. It hurts, but not as much as it hurt when Tiger bit her. The doctor gives her three more shots: one in the right arm, and two in the left. She feels like a pincushion.

When Sunita comes out of the examination room, Dr. Mac and Gary are waiting in the waiting room. Sunita’s parents explain what happened. Sunita says she decided to get the shots. She didn’t want to see Tiger killed. Gary says that he’s filling out the report right now. They have to follow up on every suspected rabies case. Sunita may get some calls from reporters. Rabies stories are big news, even if they turn out to be nothing.

Mother simply presses her lips together tightly. Sunita knows it’s not a good time to ask if they can adopt one of the stray cats. It might never be time to ask. The day has turned out so horribly.

Suddenly, the automatic door opens at the other end of the room, and an intense-looking woman rushes in with a pencil and a notebook. She strides over to them and says that she got a call from Animal Control about a rabies victim. She turns to Sunita. Is this the little girl who was attacked by a vicious, wild cat?