This is a rather specific question, but if anyone can help... My plot hinges on an emergency room nurse being targeted for seeing 'something criminal' that she shouldn't have. Although innocent herself, the criminals are after her. I have her working in a major hospital. My thought is that she is at the place where the ambulances arrives with other people when two guys holding each other up stumble to the door. The guy is helping his friend, who has been shot to the door. She vaguely recognizes him and he knows it, which causes the domino effect that leads to being targeted. Later, she remembers that he was either a box boy or worked at a gas station or something like that. What do you think? For those in emergency care, what are the flaws in my plan?
I don't work in the field, but 1. which guy does she recognize, the victim or the friend helping him? and 2. Who is targeting her? The friend/helper or a third party? The flaw I see in it is that in the U.S., I believe all gunshot injuries need to be reported and investigated (ask Plaxico Buress) so I don't see the friend just dropping the victim off, even if he knew he couldn't be recognized by the nurse at the entrance or triage. A better question, which I don't know, is if you can just pull up, drop off a victim and leave without being stopped by the authorities of there being an immediate call to the police. In the movie 'Traffic' some friends tried just dropping off a drug overdose victim but the police caught them at the entrance. Don't know if that is realistic.
My thought is that 1) the friend helping recognizes her and 2) the friend and his gang stalk her. I will have the police notified and the nurse giving them whatever information she can. Although I would expect that someone dropping a person off would be detained if staff is able, he might refuse to stay and run off. I suppose that is part of the question...3) would security/staff be able to stop him before he bolts if he's determined to leave? 4) Would time of day make a difference? The incident in this story is actually a scene only and only a plot-driver. Although vital to the plot, it could be anything. I was thinking of things such as the nurse saw a coworker stealing meds or maybe witnessed a crime on her way to work...anything that would make her a target (so that she knows that she's a target and has to react.)
The flaw I see is that unless a patient comes in on a stretcher, nurses don't meet them at the door -- and even if they're on a stretcher (which means an ambulance and EMTs) it's still unlikely that anyone will meet them at the door. ER patients who are ambulatory typically do to a reception desk, which is manned by a clerical person rather than a nurse, and they are checked in. If the patient is so critical that they need to be treated immediately, it's unlikely that anyone would even look twice at the person who brought the patient in. I'm not a nurse or a doctor, but I have spent a lot of time in emergency rooms.
I had wondered about that. I've been trying to think of something that would single her out without making her an actual party to being a criminal herself.
A nurse might be in a group of people responding to a serious injury that arrived without notice. Someone might call for a team of able bodied assistants especially to get the guy up onto a stretcher. I would think one guy dropping him off outside would be your best bet, happens fairly often with overdoses. Have the nurse make eye-contact with the guy who dropped the patient off. She could see blood on the car somewhere like around the door. The big problem here is the nurse would tell the first cop on the scene, especially if she got the license plate. There needs to be a reason for her to not say anything, so maybe she goes to retrieve something like the guy's coat. The man in car with the blood on it swings back around and threatens her with the warning not to say anything. She doesn't know (or maybe she does) that the man saw her write down the plate. That's what makes him swing back around. Normally a nurse responding to an emergency in the lobby or just outside would be involved in providing care and an aid or someone else would go retrieve the coat. You'll need a reason why she doesn't start care. She could be extra, maybe she was just getting off work and she's the one who discovers the man that has been dumped off. She's the one who calls for help. And that's when the guy who dropped the man off tells her to keep her mouth shut.
Could the nurse see something or someone while on her break or something similar. Could see be going to retrieve something from her car or maybe going across to another building? ,
