Why I stopped working in the Evergreen Hospital ICU
I got my job as a nurse in the Evergreen Hospital ICU Dept. in 2014 and I worked from 11 AM to 2 AM for about 45 dollars an hour under the entry level salary, I worked there until 2019.
I loved that job, I met some great kids when I visited NICU and the young ones department of our ICU and I and some co-workers arranged Robert Downey Jr. to visit all the kids just to make them a little bit happier, this was the last time they would see a celebrity.
I had a son with my husband in 2017 and when he was one and a half years old in 2018 he was diagnosed with leukemia and was hospitalized at the ICU I worked at. I visited Mason every day I worked and always sung him to sleep when he asked, I cuddled with him because I knew he wouldn’t be able to cuddle with his “stuffies” because his body was so weak and inept.
My shift ended in 2 hours, it was 12:27 AM and I suddenly heard screaming.
“EVERYBODY ON THE GROUND”
I immediately got down and crawled over to the ER reception desk, there I found two masked gunmen standing in the lobby yielding AR-15s and what looked to be Colt M1911 9MM handguns, wearing bulletproof vests and padded jeans with maybe 6 magazines for both guns on each person.
“HEY YOU!” one of them yelled, “WHERE IS THE PHARMACY STORAGE?”
I froze.
This was not an attack I expected, he was talking to me asking for medications I could not give.
I thought of Mason and immediately bolted down the corridor, but I fell as one of them fired and hit me in the elbow. An excruciating pain flowed through me as my head was filled with only one little boy.
Mason, Mason, Mason, Mason, Mason.
I was filled with questions, “What will they do to him?” “He loves watching crime shows with me what if he pretends I’m a cop and they kill both him and I?” and then I heard footsteps.
“I said, where is the pharmacy?” His voice calmer now but still demeaning enough to fill me with rage. “C’mon sweetheart, we know where your son is, why won’t you just give in?” What the fuck.
How did they know where he was?
How did they know him?
How did they know me?
The man unclipped his handgun and pressed it to the back of my head while I laid on my stomach with his leg on my back, I could hear his breath. But I couldn’t focus, all that was in my mind was my son.
“The key is on my chain in my left pocket, head straight for two intersections and take a left, walk for a bit and you’ll see a sign saying: ‘Room 224’ put the key in and you’ll have all the medications you need.”
He turned on his radio: “Let three out, tell the officers we request food for the kids in here, they’re probably starving.” Im glad he atleast had some moral compass in him, but that thought ran away with what he said next, “If they don’t give us food in the next 20 minutes, we’re shooting 15 hostages.” He said, this was nothing I had ever thought of before, he was threatening the police with our lives just to feed kids that were already being fed.
“Please let me go.” I mustered to whisper.
He got off and pointed his gun into the ceiling and shot who knows how many times, but it did what he wanted, I couldn’t get up, I was in shock.
The man walked away and I knew it wouldn’t be last time I saw him, I ran over to Mason’s room and saw a paper stating “We know who you are. Don’t slip up.” I was mortified, Mason was dead silent under his covers in the hospital bed, shivering when I looked at him.
“Mom?”
Oh my god.
I started bawling, I hugged that toddler in a way that I couldn’t imagine, he was so scared, I was with him until I heard a man again, this time a different voice.
“Ma’am,” His voice was fierce.
I turned around, and blacked out. When I woke up, I saw SWAT officers pulling me out of the room like a body, and when we got to the lobby, I regretted even living at all.