I only just got into my bed and closed my eyes when Taylor called.
“Zac is unresponsive. Ambulance on the way. Get down here,” then he hung up.
Lord, I know I don’t deserve anything from You right now. But please help my little brother be ok. I prayed as I ran down the hall to Zac’s room.
Zac’s face was flushed and the sheets were soaked. It was ice cold in the room, but his skin was burning up. I’d seen this before. I was 16, in the back room of an LA party. The girl was passed out on the floor, skin soaked. “Ice, go get ice. Hurry.” I remember someone yelling at me.
I grabbed the ice bucket from the room and filled it up as fast as I could, spilling half of it down the hall on the way back. The part I saved I wrapped in a towel and started dabbing it all over Zac’s skin. The ice melted quickly. I had just told Taylor to go get more, when paramedics pounded on the door. We let them in, then got out of their way.
As soon as the paramedics gave Zac oxygen, he jerked awake and ripped the mask off his face. He tossed his head from side to side when they tried to put the mask back on. When he fell back in a fit of coughing, they put the mask on again, but he fought them.
“Any idea what he got into?” One of them asked me. “Looks like the flu mixed with an OD.”
“No. Probably a little bit of everything, to be honest. There were a bunch of pills floating around last night.”
“Ok, we’ll get him to the hospital. Who is the next of kin?”
“I am,” Taylor spoke before I could. I gave him a look. I was the older brother after all.
“We both are,” Taylor corrected, “But I’m free to be around tomorrow if I need to be.”
Well, that made sense. Still, business meetings could be rescheduled. I wasn’t in the mood to fight it. I just wanted Zac to get better.
The other EMTs were struggling to get Zac on the gurney since he was fully awake after all of the commotion.
“You two might have to help. He might react better to family.”
“Zac,” Taylor said, “You’re sick. You’ve got to go to the hospital. These people are here to help you.”
“No. Soo hot.”
“It won’t be hot at the hospital.”
“Kate.”
“Kate called us. You can call her if you help us out.”
Zac nodded and Taylor signaled for the EMTs to put him on the gurney. They worked fast to move him over and strap him down. Zac immediately started fighting against the restraints.
“Hey,” I put my hand on his shoulder. Zac turned his head toward me, his brown eyes filled with sadness. He felt helpless. I knew he did. “We’ve got you. Let us help you. Just this once. Just for tonight you don’t have to carry everything by yourself.”
Zac just rolled his eyes, sadness turned to anger. Hadn’t I said the right thing? Or was I a jerk again? I never mean to be, but my words don’t always come out right.
The EMTs tried to administer oxygen the whole ride and Zac kept fighting them off. His face was stilled flushed from the fever and more of his hair stuck to his face every time he tossed his head away.
“We are going to have to sedate him,” one of the paramedics said, reaching in a drawer for supplies.
“We can’t give him anything until we get a tox screen back. We don’t know what is in his system,” his partner replied.
“The doc on call won’t be very happy.”
“My job is to save lives, not make doctors happy,” the paramedic tried once again to put the mask on Zac’s face, but he wasn’t having it.
“Alright, we’re almost there, anyway,” the paramedic sat back, but still kept his eyes on Zac in case he passed out again.
The ambulance pulled into the bay and the EMTs rushed Zac into the ER. Taylor and I almost lost him the rush of doctors and nurses, but followed the commotion he was making to one of the more private rooms in the back.
A doctor looked at us as we entered.
“Next of kin” Taylor said.
“Sit,” he pointed to chairs in the far corner of the room, well out of the way of the doctors and nurses.
“Stop with the fucking needles!” Zac yelled, jerking his arm away from a nurse. I swallowed the lump in my throat, hoping no one would see. Zac, stop. Let them help you.
“Alright, son, you’ve got to calm down,” the doctor put a hand on Zac’s shoulder.
“I’m not your son,” when Zac reached to push his hand away, the doctor gripped it in a tight handshake and held his arm down to the bed and nodded to a nurse. She rushed over with a lab kit. Zac pounded his free arm on the bed when the needle went in.
“Fucking shit!!” He yelled, trying to pull it out. A nurse touched his shoulder and used the same fake out the doctor did to get his free arm under control.
“Betty, we need Kevin,” the doctor said.
“What are they doing?” Taylor asked me quietly. He was in the far corner, so his view was slightly obscured.
“I think they are taking a blood sample.”
He nodded. “You feel everything more when you’re high.” I just looked at him. “Or so I’ve heard. Even the lightest touch can feel like someone is trying to break a bone.”
“Get that to the lab ASAP, and tell them high priority rush. I need to know what he is on so I know how to bring him down,” the doctor said. The nurse nodded and rushed out of the room, almost bumping into Kevin. The male nurse looked like he would be more at home on a football field than in a hospital. He was Vin Diesel squared.
“We need to get fluid into him to bring his temp down. He’s not taking very well to our help,” the doctor explained.
Kevin nodded and picked up IV tubing from the tray. “You decide how much this hurts,” he told Zac.
It was the wrong thing to tell Zac. Every time Kevin put the IV in, Zac pulled it out.
“Have it your way,” Kevin walked away from the bed.
Zac had a smirk on his face, thinking he won.
I saw Kevin hand something to a nurse on side of the bed, and then walk behind around to Zac’s other side. I didn’t even seem them put the restraints on his hands, then his feet, they moved so quickly.
I hated seeing him like this. It was a Hanson family trait to resist control.
“NOOOOO!” I was sure patients all over the hospital could hear him. He strained until he was out of breath and fell back on the bed, chest heaving.
“We tried the easy way,” Kevin said. “I don’t think you are going to like this, either.” Taylor and I both winced as the IV needle went deep into Zac’s foot.
“ASSHOLE,” Zac shouted.
Kevin didn’t reply as he carefully wrapped Zac’s hands. I felt sorry for the bruises he would have in the morning.
A nurse came in with a report and handed it to the doctor. He glanced over it. “Narcan, a sedative, and a fever reducer. That combined with fluids should get him back down by the morning. Call me if he wakes up before 7am. Kevin, good work as always,” he said, then rushed out of the room.
Kevin was already getting the order medications together. “I’ve got this, you all can go,” he told the other nurses.
“Alright, big guy, time to sleep,” Kevin pushed a syringe of medicine to the IV.
“That burns, please no” Zac said, fighting to keep his eyes open, but already much calmer. We all breathed a sigh of relief when he closed his eyes.
Kevin checked Zac’s breathing and then administered the two other medications through the IV. He nodded to us and left the room.
“They could have done that an hour ago,” Taylor said, his voice thick.
“They could have made it worse until they knew what was in his system.”
“I guess that’s true. Do you ever wish for before?”
“Before what?”
“Before fame. Before our little brother had to take pills and stop eating.”
“We weren’t even teenagers before. Mom and Dad dealt with all the grown-up problems.”
“I mean if we never got famous.”
“I think in some ways things might be easier. Maybe he wouldn’t have access to as many pills if we were still a Tulsa garage band. Or have to worry about media calling him the fat one. But he wouldn’t have access to as many resources to help him get better, either. Do you think a Tulsa hospital has a Kevin? Or knows how to restrain a patient without hurting him? If he is truly dealing with a mental imbalance, he would have it, teen idol or not. Thank goodness this happened when he was close to a hospital used to dealing discreetly with famous people that party too hard.”
“I guess that’s true. Hey, what time is your first meeting tomorrow?”
“In three hours,” I said, looking at my watch. “I’ll call to reschedule when the office opens so I can stay here with Zac.”
“Why don’t you head back and try to catch a nap before then? I’ll keep you updated and if you need to come back, I’ll let you know. Will already asked when he would get paid, and honestly, I need my check, too. And this isn’t going to be cheap for Zac. They haven’t asked for any money yet, but it’s coming.”
“Alright, if you say so. But I want text updates every hour.”
“Every hour on the hour. Of course. Damn it.”
“What?”
“I need to call Kate.”
I nodded. “Ok. Let her know we’ll take care of him.”
“Because we’ve done such a good job up until now?”
“Because every day is another chance to do better.”