#pittasl

Anyway loving your Trinity learning ASL and HOH Walsh headcannons/fics I’d love to see something where Walsh and Trinity work a case together where the patient is deaf. I’d love for it to be a paediatric case but it’s up to you.

Maybe the patient needs a procedure in the ED that requires a surgeons skill along with an emergency medicine doctor so Trinity and Walsh take care of them while also communicating with them in ASL

Anyway no pressure but if you’re interested I’d love to more from this au!

I love this!!!! Thank you for the prompt!!! I mentioned a case in these hcs, but here's a full mini fic...

Signs and Jewels

Tags: emery walsh, trinity santos, nurse jesse, medical inaccuracies pls be nice, walshtos if you squint, baran is also there for some reason sorry

A/N:

Simcom means speaking and sign at the same time!

I’m going to start tagging these posts as #pittasl so the au is compiled!

"Santos! Incoming pediatric case, 5 minutes out, young girl fell from some playground equipment, she vomited and passed out. They're suspecting head injury but are having trouble communicating with her, could be shock."

"Got it Dana! Prepping peds now!"

Trinity hops up from her desk, grabs a couple of nurses, and heads toward the pediatric trauma room.

After Trinity's residency was over, she stayed on for a new fellowship at PTMC, for pediatric emergency medicine. Dr. Al-Hashimi had been the catalyst for the development of the program, as she found that PTMC did not have enough staff trained in dealing with children. Baran has a medically complex child and wanted the ER to be prepared to treat children, especially those with complex diseases or conditions. She had personally asked Trinity to consider the program after watching Trinity work with children and wrote her a letter of recommendation.

Trinity loves her job. Many of the people who come into the ER do because they've done something stupid, and Trinity can't help but make fun of them. Kids were different-they were exploring, learning, and Trinity could never fault them for that. They deserve to make mistakes, get back up, and try again. Trinity wasn't always given that chance.

5 minutes later, Trinity meets the gurney as it is wheeled into the ER. A young girl, maybe 10 or 11, is looking around at all of the adults running at her.

"Young girl, bradycardic at 60 bpm, blood pressure is 145/90 mmHg, teacher said she fell from the monkey bars and was fine, but started wandering around and collapsed about 15 minutes later."

As they rush into the trauma room, the adults surround the child.

Trinity looks down at the girl and gives her a reassuring smile.

"Hi, I'm Dr Santos, I'm the pediatric ER specialist here. You're at the hospital; we just got to check some things out since we heard you aren't feeling good. We are going to move you over to this big table, how does that sound?"

The girl just stares at Trinity. Trinity takes the opportunity to check her eyes with a flashlight. The girl shrieks and swings her arm weakly over her eyes.

"Whoa, okay. We definitely have some sort of neurological injury. I think she's a little out of it, Jesse, can you pick her up and move her over? Make sure you communicate with her about what you are doing. I am going to call for Baran for a 2nd opinion."

"I'm here" Baran calls as she walks in. "Do we have contact information for the parents?"

"We're attempting to get it from the school."

While Jesse moves the girl over, Baran looks over at Trinity.

"What are we thinking, Dr. Santos?"

"Possible concussion, sensitive to light and apparent confusion, however I'm worried about a possible ICH as her blood pressure is really high. I think we need to get someone down from surgery in case we need to do a decompression."

"I agree, you get a name from her, and I'll check for muscle weakness and ataxia. Jesse, can you start an IV?"

Trinity turns back to the girl.

"My friend Dr. Al is going to check to see if your muscles are working properly. What were you doing when you fell?"

The girl is staring at Trinity's mouth. She yanks her arms away from Baran, who was examining them. Baran looks at Trinity.

Trinity is stumped. The girl is old enough to be able to understand that she and Baran are doctors, but she's beginning to wonder if the confusion is more severe than she thought.

Walsh walks in at that moment.

"Alright, what are we working with?"

Trinity looks up.

"Head injury, heavily suspecting of ICH. Blood pressure is so high we may need to prep for a Burr hole. We've already called CT. If we get this IV in, we can sedate to scan and do the procedure before any major damage is done."

"Without parental permission?"

"We haven't gotten ahold of them yet. And we haven't gotten a name to see if she's in our system. I don't think we can wait."

While they were talking, Jesse was speaking kindly to the young girl as he prepped an IV line. As he gently took the girls hand to put the IV in, she begins to wave her hands around, knocking the needle out of his hand and trying to get away.

Trinity and Walsh run to either side of the girl.

"Hey hey hey, it's alright, we're not here to hurt you! Nurse Jesse here is going to start an IV, there's gonna be a needle but only for a second!"

The girl panickedly looks between the two of them. She waves her hands around weakly but drops them after a moment.

"Walsh, I don't think she speaks English."

"But that doesn't explain why she isn't speaking at all. And she won't let us get this IV in her hand. I don't want to have to restrain her to get this IV in, that's traumatizing."

Trinity reaches out her hand to the little girls to try to hold it. The little girl moves her hand away, in tears. Emery turns to help Jesse set up another IV, and Trinity sees the girl's eyes light up in recognition. She points to Walsh, and then puts her pointer finger to her ear, then down to her mouth.

The sign for "deaf?"

Trinity immediately starts to sim-com.

"Are you deaf? Do you sign?"

Walsh hears Trinity speak behind her and turns around to see the little girl weakly sign back,

"Yes. Head hurts. Bad."

Walsh jumps into action and signs,

"I'm Deaf too. We are here to help you. We need to put a very small needle in your hand to help you rest, then the headache will go away. Is that okay? Are you comfortable signing with one hand?"

The girl hesitates, and then signs "yes".

Emery sim coms,

"Ok Jesse, go ahead and prep the IV."

She turns back to the girl.

"My name is Dr. W-a-l-s-h. My sign name is,"

Emery makes the letter E sign in front of her mouth.

"And this is Dr. S-a-n-t-o-s"

Trinity gives her sign name, forming the letter T with her right hand and touching both her cheeks back-to-back. Trinity then signs,

"What's your name?"

"J-U-L-E-S O-D-O-N-A-L-D. I'm ten. I want to go back to school"

The girl signs the letter J next to her ear after she spells her name.

Emery calls to the nurse behind her and says,

"Check the EHR for a Jules O'Donald. Get in contact with her parents immediately."

Trinity leans down to Jules.

"You sign beautifully. It must have been so scary to come here without being able to talk to anyone. You are so brave."

Jesse inserts the IV, and the little girl signs "Thanks" with her other hand.

Walsh smiles at Jules.

"You are going to take a nap now, okay? But when you wake up your parents will be here."

"And you'll have goodies!" Trinity signs.

"What's your favorite juice?"

Jules grins and signs,

"Apple!"

"Do you like dogs, Jules?"

"Yes!"

"You going to wake up in the part of the hospital that has kids, okay? There will be a therapy dog, and juice, and so many games. We will make sure somewhere there knows sign language."

"Will you be there, Trinity?"

"I can be."

Jules smiles at the doctors and signs,

"Okay, I'm ready now."

. . .