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p.m. What was your schedule?” Sarah inquired.
    “Well, lately I’ve been doing a noon-to-midnight shift. I know some people don’t like getting out of work that late, but it works for my boyfriend and me,” the nurse volunteered. “He gets off work at 11:30 and picks me up right at the front of the hospital. But this weekend I was just trying to get some overtime, so I took an extra shift yesterday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.”
    “Were you asked to extend your shift yesterday?”
    “Oh, yeah. We were really shorthanded. That stomach flu hit a lot of us. I had it two weeks ago and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. Anyway, yes, Jeannie — the charge nurse — asked if I would do back-to-back shifts. I didn’t really want to because I’m on today at noon. But I could see she was really desperate so I said okay. Plus, the extra money always comes in handy.”
    “What was your interaction with the Arkin baby when she was admitted?”
    “Joyce did the admission by herself because I was busy with another patient.”
    “Is that the usual procedure?” Sarah asked.
    “Well, if we can, we like to introduce ourselves to the patient and the family together, but yesterday we were very busy and, like I said, short staffed,” Petersen explained.
    “So when did you start working with the Arkin infant?”
    “The first time I came to the baby’s room was when I answered a call that came into the nurses’ station. When I got there, Joyce was at the door and she told me to get Dr. Smith right away.”
    “And what did you do?”
    “Well, luckily he was at the nurses’ station entering some orders into the computer. I told him Joyce wanted him in the isolation room — and that sooner rather than later would be better from the look that Joyce had given me. I know that sounds kind of pushy, talking to a doctor that way, but Dr. Smith is a good guy,” Petersen said, smiling and nodding her head for emphasis.
    Another vote for Dr. Smith. “And did you accompany the doctor into the baby’s room?” Sarah asked.
    “No. I had plenty to do and Joyce didn’t ask for my help — just Dr. Smith’s. We hadW a lot of very sick kids on the floor yesterday — I mean really sick — so there was no way I was going where I wasn’t needed. Believe me when I tell you I had plenty else to do.”
    “When did you next assist Joyce with the Arkin baby?”
    Petersen started twisting her light brown hair around her finger. She hesitated a minute and then began her version of the events of the prior night. “I think it was around 5:30 when all hell broke loose. I was with a little guy who was on a ventilator when I heard the screams and then the code alert. I realized it was the new admission’s room, so I put on a gown and gloves and went in.”
    “Who was in the room at the time?”
    “Let me see. Dr. Smith, Joyce, Jeannie Lopez and the parents. The mother was screaming, I mean hysterically. It wasn’t until I looked at the baby that I understood what was making her act so crazy. God, I’ve never seen anything like that — blood coming from everywhere. Dr. Smith told me to get the parents out of the room. I mean the doctor can’t think straight when people are screaming at him. So I did my best to get them out of there.”
    “What did you say?” Sarah was anxious to hear what this twenty-something LPN could have said to tear Mark Arkin away from his hemorrhaging infant.
    “Well, I said just what I said to you. I told them the doctor couldn’t do his best for their baby with them so upset — that he had to be able to work. The best way for them to help was to give the doctor space. The father started shouting at me, saying he wasn’t going anywhere, that he wasn’t going to leave his kid alone for a moment with such…incompetents. Yeah, that was the word he used, incompetents. Then Dr. Smith yelled at the father.”
    Sarah was intrigued. “What did he yell at the father?”
    Petersen seemed to hesitate for a moment and her