Peril by Jordyn Redwood

Author:Jordyn Redwood
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kregel Publications

Chapter 25

0800, Saturday, August 11

RED FLUID TRICKLING DOWN the infant’s body pulled Drew Stipman’s eyes to his patient. The transport paramedic’s heart rate picked up speed as he reached forward to turn her arm over to check for the source of the bleeding.

At the space inside little Scarlett’s elbow, and at each needle stick site where the community hospital had attempted to place an IV, their one-month-old tiny charge now oozed blood. Short acronym: DIC. Long name: Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation. What it meant was that Scarlett’s blood no longer had the ability to clot. Some thought it was related to the actual brain injury—the process that happened during shaking. Others felt it was related to a build-up of acid in the blood. What it boiled down to right now was uncontrollable bleeding everywhere.

Drew cleared his throat to get his transport nurse’s attention. “Emma,” he called.

She placed an X-ray back into a large manila folder. “Breathing tube is in good position.”

The father, and likely the perpetrator of the child’s abuse, stepped closer to her. “Don’t you need the doctor to read that?”

Her glare was like the whir of a lawnmower blade as it sliced a thin shoot of grass. “No, I am more than capable—”

“Emma!” Drew called again, both to keep her from crossing a line and to draw her attention to his attempts to stem the bleeding.

Her face paled.

“Roy, we need to go, now!”

Their pilot had been a quiet presence at the door as they got report. Now he scurried off to get the helicopter warmed up.

Drew yanked the transport gurney closer to the ER bed. Emma watched IV lines and tubes as Drew lifted the limp, ashen body and placed it gently on the thin frame. One small blanket, several seat belts, connection to the transport monitor. Her IV fluid had already been changed over to their equipment. Emma pulled her end of the gurney toward the door. Drew grabbed their hastily-thrown-together trauma pack. He wished there’d been a transport Isolette available. They ran down the hall, into the early morning, and loaded the gurney into the back of the helicopter.

Considering the distance, the travel to the hospital would be a short fifteen minutes. Emma’s voice crackled through his head gear. “We’re going straight to the PICU.”

Drew nodded but his eyes remained fixed on the rise and fall of the infant’s chest. Transferring a patient from one place to another was the leading cause of tube dislodgement. The last thing they needed was this little one’s breathing tube to slip out of place. Intubating a patient, particularly a very small one, in a moving helicopter was difficult at best.

Emma’s voice again, a tinny sound in his ears. “Someone was shot.”

Drew nodded again. Taking a critically ill infant straight to the PICU isn’t all that unusual. Why does Emma feel the need to explain a busy ER?

She patted his knee. “Drew, a hospital security guard was shot.”

He looked up at her as his stomach tightened. She hadn’t meant a pediatric gunshot wound.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.