THE NURSE'S RESCUE by Alison Roberts

Author:Alison Roberts
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarlequinUKLtd
Published: 2003-11-18T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

BEING a paramedic was no career for the faint-hearted.

Some days it was tough enough to make Joe wonder if he had chosen the right job. Today had been the worst ever. Joe had never found himself in such a heart-wrenching situation in all his years of dealing with the death, mutilation and heartbreak life was capable of throwing at people.

He’d had a bad feeling about this job from the moment it had been called in. A four-wheel bike accident on an isolated high country farm. The victim’s wife had gone looking for her husband when he hadn’t shown up for lunch. She’d found him pinned beneath the upside-down bike at the bottom of a stock water ditch, his head barely above water level and his leg trapped and broken. He was bleeding heavily and only semi-conscious. They would be lucky if he was still alive after the thirty minutes or so it would take the helicopter to reach him.

Landing close to the scene was easy enough. Neighbours were gathering as well and Joe enlisted the assistance of a couple of farmers. They could do nothing until they got their patient out of the ditch. The local volunteer fire service arrived with the right equipment to cut free the metal bar impaling the victim’s thigh and Joe and his crew partner found they had a hypothermic and badly shocked patient to try and resuscitate.

At least he was still alive. An oxygen mask and ECG electrodes were slapped on within seconds. Joe’s partner, Murray Peters, directed his efforts to controlling any further blood loss. Applying a pressure bandage around the impaled bar and securing the object to try and limit further damage was not an easy task for one person but Joe’s attention was on securing IV access and starting the fluid replacement that would be crucial to saving this man. It wasn’t until he had a wide-bore cannula in place and saline running through an open line that Joe started assessing their new priorities. A second line would be needed as soon as possible and he wanted to have a good listen to the victim’s chest even though his breathing appeared clear. The abdomen needed checking as well. Murray had a blood-pressure cuff on now and was beginning vital-sign recording. The helicopter pilot had requested the farmers’ help to get the stretcher ready and waiting.

‘We’ll need a backboard and collar,’ Joe told him. ‘We can’t rule out a spinal injury yet.’

The group of locals seemed to be dispersing. A police officer had his arm around a distraught-looking woman Joe assumed was the injured farmer’s wife, and he wondered why she had not been with her husband on their arrival. He found out soon enough as they came closer.

‘We’ll find him, Jenny. He can’t have got far. He’s probably tried to get back to the house to find you and got lost in the gully.’

‘Who’s lost?’ Joe queried.

‘Ben.’ The woman was deathly pale and shaking. She stared at her husband as Murray fastened the Velcro straps holding the cushions on either side of his head.

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