The Report by Jessica Francis Kane

Author:Jessica Francis Kane
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-55597-010-9
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Published: 2010-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

“You are the house surgeon at Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children?”

“Yes.”

“How many casualties did you receive the night of March third?”

“Twenty-six altogether.”

“How many living?”

“Twelve.”

“And fourteen dead.”

“Yes.”

“Can you tell me the time of admission?”

“None of us seem to have noticed the exact time. I have the times when we wrote up the morphia for the living, and the first one was at ten past ten.”

“What were the injuries to the living ones?”

“They were mostly bruised and shocked, very shocked. We had several of them x-rayed the next day and found no fractures.”

“Right.”

“It surprised me.”

“I have no doubt. Did the dead bodies show similar injuries?”

“There were very few injuries on the dead ones.”

“What was the cause of death—could you determine?”

“The first ones that came in, we did not know what had happened. We could not think why they were dead; they just seemed to have suffocated for no apparent cause.”

“Blue appearance?”

“Yes. Unconsciousness among the victims on the stairs would have set in quickly, perhaps within twenty seconds, and death fifteen or twenty seconds after that.”

Laurie frowned. This seemed to him reassuringly inaccurate. “Tell me,” he asked, “isn’t it possible for a person to hold his breath that amount of time?”

He decided to test the premise. Holding up his pocket watch, he drew a breath. The room, quiet already, grew quieter, pricking Laurie’s ears. Outside they could hear a few people keeping up the familiar refrain (“The light”); a bird called; then the bells of St. John’s marked noon. When the test was complete, Laurie blew out his breath and put the watch down. He raised his eyebrows.

The surgeon blushed and said that the time to death depended on the particular mechanism of asphyxia. “These victims suffered sudden compressive asphyxia. You may draw a large breath

and hold it for sixty seconds, but the victims would not have had that advantage.”

“No, of course not.”

“Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which is a pathological condition in which the body is deprived of an adequate oxygen supply. I can assure you that in cases of severe hypoxia, or hypoxia of very rapid onset, changes in levels of consciousness—seizures, coma, and death—occur quickly.”

“I see,” Laurie said. She was an intelligent woman. He didn’t know why he’d put her on the spot. “Now, the survivors. How did some survive?”

She touched the curls at her neck. “Uneven weight distribution and oxygen pockets, I imagine.” She was still upset. “Asphyxia is characterized by air hunger. The urge to breathe is actually triggered by rising carbon dioxide levels in the blood, not diminished oxygen levels. Depending on a person’s concentration of red blood cells, air hunger will be more or less pronounced. Some of the victims, sustained by a small supply of oxygen, were able to exist in a state of mild hypoxia until the pressure abated.”

Laurie nodded, hoping to show she’d satisfied the point. “And it surprised you that there were no broken bones.”

“Yes, at first.”

“But not now?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I believe the crowd was never violent.”

“But the pressure was relentless.”

“Yes.”

“And there is nothing

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