Tested by Fire by Pat Patterson

Author:Pat Patterson [Patterson, Pat]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Crime, Thriller & Suspense, Christianity, Action & Adventure, Suspense, Firefighters, Fiction, mystery, Mystery & Suspense, paramedics, WTC attacks, Religion & Spirituality, Not James Patterson, Genre Fiction, Thriller, Christian Books & Bibles, New York City Police Officers, First responders, EMTs, christian Fiction, Literature & Fiction, 9/11
ISBN: 1938499379
Publisher: Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas
Published: 2016-06-12T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 29

The next five minutes went by like one. Jim wrapped a rubber tourniquet around Lance’s right bicep and spiked two 1000-cc bags of lactated Ringers. He selected a blue antecubital vein, prepped it with Betadine, and jabbed it with a 14-gauge IV catheter. The clear chamber behind the needle immediately filled with dark red blood. He advanced the catheter into the vein, withdrew the needle, and attached the trauma line. With a twist of the flow-meter wheel, fresh IV solution began to pour into Lance’s vein.

“Line’s good,” Sharon. “How’s compliance?”

Sharon shook her head as she squeezed the Ambu-bag. “Bad. I think he’s filling up.”

“I wish we could put in a chest tube and drain him.” Jim ripped open a fresh trauma pad and applied it over the saturated neck dressing, then attached the cardiac monitor and ran a strip. “I guarantee they’ll be doing one in the ER.”

“Speaking of the ER, you better go ahead and call them, we’re getting close.”

Jim pulled his radio from his back pocket and keyed the mike. “Regional ER, Regional ER, medic-seven with emergency traffic.”

Jim used the brief pause that followed to drop his radio and rip open another IV setup. He had the line jabbed into the bottom of the bag and flushed by the time anyone responded. The voice on the other end sounded cool. Disinterested. Jim hung the bag on a ceiling clip and picked up the radio.

“Regional, heads-up. We’re five minutes out with a RED-TAG trauma. I repeat, RED-TAG. We’ve got an unconscious police officer shot two times with a large caliber weapon, once each in the neck and hip. Severe blood loss…most of it appears to be in his left chest cavity. We’ve intubated, decompressed, and currently have two IV’s running wide open by trauma line. Bradycardia on the monitor but we’re losing pulses rapidly. Do you have a room? Over.”

The ER staff person responded immediately. She gave Jim a room assignment and double-checked his ETA.

“Four minutes.”

Jim wrapped a tourniquet around Lance’s left bicep and started another IV. Sharon continued to ventilate. Jim started the line and set it to run wide open.

“Sharon, what else can we do?”

“Elevate his feet.”

Jim adjusted the foot of the stretcher and looked at Sharon. “Anything else?”

“No, I think that’s about it.”

Jim noticed a sudden change in the beeping of the cardiac monitor. He glanced at the screen and held his breath as he watched the heart rate drop.

40…36…30…

“Uh oh.” Jim grimaced and reached for the med-box. “How’s his pulse?”

Sharon placed her fingertips on Lance’s neck and shook her head. “I’ve got nothing.”

“No?”

Jim glanced at the screen and watched the ECG complexes disappear into a flat line. He quickly attached an ampoule of epinephrine to the IV stopcock, pushed the contents into the line, and then placed his hands over Lance’s sternum and started chest compressions.

“Jesus,” he whispered the memory of the grape miracle fresh in his mind, “help us again now. Please save this man.”

Jim continued compressions for one minute and then stopped and stared at the ECG monitor.

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