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******************************* Date: Thu, 28 Nov 2002 00:49:07 -0800 (PST) From: "Sam Iam" <lafddispatcher@yahoo.com> Subject: Across the Finish Line.. Gage's arms were about ready to drop off from Chet's dead weight in the window. "Chet! Chet! Did you get any of that in your eyes?" he said, gasping, straining to hang onto Kelly's belt through his faceplate. "Yeah. *cough* Owww.....hurry. Need a hose.. uuhhhGGGg. ahh sh*t!"Johnny could see Chet's eyes suddenly and involuntarily screw shut. John hauled Chet over onto his back where he was on his lap, ignoring the rest of Kelly still half hanging out the squad's window as Roy continued to steer the squad backwards, and he forced Chet's eyes open between firm trembling fingers. Gage's other hand found the two gallon jug of water always kept under the dash by his feet for brush fires and he sloshed it liberally into Kelly's face, "Let's get this wash in. Come on!.. Come on.. Don't fight me. Open your eyes.. Chet stay still.. ." "I'm gonna fall! I'm slipping! AhHH! My eyes!" "You're not gonna fall out of the squad." Johnny threw a leg over Chet's waist to keep him from sliding back out the window. "I got you.." and he gave a strong heave to get more of Chet into the cab. "Chet, hold still. I gotta wash your face and those eyes out good or you'll burn real bad." Roy's hands were struck from the steering wheel by Chet's pitching head, deep in his pain, but he quickly recovered control. Somehow, the men clinging on the outside of the squad were pure barnacle, and no one fell off. "Chet, it's ok.. We're almost clear.." Roy shouted. "Let Johnny get to your eyes! We gotta get that stuff outta them." "Aghh.. I'm on fire! It's so cold! Ahh..HHh." Already Chet's voice was raspy and deep from exposure to the gas. Johnny grunted, pouring more water even faster into Chet's eyes, forcefully. It seemed like years but finally Roy said. "Ok, we made it. We're there.." his voice cracked. Roy could see the gang from the engine already on the far side of the police accident barricade, watching them intently. DeSoto hit his air horn, letting them know Chet was in trouble beyond just his fall off the engine and how he was riding half out of the squad. Half of them came at a run, while another company stayed behind to carry Daphne from 51's Ward's hose bed, back down to the ground. Gage was still irrigating Chet's eyes in his lap desperately, by the time Cap and Marco got to him and hauled Chet bodily out of the squad's windowframe. "Cap, gas caught him in the face, real bad." he said. "How are you doing Chet?" John said rocketting out of the squad and slamming the door shut. He ran to the gear compartment doors and whipped them open, grabbing the 02 apparatus and a 2 liter burn saline bag. Kelly felt Cap keep him from reaching up to his face with his hands and he opened his eyes. "Better.. *cough*.." "Good now just let Cap keep washing your eyes out.." Johnny said, handing the solution IV pack over to Hank. "Let me and Roy get the rest of the equipment out of the squad..That saline won't sting your eyes so much.." "See to the girl first. I can wait.." Chet gasped, still fighting to see around the painful prickling in his eyes. He felt Stoker wrap one of his arms over his broad shoulders to support him as they moved to the staging area near the waiting ambulances. Gage grinned. "Let us be the judge of that. She didn't get thrown out of a vehicle like you did Chester B." "Really I feel fine, guys.. Just a few lumps and these knives plunging into my eyes.." "Yeah?" Hank said, "Well, you're in for a complete bath." Cap said, continuing to pour saline from a pour spout into Kelly's eyes under his grip. "Mike, Lopez, grab him and let's go. Engine 18's got a decontam area already set up over here.." And Mike and Marco attempted to scoop up Chet into a two man carry, which Kelly resisted. "I can walk.. I can walk.. I'm just squinting cause it hurts. Not because I can't see." Kelly complained, throwing off Stoker and Lopez's help. The two grinned, and contented themselves with walking at Chet's side while Cap continued to wash down Chet's face and eyes thoroughly from the oversized IV bag. Cap jibbed in. "Man what a close call, eh Kelly? Despite what happened to you, this rain's a blessing in disguise. It'll soak all that ammonia into the ground for us, where it'll dissolve into the rocks . A twenty minute shower will be enough to do the trick. We'll be able to tow away the wreckage and open the freeway again by nightfall." he grinned. "Lucky us.. Rain on just the day we need it.." Chet commented, trying to be brave, he even ran fingers through his messy curls as he went with Cap and the others for decontamination. Roy and John were already kneeling by Daphne's longboard reassessing her, when Kelly suddenly sagged in his coworker's grips. "Hey..Hey Chet?!" Cap shouted. Marco and Mike caught him, hastily tightening their grips on Chet's underarms and jacket. "Stoker ease him down.. Careful. Careful." |
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Gage shot to his feet. "I was afraid of this, you guys. He might've taken a good shot of gas in the lungs. You heard the way his voice was going. Keep his head and chest angled up with something! I'll be right there." Stoker made a pillow from his coat for Kelly who was still partially awake. Johnny crouched with a penlight checking his nose and throat for burns. "Chet.. Can you hear me, pal? Still breathing ok?" He was, shallowly. Kelly blinked under Johnny's light. But alarmingly, he was no longer coughing. Gage saw that he seemed dazed, and not really focusing on all the guys bending over him. Johnny kept a hand on Kelly's chest and he looked up. "Cap, we still gotta keep irrigating those eyes and the rest of him despite this. We'll worry about warming him afterwards once he's decontam'd. Right now, he needs to get this ammonia off his skin, and a lot of O2 into his system." "That covers him. But I gotta ask. Get any on yourself helping him, Gage?" Hank asked Johnny. "No.." Roy sighed and said, "I did. My arm's tingling. His head hit me when Johnny dragged him into the squad. He must have had some in his hair for a bit before it evaporated." Cap stood, rapidly motioning for a hose team to string him a brush line for Kelly's wash right where he was. "Washdown, gotcha Gage." he said pointing down at Chet. "DeSoto, you're headed for the decontam tent, right now." Hank ordered. "For yours." "But Cap.." Roy started up. "No complaints.. Gage can handle treating the woman and Chet just fine with Squad 18's medics until you're done." "Roy, just go. Kelly's breathing ok for the moment." Johnny told him. He glared until Roy disappeared into the canvas emergency tent. Then Gage bent down to listen to Chet's pulmonary status with a stethoscope as Lopez began to cut away Kelly's clothes for his hose soaking wash. "Chet.."Johnny called out leaning down over the shocky fireman's pale face. "Still here? We're gonna haveta wash ya down now. And it's gonna be cold. Not too fun. Also, I need to shift you onto your side to irrigate those eyes some more to be sure we got it all out. We'll get you on some dry O2, so it won't burn your chest so much and breathing will come easier. Just relax, I'm gonna check you out closer to make sure your little tumble didn't crack anything else besides your backside, ok?" he said, smiling, trying to raise Chet's spirits. But Kelly remained very quiet, his face slack, where he he lay on the ground. He tried to moan but no sound came out of his swelling throat, and he just wheezed instead in a poor attempt to clear his throat. |
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Johnny looked up as Station Eighteen's paramedics joined them. "Mendelson. Get him on straight 100% O2 by demand valve, non humidified. Force it if he obstructs. Peters, you got his vitals set here? Afterwards continue that eye wash. I'm going to go get a new set on the woman and phone us in.." Johnny knelt by Daphne, relieving the fireman watching her O2 mask intake, and got a BP on her. She was cool to the touch following her hose washing, even under her thick blankets on the long board, and was still out. Johnny was pleased to find her breathing well through her oral airway. Gage looked up a minute later with just the vitals information, for Rampart. Nearby, Cap and Stoker had already begun streaming a hand hose's scrubbing spray over Kelly's shivering bare skin, while Mendelson kept a demand valve in place over Kelly's nose and mouth so the lung burned, stricken, fireman could breathe in its soothing oxygen flow. Peter's was working on his eyes, irrigating them. Gage noticed Chet no longer resisted that. ::He's going out. Might be better for him that way in the long run. A lower BP will mean less pulmonary swelling. I hope.:: "Fifteen minutes Cap!" Johnny shouted towards them. "Keep it up until then. He's sure to go hypothermic but we'll worry about that once we're sure all the ammonia's off of him." "You got it pal.." Cap replied, deftly spraying Chet's contaminated clothing away from him and the medics working on him. Then he returned to the washdown, getting Chet's hair thoroughly scoured as well. Mendelson and Peters ignored the fact they were getting partially wet, their concentration on Kelly's care unwavering. Gage opened the biocom quickly, and snapped the aerial into place. He brought the phone's receiver to his face. "Rampart, this is Squad 51. How do you read?" |
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Joe Early had just been by Dixie's desk, working on a chart when he noticed the red rescue light flashing in the receiving alcove. He tapped her shoulder and the two of them entered the tiny glassed off room. Joe thumbed the intercom. "Unit calling in please repeat.. " and he turned on the tape recorder near the radio speaker. ##Rampart, this is Squad 5-1.# "Go ahead 51. I read you loud and clear.." Joe said. "Rampart, we've two victims of anhydrous ammonia gas, secondarily compounded by possible blunt trauma. Victim One, unconscious, a woman aged approximately 27-28 years of age. Victim of an automobile versus semi trailer truck. No apparent gross injuries other than ammonia inhalation. I haven't yet had time to give her a thorough secondary assessment. Vitals, however on her, are stable. Victim Two, a Code I. Fell from a moving firetruck while we were trying to get away from the gas cloud. Expressed marked walking wounded syndrome, now semi comatose with growing moderate respiratory distress. He is on a hundred percent dry O2. Rampart, her hose irrigation is complete. His nearly so." Joe rubbed his nose while hearing Johnny's report. Then he toggled the reply switch. "51. Give me a vitals set on Victim Two." Johnny caught a sailing notepad, full of information, from Peters. "10-4, Rampart. Victim Two. Pulse 120. BP 92 / 60, Respirations, 24 and wheezy, breathing on his own. Breath sounds show moderate upper tracheal wheezing on the left, clear on the right." Johnny's face fell when he read Peter's other medical finding. "Also,....showing marked guarding of his upper left quadrant abdomen with referring pain up into both shoulders. C-spine and all neuro responses intact." "51, Apply mast trousers and inflate only the compartments over the lower extremities. Any rapid boost in his blood pressure may exacerbate his breathing and compromise his lung function due to those probable pulmonary burns.. Inflate the suit's chambers until his BP is on the low side of normal only. Then start two large bore IV's, 51. Both of D5W, wide open. We'll treat for shock now and treat any resulting pulmonary edema later. Right now, it's more important to keep that internal injury at bay. It may be a ruptured spleen. 51, any indication of head trauma?" "Negative, Rampart." Johnny replied. "Good." Joe said. "If he recovers consciousness fully, pain from his seared lungs, may keep him from being able to breathe on his own. Have 2 mg MS IV Push standing ready should he need it. The more he moves air on his own, the better off he'll be in the long run. If positive pressure is needed, use only enough each vent for half inflation of the lungs. I don't want to collapse them from leakage from those aveolial burns." Gage sighed in concentration and repeated back his orders. "10-4, ah. 2 milligrams MS IV push as needed. Two IV D5Ws wide open and mast trouser application to low normal BP. Light vents on the demand valve on any respiratory arrest." Joe said. "Also, guard against shock and begin rewarming measures once his irrigation is complete." "10-4, Treat for shock and hypothermia following the washdown." Joe said, "Give me Victim number One's vitals." |
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