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JUXTAPOSITION
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        Page Two

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From : "Cassidy Meyers" <killashandrarey@hotmail.com>  
Subject : Every Parent's Nightmare...  
Date : Fri, 27 Dec 2002 21:09:34 +0400  

Captain Stanley had one eye on the kids Lopez
had directed to him, the other, on Roy. "That's it.
Come on out of the bus. Don't worry about fire.
It's raining good out here..There's no way things
are gonna burn." his voice said gently to
them as he took them one by one by the arms
and lifted them from the wreckage. When the last
walking little girl was taken by a CHP, Cap turned to
his HT. ##L.A. This is Engine 51. Respond a full landslide
detail to our scene. The freeway's in danger of a mud
avalanche.##

##10-4, 51.## and Cap sighed as he heard dispatch
call out the run also to Station 10 and 114. He turned his
attention to the long board Chet had laid out by
his head injury's side and helped Lopez and Kelly
secure and free the boy from his place underneath
the seats.

Gage was already hyper paramedic mode. Only the
slightest stress in his tone gave away the fear he
felt still having Roy's son, among those not yet found.
"Easy, Chet. Keep those sandbags on either side of his
head. He's breathing fine. Hold it a sec, Just let
me get this peds airway in." Johnny looked up. "Cap!"

"Yeah.." Stanley said, peeking through the ripped side
of the upside down school bus over the rushing river
of muddy water running down the curbside of the
road. He didn't look at the sewer grate which had
cost the little girl, her life.

"This next one's gonna need O2. Have a man
hyperventilate him until I can get to him!" Johnny
gasped, ducking around metal shards and debris.

"You got it pal.." Cap said. He looked up at Roy as
two policemen in yellow rain gear took the tiny boy's
longboard and got him out of the bus. "Roy.. Take him."
he said, shaking the pouring rain off his helmet
so he could see where Marco Lopez and Chet Kelly were
working better.

"Huh?" Roy said, still dazed by his private nightmare.
In his head, his own voice was screaming.
::Chris? Where are you??! Ohmyg*d Chris! Be ok. Be ok!
Johnny. You find him. Find him fast..:: he thought, but
out loud  . "Right.." he said.
"Have him set over here, I'll take a look at him."

DeSoto got out a peds BP cuff and set it around Chet's
victim's arm. He got a palpated brachial pulse of sixty.
::Too slow.. D*mn.  Brain stem head injury..:: The tiny
comatose boy's unequal and fixed and abnormal eyes
and his soaring BP confirmed the finding. "Keep tabs on
his carotid, Ben." he told the CHP officer who knelt with
the resuscitator Cap handed him. "Ventilate him
30 a minute on 100 % O2, ok? Time it to work with
his inspirations."

"Got it.." the highway patrol officer said, setting
the tank's smaller fitted mask over the boy's nose
and mouth. He began using the thumb trigger.

Roy got on the phone to Rampart.
"Rampart, this is squad 51. How do you read?"

His heart just about pounded out of his chest
when it was Dixie who answered. "Go ahead,
51. I read you loud and clear."

##Rampart. We have a multiple casualty situation. Car
versus school bus. Triage is underway. So far,
I've six victims. Five minor, one comatose.
Victim one, a boy of six or seven. Under supported
ventilation on 100 % O2. BP 142/110, pulse 60.
Respirations, are in Cheynes Stokes pattern. He is
immobilized with sandbags and a long board with an
oral airway. There's no apparent trauma beyond
a noticable depressed occipital softness at the base
of his skull.##

Image of royphonemud.jpg Image of dixtense.jpg

Dixie wrote down Roy's vitals set and motioned for
Dr. Early to come into the radio room. "Joe, it's 51.
Sounds like a real bad one. And something else too,
I've never heard Roy so uptight before."

"Oh?" Dr. Early toggled the intercom receiver. "51,
on victim one, start an IV D5W TKO only. Maintain an
airway, elevate his head, and transport as soon as
possible." Then he licked his lips and asked,
"Roy, just how serious is your situation?"

Joe's question took Roy aback when he realized that
Dr. Early wasn't only referring to the boy they had stabilized.
The doctor was going outside of protocol. ::Because
he knows something's up..:: Roy reasoned mentally.

Roy replied. "You'll know the moment I do, doc. Wish
I could tell you more. All I know is that we don't know
a lot of details right now and there's at least one fatality."

Roy cringed when Mike Stoker ran up from the car that
had caused the accident and the downed power poles. His coat
wasn't even unbuttoned as it would have been had he found
someone alive and revivable. "DeSoto.." Mike called out.
"The victim in the car's a Code F. Looks like because of
electrical shock. He's been down too long. Pupils are
fixed and dialated and there's already lividity showing in
his lower extremities."

"Got it, Stoker.." Roy said.  Then he turned back to
the phone. "Rampart, raise that number to two Code
F. Victim one's loading with Squad 10. I estimate their
ETA to you around ten minutes. Please stand by for
further victims.."

##Standing by.## Joe said.

---------------------------------

Roy saw the Mayfair recede into the distance through
the noisy rain down the highway and away from
the scene of mud and multilated metal. He tried not
to  imagine the little girl who had drown down the
drainage grate.

Inside the bus, the going was slow. Johnny felt bloody
neck after bloody neck and found no signs of life.
He gestured to Kelly. "Get those seats outta there.
Forget these six, they're gone."  Gage bent down
to worm his way along the soaked floor to the next
section of broken seats. More bodies and
pieces of bodies. Nightmarish.. Then...

"Uncle J-Johnny?"

Gage's heart skipped a beat. "Chris?! Where are ya?
Now don't move around. Just keep talkin to me.. Chet!
I found him.. Give me your HT! "

Kelly underhand tossed it to Gage like a pro.
Gage caught the heavy walkie talkie and thumbed it.
"Squad 51 to Engine 51. Got another survivor..
Hey Roy... Listenup..Ok, Chris.. Say something.
Daddy's right outside." Gage said, handing the HT
to the muddy blond headed boy
cradled against his shoulder.

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"I'm here. I'm ok. Don't worry Daddy. Just get the
other kids out. I'm fine. Really.."

Outside, DeSoto let out a half sob of relief.
"Chris??" Roy said, he ran for the bus.

Cap stopped him. "Hey hey hey.. Now listen.
It's crowded enough with Kelly, Lopez and Gage
in there. You're needed out here for triage. Hang
tight, Roy. Things sound good to me.. and now
even better in there for them..."

Roy stopped fighting Cap's hold and sagged
against the bus's shell. Through a foggy window,
he could see many many body sheets. "ohmyg*d."

"I know.. I know.." Cap said, grasping Roy by the
face. "It's bad. That's why I didn't want you in there.
Now just stick with your HT and no doubt Johnny will
be letting you know how he is, ok? Hang tight and
just wait here.."   Stanley strode away to intercept
114 coming in, to direct them to deal with the
mudslide risky hill that had already claimed part of the
school bus.

Lopez shouted. "Hey somebody.. I need help. I found
the school bus driver!"

Roy glanced around and saw Chet's caked shoes
deep in the seats and two sets of flashlights but
no one else handy. "I gotta do it.." Roy muttered
and ducked into the bus. Immediately two from Engine
10 took his place outside the tear in the side of the bus
to wait for orders for extrication equipment from
those working inside.

Roy's breath caught deep in his throat when the smell
of blood and things much worse reached his nose
from the tiny bodies Chet and Johnny had covered.
He began to fervently wish he had obeyed Cap's advice
to stay outside. He forced his lips to work. "Marco,
whatdiya got?"

"He's alive. Eviscerated partially. Looks like a piece
of the dash stabbed him and tore out afterwards.
Lower right quadrant. Also, this mud's caving in
on him. He's having a lot of trouble breathing."

Lopez ducked as another gush of mud and branches
from the hill slid through the shattered bus windshield
and onto the driver's lap. He used his hands to
scrape away the stuff from the man's nose and mouth
and he bent close down to make sure air still moved
effectively there.

Roy never got to see the wound Lopez spoke of.
It was buried in mud instantly. He shouted over his
shoulder and set his HT near his ear on an overturned
seat back. "You guys, on the double. Shovels
and a scoop stokes. This hill's gonna go!"

Roy listened closely to Johnny's heavy gasps
and grunts as he and Chet maneuvered nearer to Chris
through the tangle of shorn off seats even as
his own hands assessed the driver. "We've got to get him
out  fast..Now. Long board or no long board.
Marco..watch his airway!"

"I know.. This mud's crushing him.."

"Just keep him breathing.. even if he quits.."
Roy said, leaning over to try and dig the muck away
from the driver's lower half with only his gloved
hands. The mud flowed in faster than he could push
it away.

Marco groaned in frustration and renewed his jaw lift on
the unconscious man with one hand and felt
his chest with the other. "So far so good. He's still
here."

Roy continued to free the driver.

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Chet Kelly put on his best smile.

It didn't fool Chris. Something was filling all of
his thoughts beyond getting out to Roy.
"Uncle Johnny. I tried.. I tried so hard.. Ahh!" he
grimaced, when Gage's questing hands found
where his leg was pinned in a knot of
seat. "Yeah, Uncle Johnny, right there. My knee I think.
But listen to me.. ugh.. I tried so
hard, I really tried keeping her awake with stories,
but Carrie got quiet on me."

"Who's Carrie?" Johnny said, "Easy, lie back down.."

"S-She's right over..t.."  Chris tried to point but
couldn't quite remember where his seatmate was
trapped. He started to sob as a frightening memory
resurfaced.
"I- I couldn't reach her when she stopped breathing,
Mr. Kelly.."

"Where is she?!" Chet asked urgently.

Chris's tear filled eyes were blurred and his panic barely
veiled as an odd maturity for a boy his age took over.
"Right there.. She stopped making noises
just before you got here. She's right under your arm,
Mr. Kelly, underneath that cushion.."

Kelly heaved a heavy seat cover away
from where Chris's shaky hand was pointing.

A tiny girl in pink lay twisted underneath it, but her
face was blue. Gage startled. "Kelly?"

Chet crawled out of Johnny's eyesight to
get close to the girl's body.
"Got her.." Johnny heard and soon there after, sounds
of rescue breathing began. Gage sighed in double
sympathy when those sounds were separated with
pauses for cardiopulmonary compressions.

"Keep working her, Chet.. I'll be right there." Johnny said.
"Here.. See if she's reactive..." Johnny said and he rolled
his penlight through the narrow space between them.

Chet snatched up the light and a few seconds later said.
"Good going Chris.. She's got responsive eyes. We might be
able to bring ..........her back.."

"Heh.. " the DeSoto boy smiled. "Dad taught me a few
things about first aid. Like to try and keep a head bumped
kid conscious... But why didn't it w-work for..Car-
didn't work for..."

John noticed Chris's head beginning to sag.
"Chris. Where else do you hurt besides that knee.. Chris?.."

But Chris went out and went very pale. Gage kept a grip
on his partner's son's arm artery. ::Fast heart rate.
Now what's causing this blackout?::

Johnny yanked a stubborn seat frame out of the way
and found a deep cut in Chris's thigh. He pulled off
his pants belt and made a tourniquet out of it, glancing
at his watch for the time he began its constricting lack
of blood flow. Then he made sure Chris was stable
enough to be left alone.

He spoke into his walkie talkie. "Cap. We gotta move.
We've got a little girl in witnessed cardiac arrest and
a leg bleeder." Johnny amended his transmission.
"..who's stable.. " he added for Roy's benefit.

Then he slid over near Chet to help him try to revive
the girl. "You take her head. I got it here.." he said,
taking over Kelly's one arm CPR for him.

Chet looked up in between delivering breaths. "How is he?"

"Fine. Just stressed. His leg's pinned and he's got
a deep laceration on the thigh. Venous hemorrhaging
only, thank g*d. Whatya find on Carrie?" Gage grunted
as he worked.

"Her pupils constricted right off, both of them.
Equally."

"Good, a little epi will..."

"Here..." came a new voice from over their heads.

Roy DeSoto was crawling over the seats with a
one CC epinephrine syringe in between his teeth.

"Roy! What are ya doing in here? Cap told you t-"

"Shut up junior, and let me at one of her arms." Roy
said, grinning. "If this doesn't work, Cap's got the
defib on eighty watts outside."

Gage kept up his CPR wordlessly. Chet didn't stop
either with his ventilations.
 
Two seconds after Roy gave Carrie the injection,
the girl pinked up and started coughing. Gage
flipped her over onto her side, as she spat
fluid and blood out of her mouth, murmuring
encouragements.

Kelly stayed nearby and gratefully snatched the portable
O2 another fireman handed him and began holding
its mask over the restless girl's face while Gage calmed her down.

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JUXTAPOSITION
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