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The sawing resumed, and showering orange sparks began to fall from above them that lit up the camper. Roy was in his own private world. His mind was racing with priorities and he was fighting his own fatigue. Wisps of oxygen from the girls' masks would give him seconds of clarity but they didn't last. ::Why didn't I sleep a little longer last night. One more hour would've done it.. Now.. Concentrate. You aren't going to be able to contact Rampart until you're out of this confined space...::he told himself. ::Focus.. Maintain Cassie's positive pressure ventilations for a minute longer. Then get that circulation back into Robin's fractured leg.:: Roy gave Cassie a few more assisted forced air shots then left the demand valve on passive, so that it fed a healthy stream of oxygen to her when she breathed in, automatically. He turned to Cap and together they drew Robin's hideously broken leg out from under her face and down her body as easily as they could. Robin screamed at one point and passed out. Her EKG sank into shocky sinus rhythm. A minute later, the task was done. The metal shard in Robin's leg under the Cap's dressings began to pulsate with each heartbeat on Robin's monitor. Roy smiled, "Ok, that's it. We did it, I think." Cap checked his end of the splint, fastening off the tension straps holding Robin's leg straight. "We did. Foot's warming. " DeSoto's smile faded, "Where's the break at in that leg." he asked Cap. Hank cut away the girl's pink slacks around the straps. "Looks like there's an exit wound in the middle upper thigh. Femur.. and...another one lower down by her ankle. There's a deformity there, still." Roy nodded, head back in Cassie's niche as he resumed her forced O2, "So far so good. That sounds like it was an open fracture, which we reduced. That ankle I'm not so much worried about. Is her thigh any bigger than the other one?" "No." "That's good. At least she's not bleeding out inside that leg. Last thing we need is an arterial bleed. We can't exactly get a pair of mast trousers in here, now can we?" |
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Cap caught the note of exasperation in his paramedic, "Easy Roy. We've done what we can here. Now Kelly and the whole gang should get us out inside five minutes. " He eyed the rain of sparks and their location. "He's 3/4's the way around making us that door right now." --------------------------------------------- Outside Chet was sweating with effort behind his face plate. Marco was anchoring his shoulders while he cut into the Winnebago's side. But then the rasping buzz of the K-12 soured somehow with a sound of something very much like static... Marco smelled ozone.. "Chet! There's a live power line nearby!" Chet turned but didn't stop cutting. "One more second and I'll be through.." "Chet!!" A hanging wire from a broken, leaning telephone pole that no one could see in the fog, swayed in the rising wind of coming daylight. A thick cable sparkled with blue fire, ionizing the air before connecting with the wall of the Winnebago.. Current passed through Chet's sweaty gloves like water and into Marco. |
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Both men were thrown backwards by the shock and fell onto the road. From where he was, Johnny Gage heard a crackling and looked up, horrified, as a massive blue arch illuminated the contorting forms of Lopez and Kelly. "Chet!! Marco!!" He ran as close as he dared to where he thought they went down. He couldn't see them through the fog. And he didn't dare move any closer. Ozone nearly choked him. He thumbed his talkie, "LA, this is Squad 51. Cut all power to the Southbound Highway system, now!!" ------------------------- In the RV, the sound of sawing stopped. Cap looked up at the cutting outline and saw the job wasn't yet complete. It had gone quiet out there. Roy met his puzzled gaze. "Must've hit a beam or something." He was about to ask what was happening on the talkie when the EKG on both girls soured suddenly in a downward wave. "What th--?" It almost looked like resolving defib on the monitor. His bare hand brushed the metal floor. It tingled and he suddenly felt short of breath. He jerked his hand away with an effort of will. "Cap! The RV's being electrocuted! Get on your shoes' soles" A sickening wash of ozone flooded the tight space Cap Roy and the girls were in. They could now hear the crackling power striking the RV. They could see lightning blue through the cracks of the sawed wall. Cap gasped, "What about the girls?" Roy began grabbing the strewn dresser clothing around them. "Stuff insulation under them! If we get a direct hit from that wire. It'll kill them. They're touching this wall directly.." He frantically put on his gloves again, avoiding the twisted metal around him and shoved sweaters, pj's and towels under his patient. Cap did the same for Robin. But before they could finish, a bright flare of fire buzzed and the bucking powerline wire wedged in the crack the K-12 had made at the top of the wall. The girls caught the whole backwash of electricity for a brief second before they were insulated from the floor by Cap and Roy. The EKG rhythms plunged again, more deeply, but they didn't flatline. Roy ducked involuntarily and so did Cap at the angry energy snapping so near their heads. It was a near thing. Then under DeSoto's hands, Cassie's chest failed to rise. "Cap! Check Robin. Her sister's just arrested." He redoubled his ventilation efforts again, using the demand valve on Cassie, watching her EKG monitor intently. But there were no further downward spikes at all. Their desperate mats of laundry had worked. Captain Stanley caught something of Roy's sudden urgency over the hideous noise from the powerline. He reassessed Robin, and she too, was apneic. "Roy, she's going down. No breathing." DeSoto handed Cap another pediatric oral airway and told him how to insert it. But there was a problem. Only one demand valve was available. Hank improvised, starting to breathe for her, wearing the cannula in his own nose, using his own lungpower and the flow of O2 through him to keep oxygen in her body. But there was a blessing even in the fetid darkness. The two EKG's on the defib monitors still sounded off, like music to his ears. Roy didn't admit it, but part of the tingle he got touching the metal floor underneath him had jarred him physically. His eyes blurred as he worked over Cassie. ::Shake it off. Shake it off. It's just a headache.:: He knew the girls needed IV meds. And they needed them right now. Cap got on his walkie talkie, crouched around Robin's head. In between delivering breaths to Robin, he spoke, shouting. ##LA, this is Engine 51. Emergency!## "Go ahead 51." ##We're...........pinned down surrounded by live power lines. Cut power to the area immediately. Multiple victims.............are involved..## "The power company has been notified. Two minutes to shut down." dispatch replied. Cap gave Robin another breath and looked up. "How are we going to get med authorization? You've got your hands full with that demand valve!" Roy backed out of Cassie's niche. "Relay. Then get Gage in here!" But before he could get back on his handytalkie he heard a frantic Gage contact him. ##I heard ya on the horn! Hang tight. Chet and Marco are down! **a large crackling of power** Dammit!! I still can't get to you or them! You're going to have to make due without me!## There was thudding sound as John threw away the talkie in another attempt to circle around to get to his fallen coworkers. Roy heard only static follow on his radio. Cap and Roy were left alone, underseiged by the powerline in the camper, but they kept working to maintain the girls. |
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Outside, Gage spotted another EMS crew appearing from the fog a few yards from the camper. He made sure he was heard and seen by picking up and throwing one of the road flares in their direction. He pointed at the camper when the men turned to face him. "Get my partner! He's in there! Live power line!!" Then he jumped the guard rail, moving up onto a hilly bank just visible to him in the mist. It was on a level with the top of the rolled Winnebago. John leaped on top of it, mindful of his fog damped shoes, quickly dancing until he got his overcoat under his feet insulating him from the deadly electricity surging under him. Stoker, who had come running at Cap's frantic radio call, handed him a shepard's crook. "Use it on them! Not the cable! Or the polymer will melt on you!" Gage nodded, leaning on his stomach, over the edge of the camper's caved in roof. Mike tossed him a rope which he looped around the end of the crook. He extended the pole, and snagged Chet's hand, the only thing sticking in the air against a piece of debris. He jerked the line, tightening the noose and flung the line back at Mike on the ground. Station eight's men dragged Chet out of the hose watered danger zone to safety. Gage glanced over only long enough to see them roll him over onto his back before catching a new rope from Vince. His toss at Marco's foot, missed. His next toss caught him across the face, awakening him with its rough sting. "Ughhh!" "Marco, Listen to me! Grab the rope!" Marco contorted with each shock from the wire but he still had wits enough to hook an elbow around Gage's looped line. Johnny leaped back onto the grassy rise and hauled Lopez towards him away from the watery pavement. He got Marco to his feet and they got out of there. "I got ya. I got ya.." Lopez locked into an involuntary spasm just as Gage and others got him back over the guard rail. He dropped in their arms and was quickly lowered to the ground and held carefully so his head didn't abrade on the concrete while he shook. "Ah.. it hurts so bad!" His breath was squeezed out of his body by a great steel band of his own muscles. *choke*...... The world retreated for long seconds before the convulsion left him as quickly as it came. His vision came back. Marco saw a ring of faces over his. And one he recognized. "..ugh.. Johnny.?..*gasp* H-How's Chet.?" John looked over across the road from where he was crouched over Marco. He could vaguely make out the outline of a Pasadena FD back bobbing up and down. "They're working on him." "uh no...." Lopez said, slinging an arm over his face. "They got to him fast enough now just worry about yourself for once, all right?" John said sharply. " Mike.. Get the stokes!" Gage shouted. "I want him near me and the gear boxes!" John tried some levity as he undid Marco's overcoat and cut through his shirt with clothes shears from his hip holster when he saw that its buttons had fused together. "If your breakfast wasn't hot enough this morning. It sure is now.. Your hair's curlier than Kelly's." |
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Lopez groaned. Gage wasn't all sure that it was laughter. He kept a hand on Marco's chest. "Can you breathe, ok? That was some jolt you took there." "*cough* y- yeah.." Marco tried to straighten out his body. But then an even stronger muscle spasm curled him up into an agonizing ball.. "Ahhhh!! Gage..Make it stop!!... It's killing me..." he sobbed. "Easy, Marco.. There's meds I can give ya to do just that But you're going to have to wait..You've been one upped by Chet here. Stone!" he shouted to a Pasadena man he recognized, "Get him on some O2 will ya..?" He said, pointing at Marco. "Put him on fifteen liters, non rebreather. Bring a bite stick. His convulsions won't resolve." Johnny turned Marco onto his side before the next spasm could make him ill. "The O2 will deal with some of your nausea ok?" Marco lost focus and stopped writhing as the spasm quit shaking him like a dog with a rag. He drifted. "Hey.." John looked down at Lopez's pale face. He was now half out, but still moving air. "See you in a few minutes." He lingered only long enough to see the new EMS team insert a bitestick and start up his order of O2. "Marco. Hang tough. I'll be right back!" Johnny shouted as he stood up. Gage took off at a run to get to Kelly's side. Stoker, Vince, Station Eight's chief and Vince's partner, Garner got Marco into the stokes and brought him across the road to where Chet lay on the ground. Station eight's men were performing CPR on Kelly and using their own resuscitator to give ventilations. John thunked down onto his knees and checked out Chet's pupils with his penlight around the demand valve mask without getting in that fireman's way. "They're reactive." He knew things weren't going to be easy. Roy had the squad's defibrillator. "Damn..if only we had another defib box." he mumbled. Then Vince spoke up. "There's one in the lifeguard tower station on the beach.." Vince peered about. "We're at mile marker two, aren't we?" The Chief nodded. "Where exactly is that station?" Vince thought hard. "It's about twenty five meters off the park entrance at the south end. It's a base station. There should be guards there now." "Well what are you waiting for?!" Gage said, listening to how the oxygen from the positive pressure mask was perfusing in Kelly's lungs with his stethoscope around the CPR man. The Chief ordered, "Get a move on....!" he pointed to two men. "Yes sir..!" Two firemen ran towards the direction of the ocean's waves. They disappeared into the fog. Gage shouted suddenly, "Hold it.. hold it..!" gesturing to the ventilator. "Chet's distending too much. I'm not getting any good volume in his lungs at all now. On the count of three, we'll roll him.." |
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At the end of a set of chest compressions, Kelly was turned on his side, with his head tilted back. John pressed Chet's hugely air swollen stomach carefully, and the lung constricting air expelled back out of his mouth. When he finished, John swept inside Chet's mouth with a finger. It came away clear. "All right.. back over. Back over.. He didn't get sick." CPR continued. Gage nodded at the return of vents inside Kelly's chest. He pulled off his stethoscope, and sighed. John saw the powerline still arching in the Winnebago wall. He saw Truck 127's crew circling it, still separated from Roy and Cap. They were stymied. "Damn it. I wonder why the power company's taking so long.." He saw one of Eight's men plunk the squad's biphone right in front of him and another unit's drug, trauma and IV boxes. "Where did you get that?! " he said incredulously happy. One of the men answered. "Station Eight's. But they've gone with the defib, They had a touchy OB in labor to the hospital. Stone said you might be needing this." "Good enough." He picked up the receiver and hailed Rampart. "Rampart this is squad 51. How do you read?" As if on cue, the power was cut to the writhing wire above them and its burning end went black. It settled to the ground. A new saw advanced on the camper immediately. John nodded with satisfaction, thumbing his walkie talkie. "Roy, they're coming in!!" ----------------------- The base station next to the front desk was empty, until the red light began to flash. Dixie McCall looked up from her slate at the sound of the incoming transmission's double buzz. She flagged down Joe Early coming out of treatment three. "Joe.." and she pointed with her pen. Dr. Early went into the glass enclosed room and toggled the switch on the radio after starting the recording machine. "Unit calling in, please repeat." "Rampart this is Squad 51." "Go ahead 51." "Rampart, we have six victims at a multiple MVA. Two Code I. Two are still inaccessible. Two superficial. Victim one and two are victims of electrical shock. Victim one. Negative vital signs. We're administering CPR. His arrest was witnessed. Victim two is semiconscious and suffering from severe muscular convulsions with moderate respiratory distress. He is stable. Victims three and four are children, trapped inside a trailer. Roy is with them now with a hand held radio, linked to you via dispatch. Victims five and six have minor cuts and abrasions." John reported. Joe early read the notes he took down. "Go ahead with victim one." Gage looked over to the men working on Chet. "10-4,Rampart, " Johnny swiped sweat off of his lip as he talked, "Chet's CPR has been ongoing for four minutes. We've had problems with distension, request permission to insert an esophageal airway." "Go ahead 51. Then defibrillate at 400 watt seconds." John lip's set into a frustrated line, "Negative on the defibrillator, Rampart. We don't have one. A lifeguard station is nearby. We're waiting for beach lifeguards to respond with their equipment." Joe saw Kel walking by and motioned for him to come into the room curtly then added, "10-4, 51. Start an IV D5W, TKO. Continue CPR. Administer one amp Sodium Bicarb. Then 5 cc's 1/10,000 mg epinephrine IV Push. " "10-4. IV D5W TKO, one amp Bicarb, 5cc epinephrine IV. Inserting an esophageal airway.." Gage repeated to his attending doctor. "Standing by." Dr. Early replied. He nodded to Dr. Brackett and handed him his notes and a transcript of the first minute of 51's call. Kel continued reading intently. Joe said, "There's no defibrillator there. 51's working on it. They said they'll have one soon." Brackett said, "Six victims? Must be a bad one." Joe grunted and waited for his paramedic to come back online. Slinging the phone receiver and cord over his shoulder, Johnny grabbed a laryngoscope and an EOA. He bit his lip as he threaded it into Chet's throat, down the scope's guide groove and into his stomach. He was almost afraid that there'd be swelling from his evac earlier but there wasn't any at all. The tube settled to its end mark, effortlessly. "Ok." He said to the man with the respirator. The valve was reconnected to the airway tube a second later. John listened to Chet's ribcage. "Ok, give him a shot." Kelly's chest rose. Gage heard good breath sounds on the left side. He shifted his stethoscope over to the other side. "Again." he nodded. He heard pure air sounds there too and no gastric bubbling. The tube was in place properly, he inflated the airway's gastric bulb. "We got it. Continue the CPR." He got an IV line in on sheer blind luck into Chet's inner arm vein at the crook of the elbow. He ran the D5W, and then squirted air out of the epinephrine needle before injecting it into the IV's rubber port. "Anything?" John asked when he was through. The fireman at Chet's head checked for a carotid. He shook his head. Gage cursed with more than a little frustration, "You're making it hard for us... Chet, I was only kidding about the full moon thing." he said, setting the IV bag under Chet's shoulder. |
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John then got out the Bicarb ampoule and prepared and injected that blood neutralizer into the IV line. "He'll need a truckload. He's been down forever." he mumbled. "Where are those lifeguards..?" On cue, two people, a man and a woman in red shorts and jackets ran up to them being led by the chief's men. They had a white box with them. They crouched by Gage and the crew. The youngish athletic man spoke, "I'm Lt. Craig Pomeroy. This is Jill Riley, senior lifeguard. Heard you needed this." John smiled and grabbed it. "You're beautiful!" He flipped open the lid with a flourish and his face fell. "What th-?" He got out the phone in the same motion. "We have a defibrillator, Rampart. But it's a type I've never seen before." "What model is it?" Joe asked, puzzled. "I couldn't tell you, doc..." Gage said quite honestly. He heard Kelly Brackett emit an oath in the background. Dr. Early went on, "Any chance of finding another Defibrillator?" Craig spoke up to the fireman/paramedic. "I'm authorized to use this pack, sir. It's an automatic unit. It'll assess whether or not he's receptive to countershocking." John shouted eagerly, "Hold on, Rampart!" He set the phone down setting fingers on the woman lifeguards' arm. "Wait a sec. You said it determines heart recapture optimums?" They both nodded. "Rampart, ah,.. The Lifeguard lieutenant here says he's fully trained on it. And that it has conversion analysis. What should I do?" Gage asked, breathless. Brackett slammed the button down, "Do whatever it takes, 51. He's running out of time!" he growled. Johnny nodded. "10-4." Then he looked to the Baywatch lifeguards. "You heard the man. Do it." Quickly, Jill and Craig threaded two huge padds that were attached to the strange looking monitor. There was no EKG screen to speak of, Gage thought. Until he saw a digital one pop on a screen the second the leads hit skin. Then they touched a green switch on the side of the device. A computerized synth voice spoke, ---Stand Clear. Stand clear-- analyzing patient.. -- Johnny took the lifeguard's cues, motioning, and all the firemen lifted their hands from Chet. --No signal. Continue CPR.-- The team resumed their resuscitation. "What's that mean? Why didn't it fire?" Johnny asked. Jill reset the device.. " It means your bicarb hasn't had a chance to neutralize this man's acidosis. When did you give it to him?" "Three and a half minutes ago." "Then it won't be long until the pack determines viability and defibrillates. It won't shock a heart in the wrong chemistry. Saves damage to the patient. Back off everyone." Craig ordered. Again the crew stood off. |
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---Stand Clear. Stand clear-- analyzing patient-- Everyone held their breaths. --Countershocking.-- *Shock* Chet Kelly's torso lifted only slightly, almost gently under the box's new kind of direct delivery system. ---No Pulse. Continue CPR.-- Johnny's patience hit a breaking point. "Damn it!" Gage sharply motioned for the CPR team to begin working again. Jill reassured Johnny. "The bicarb is working. Soon, his blood will be prepped enough for the pack to deliver another shock. It'll be another ten seconds." Gage grabbed her arms, "Wait a minute. Are you saying that right now, Chet's system is still too acid for that thing to work? Craig put his hands on his knees, "Yes." Gage smiled, "Hang on.... Rampart, There's still no conversion after one countershock. We're showing deep flatline on the pack." ::Come on, docs, guess what I'm guessing..:: "Hmm,..Sounds like his blood is still too acid. Give another amp Sodium Bicarb." Joe said finally. ::Yes!:: Gage thought happily. But then Brackett came on. "Gage, we'll need to bump him up into coarse V-Fib again. I am personally authorizing you to give 2 cc epinephrine Intracardially." Johnny's face fell and he gaped, slowly, "Hold on. Rampart, IC? I've never done one in the field." "I have full confidence in you, Johnny. You've seen me do it enough times." Brackett said. Gage licked suddenly dry lips. "Uh,..10-4, one amp Sodium Bicarb, then 2cc Epinephrine IC. Stand by." The bicarb load was in and empty when John got over being stunned about what he was being asked to do. Johnny drew open the paper off the premixed syringe. He motioned with his head to the firemen around him. "All right. Stop the ventilations." He fingered the proper position into the cartilage between the third and fourth ribs and cleared the six inch needle of any air. Jill Riley looked away as the long needle plunged down. Gage advanced the cath until he felt one pop, then two. "All right, I'm through the chest wall, nnghh.. and the pericardial sac.." then he felt a tenuous third resistance in the needle, ventricle tissue! "There.!" He pushed the plunger until all of the amber fluid in the chamber was gone. He held his breath and withdrew the needle back the way it came and looked at the tip of it. It was all there. Nothing had broken off. He sighed, passing off the spent syringe to the needle bin in the Drug box. Then nodded for CPR to resume. John sat back onto his butt, rubbing his mouth in relief. "I did it. I actually did it." The lifeguards continued where he left off. The green button was pressed again. ----Stand clear. Stand clear--analyzing patient-- More than one man crossed their fingers. --Countershocking.-- *shock* ----Pulse detected. Pulse detected... Detach unit's power source.-- The last line of the computer's voice was drowned out by cheers from all the rescuers over Kelly as his chest began to rise and fall. Johnny snatched the phone to his mouth. "Rampart. We have a Ventricular rate of about 30." It was Brackett's turn to sigh and tremble a tad. "Good work Johnny. You saved both my professional reputation, and yours. Think we should add that little trick to the Paramedic manual?" Gage just grunted in the negative.."Hell no. My nerves are shot!!" But he could almost hear Brackett grinning through the biphone line. Joe early added, "51, start an IV of an Isoproteranol Drip, and the rest of the bicarb. Continue O2 and monitoring. Transport as soon as possible. Send us a strip lead two." Jill turned a toggle on the pack for Gage and a few other dials he didn't understand and said, "This will be lead two." |
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Brackett and Early grinned at the unfamiliar voice but bent over the paper roll feeding out of their relay monitor. "Looking good, ...maam. " Kel joked. "Johnny, Increase the drip until his rate's around seventy, will you? We'll wait on his vitals until you've treated victim two." "Affirmative, Rampart." He finished his med order on Kelly and then turned his attention to Marco behind him. ------- Lopez still had good color and was moving slightly. Gage looked to the Pasadena man who was carefully watching Marco's breaths steaming under the mask. "Is he still having spasms?" Johnny wanted to know. "Yes." On cue, Lopez twisted up, in one arm and leg on the same side. "Tonic convulsions now?" Gage wondered. John shouted, "Marco! Can you hear me?" His coworker's face didn't change. Johnny got closer to his ear. "Marco!" But Lopez didn't react. Johnny checked out his pupils. Then on a thought, rubbed a knuckle into his sternum. Marco twitched and fingers moved slightly on the relaxed hand. But that was all. Johnny relayed what he had found, "Rampart Victim Two's Marco Lopez. He's semi conscious and diaphoretic. Respirations are labored at...." he paused to check. Then Gage was surprised to see the two lifeguards stringing a different patch from the auto defib unit of theirs to Lopez's bare shoulder. Pomeroy shrugged, "Your doctor is going to want to see how he's doing..too." Johnny smiled, "Fair enough." he said, muffling the phone mouth piece. Then he finished his report, "Respirations are 26 and irregular. He's having frequent seizures in his lower body and extremities. The spasms started all over him when we first got him free but now seem to be confined to the left side of his body. He's on fifteen liters of O2. Additional vitals to follow.." Early wanted to know. "51, Sounds like the electricity travelled down his central nervous system from the contact point and has disrupted neural activity on that side. I want a BP from that arm. What's his heartrate?" "Pulse is...120 and irregular, BP is....*sigh* .. Stand by for the BP." Gage got a reading quickly by stepping his foot on the twitching hand on Marco's left side while Jill and Craig helped hold the arm still for him, restraining it at shoulder and wrist. "....BP is......Hold him,... 92 over 50." He reported, pinning the phone to his ear between his shoulder and face. Marco began to gag slightly in his stupor. But there was nothing left in his stomach to lose. He only had weakened dry heaves as he lay on his side, gasping tightly around them. John slid his free hand to Marco's neck, pulling his larynx up a bit in his thumb and fingers to see if his breathing evened out. It didn't. Johnny added. "Rampart, Marco's getting stridorous. I think the petite mals are having an impact. And he's really nauseated and he's getting a bit cyanotic." "Try an esophageal airway, 51.." Joe ordered. "Negative, Rampart. He has a gag reflex." Gage said. "What's his response to pain stimuli?" Dr. Early asked. "Somewhat to pain, nothing to verbal cues. And he's now showing no signs of voluntary movement on his uneffected side." Joe considered, then asked, "51, is he still vomiting at all?" "Negative.. his stomach appears to be empty." Dr. Brackett laid down the plan. "Hmm. Johnny, sounds like he'll tolerate a naso pharyngeal airway. Go ahead and intubate him. It should help his air intake and keep him from aspirating any bodily fluids." "10-4." Gage nodded as the lifeguard Craig anticipated his need and handed him one already out of its wrap. He nodded thanks, while he listened to the rest of Kel's instructions. "....Send us a strip. I want to see what's happening to his cardiac functioning." Jill took off Marco's O2 mask and held it near but out of Johnny's way. Johnny gel-ed the nasal airway and guided it through one of Lopez's nostrils and down, until it was in place fully. He checked its positioning in the back of his throat with a penlight, peering into Marco's mouth. Then he replaced the bite stick in between his involuntarily clenching teeth. "All right. Get that O2 back on him."... Jill complied. He listened for a moment, molding the mask carefully around Marco's nose and mouth and the seizure stick, then smiled as his labored gasps eased off and began slowing. "Ok.. he's set. It's working." He picked up the phone, "Doc, his breathing's levelling off. Respirations are 14 and deep." he nodded with satisfaction. "He's in better color too." Gage pointed to Jill, and she sent Marco's telemetry to the hospital as she had done with Chet's readings. Brackett eyed Lopez's strip as the audio feed danced in its soft wavering pitch, filling the base station's tiny room. Dix held her breath, and so did Joe. Kel finished reading the strip, and one of his eyes twitched as he toggled the sending talk button. "51, I'm getting only minor ventricular irregularities. Your fireman's one lucky man. Looks like the jolt he took was only of moderate intensity. His nausea's not cardiac related. It's most likely due to pyschogenic shock. Give .5 mg Atropine , IV, 51. And start an IV of D5W, TKO to get him out of it." Johnny replied, grateful at the news, "10-4, doc, .5 Atropine in a D5W IV to keep open." He tore a bag out of its paper and strung a line in after nabbing a vein. He splinted the tubing and the catheter in Marco's arm with an IV board, so it wouldn't be torn free in his seizuring. Then he added the atropine. Lopez began to shiver differently and the convulsions on his left began to spread to his other side. Jill cushioned his head in her hands but other firemen replaced her gentle manual restraint with two sand bags that worked even better. Gage got on the phone quickly, "Rampart. Atropine is in, but ah,.. his convulsions seem to be getting worse. And more frequent." Dr. Brackett, "It's a tough tradeoff, 51. Atropine for that good air exchange. But increased tremors." He mumbled off phone to Joe. "Damned if you do, damned if you don't.." He got back on the line. "All right Johnny.. We're going to find middle ground. Draw up 25 milligrams Diazepam..for an IM only." Gage frowned, rocking back on his heels, grumbling at his only viable option. He knew what the doctors were asking him to risk. ::Great.. first Kelly's IC, now this..:: |
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Kel went on, "Watch him closely. The Diazepam's going to depress his breathing every step of the way. You're going to inject five cc's at a time until he's just at the point where the tremors cease. Got that? Five cc's for every fifty pounds body weight. You lose lung draw and we're in trouble." "10-4. Diazepam IM. Five cc's per fifty. Stand by." "Standing by." Johnny wasn't happy. He knew the risks of losing Marco's respiratory ability were high due to his shock; let alone those incurred from his having a downer drug used on him. Coma couldn't be far away if Gage over shot his mark. He closed his eyes, holding the needle and shot of muscle paralyzer up between his chilled hands as he tried to recall what he had heard Lopez joke about his weight a week ago while he was standing on the station's scale. "Now what did you say Lopez..? 185?..190 pounds?" He couldn't clearly remember. "Damn.." he cursed, grabbing up his talkie. "Squad 51 to Engine 51. Come in." Captain Stanley answered, "Gage? Is that you? Hurry up.. We've got two respiratory arrested girls in here." "Hold on, Cap. I'll be right there. But Marco needs treatment right now more than they do. You've got the kids maintaining just fine from the sound of it.." Johnny said. He could hear Roy's positive pressure vents and Cap's mouth given breaths plainly. "Right now I need to know Lopez's exact body mass.." Cap grabbed up the radio closer to his free ear, "What did you just ask? The saw's too loud in here!" "Roy .. Cap!.. how much does Lopez weigh? How heavy is he? Brackett's got me anesthetizing Marco to control petite mals. Now...How many pounds do you remembering seeing in his file from last week, Cap? I can't do this at all unless I am absolutely right on or he'll get real sour on us real fast." Cap said, "I don't honestly know, Gage.... Roy?" DeSoto wiped sweat from his eyes. His head was pounding from the remnants of the electrical surge he took through his fingers on the floor. His mind raced, then he snatched the radio away from Cap and hollered, "Chief, get one of your men in here right now to take over for me. My partner needs me out there ASAP.. Johnny I'll be right there..!." A minute later, Stone wormed his way to Roy's side and took over Cassie's resuscitation effort. Roy put a hand on Cap's shoulder as he worked over Robin. "I'll be right back. Call me if either of their EKGs so much as twitch.." He left his radio on Robin's stomach, within Cap's easy reach. Hank nodded as he placed another seal over the child's lips and blew her another careful breath. Roy made sure Cap had enough oxygen flowing through the cannula on his face to go through him and then to the child. "Got to remember your trick for the books." he quipped. That simple statement made Hank relax a whole nine yards. Roy felt comfortable then with leaving the four of them in the camper. ========== DeSoto stumbled out into the fog. He found Gage and Kelly and the Pasadena group by following the flares glowing on the road. He arrived too fast and banged into Gage. He lost his balance.. squatting down near him over Marco's writhing form. Gage looked at him "Hey, easy! I almost stuck you..." He said, whipping the needle away from Roy. "S-Sorry.." Roy coughed, rubbing his eyes to clear them. Johnny looked a little more closely at Roy, "You ok? I know you're better than me at this, but if you're too tired...." "I- I'm fine.. Give it here." Gage studied Roy's sweaty face for a moment, and noticed a stench coming from him. Burned flesh.. "Hey.." he took up Roy's arm, "Where did you get that burn..?" "It's nothing.. I... touched some hot metal when I got too near the K-12.." he lied. Marco needed him to act. Now. "You sure you're all right?" Gage said, still hanging onto Roy's jacket. "Yeah.. I'm fine.." DeSoto said. Something about his conviction fooled Johnny. He studied Roy's face a moment longer, then slowly handed DeSoto the syringe. "ok.." he said. Johnny picked up the phone. "Rampart, Roy's going to do it. He's got a better idea of how much Lopez weighs." "Get on it, 51. Every minute with those convulsions is another minute too many." Brackett said. Roy's brain fuzzed as he swabbed down the fleshy part of Marco's flank. "He said... he weighed.. 81 kilos.. in the gym.. Joked about how it was the same weight as our punching bag..." he whispered to himself. "What?" |
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"Shhhhh" Roy said, wiping moisture from his upper lip. "He said.. 81 kilos... I'm certain of it.. that's why he looked so funny working out with it. It kept knocking him around.. .. Yeah.. I remember laughing at him trying to keep on his feet.." Gage nodded, smiling slightly."He's not much of a Mohammed Ali, I take it, eh? Only 81 kilos? " then he clammed up. Johnny occupied himself with taking another BP on Marco's still arm, mentally kicking himself for distracting Roy. He began pumping up the BP cuff. Even that small snicking valve sound intruded badly upon Roy's concentration. He took a deep breath trying to ignore it. ::..now, how many pounds is 81 kilos..?:: He did a mental calculation and then said out loud to Johnny with a short nod of his head. "Injecting.. .. Inj uh,..25 cc's...Diazepam..IM." And he stuck the needle into muscle, pushing the plunger to drain to the zero remaining line. Gage looked up, ripping his stethoscope out of his ears.. "Roy?! Did you just say 25..?" He whipped up Roy's hand off the syringe still impaled in Marco's hip, gasping. He jerked out the needle and flung it away quickly, but it was too late..."Roy.. 81 kilos is only 178.5 lbs! The dose should have been dif---!.." The absolute horror that rose in Roy's face transferred to his own. Roy began to tremble, but automatically, he felt Lopez's chest for air movement. Marco breathed still, but shallowly. He got out his penlight and looked very quickly at Lopez's eyes. The pupils were fixed and dilated. He pointed to them, his face a tortured mask, dropping his shining pen light. The bulb shattered on the pavement. Gage knocked Roy's hands away fiercely using his own light to see and saw the undeniable sign there too. Coma.. Johnny was stunned, but brought the phone numbly to his mouth, "Rampart.. we have a problem.. I think..we made a...a ..mistake.." Brackett looked up sharply from his notepad. "What do you mean, Johnny? Talk to me.." Simultaneously, Roy reacted. "Oh my god.. Johnny, what have I done..?" The moment proved too much. DeSoto's head fuzz reared up as he tried a futile denial. Then his brain refused to function any longer. Roy slumped to the ground, letting the rising black from his near jolt of electricity claim him. "Roy?!" John shouted. He flung out a hand. But Jill and Craig were faster. They caught the fair haired paramedic before his head hit the ground. |
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Craig told him. "He's fine. He's fine. I got him." he said after a check of his carotid. "He's just out cold. I don't see anything more than that.." Brackett's demanding voice shouted at their feet. "51! What's going on over there! This man's EKG has just hyperbolically levelled. He's overdosed. He's down too deep." Gage picked up the receiver. "Doc.. Roy ... injected 25 cc's. Way too much.." Joe didn't hesitate, "2.5 cc Narcan..Push it." "Doing it.." Gage got the universal drug antidote from the box and used it. "Come on, Marco.. Snap out of it.. Nap time's over.." He watched a fireman increase an ambu bag's delivery of controlled 100% O2 to Marco a few more notches. The Pasadena man had begun using one when he had first heard the word "overdosed." But the EKG remained at its suppressed eerily slow, uniform sinus rhythm, the earmark of the coma state. Brackett announced over the landline, "No conversion. Keep hyperventilating him, Johnny. And put DeSoto on the line, I want to talk to him." "I can't doc,.. He's out cold. He may be injured from his trying to get to the other victims. He's got a burn I didn't check out very well." He groaned in anger as he saw other marks of charring soot on his skin that Craig had uncovered as he opened Roy's shirt to monitor him. "I think he might have tangled with the same powerline that took out Chet and Marco." Joe toggled the speaker when Kel didn't respond to Gage right away. "10-4, 51. Monitor DeSoto and treat for shock. Listen to me. I want you to stay focused. We'll work out all of this later. Give me another set of vitals on Marco and get him set to transport. Now... I want to know about victims 3 through 6 in triage priority.." "10-..10-4.. Rampart..." Johnny said mechanically. "Cap's with victims 3 and 4 now, I've just learned, they're two girls in respiratory arrest." "Give me a man with them who can get me their vitals.." Early said. "Stand by.." Gage once more got on his radio. ------------------------- |
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The rest of the rescue was a blur to Johnny. The tremendous load on Johnny as senior assessor was soon halved shortly after Roy collapsed. Gage remembered the side of the Winnebago being finish cut and pulled free and then a new station's paramedics rushing in to relieve Stone and Cap's ventilations of the two girls. With a firm tie to Rampart, the injured children's conditions were stabilized rapidly, and Cassie and Robin, with their parents, were transported out by Mayfair rig ten minutes later. That completed, Johnny could focus on the full implications of events with Marco, Roy and Kelly. ========== In a second red lighted speeding rig, Chet awoke enough to spit out his airway en route. Johnny leaned over him just in time to hear him complain about his head aching and about his chest that somebody had used both as a trampoline and as a stone for the preverbial sword.. Gage winced, rubbing his own chest, imagining what it must be like for Chet, having a fresh six inch needle puncture wound down heart deep. "You have no idea the trouble we had to go through to save your butt, Chet. Just be grateful you're still breathing.." he grinned lopsidedly. "Ohhhh...ow." Then Chet asked about Marco as his memory returned. "How's Lopez? My god, I swear I could hear his mustache sizzling just before I blacked out." he laughed a short laugh before the painful reminders of his rescue, shut him up. He turned his head, seeing his familiar coworker firefighter lying next to him on another stokes. Gage deflected masterfully, with his smile locked in cement with all the skill of the paramedic hiding bad news. "Worry about yourself and that halo you narrowly avoided, Chester B." Gage said, firmly planting the O2 mask back over Chet's face. "That's your first concern." Kelly blinked, twice, shoving his O2 mask onto his forehead, thinking.. "Ok, Lopez is entitled to a little confidentiality. But what's HIS story?" the curly haired fireman said, pointing to a third stokes Johnny was leaning his rear on in the crowded ambulance. That one held Roy's dusty, limp form. Kelly saw that he, too, was on precautionary O2, but no IV hung over his head. Naturally, Chet assumed the lightest possible outcome to that scenario. "Don't tell me the sandman caught up with DeSoto during my rescue?" Chet laughed weakly. "Now that would be REALLY embarrassing..Glad I wasn't awake for that little blunder.." he chuckled. Kelly actually saw Johnny suddenly wince at his words and look away.. The haunted look in Johnny's eyes sobered Chet more than the water did from the Phantom's revenging can sprung a year ago. A sick feeling gripped Chet that had nothing to do with his near brush with death. "Gage. What is it that you aren't telling me?" |
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