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"It's never good for a paramedic to be a victim." Johnny said tightly. "Exactly right. So just be a paramedic and everything will turn out right if it's in your power, like it always does." "Like it used to do.." "Like it STILL does, partner.." he firmly glared. "I'll let you know if you ever lose your edge. Remember, Brackett says you're one of the best." he chuckled. "And I'm keen on protecting that reputation because it reflects well on me. Next month's review and raise is depending on that. I'm also doing it because I've a lot of ground to catch up on with my bills and my FAMILY's bills.." he groaned. "So I'm gonna guarantee that fatter paycheck any way I can." Instead of laughing, Gage frowned. "Yeah? Well what about my reputation in the eyes of Dr. Morton? I'd say I'm just about shot as a medic if he decides to blame his sister's death on me in front of the paramedic's review board." DeSoto stayed silent, not knowing what to say. But then, a few minutes later, as the morning warmth dried the sweat off their faces, DeSoto spoke up. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I'm sure that Brice, as head chair, would review any case he overhears fairly in concern with recertifying you if Morton should want an investigation done examining the actions you took that day. Craig is a walking rule book you know." "And I'm a walking jobless man if I get a suit filed against me. How can I keep my personal promises then if I can't be a paramedic anymore?" "Trust in your promises, Johnny. They're all you've got. " he said seriously. Then he laughed, adding. "Then trust your friends to know you better than you do. They'll never tell you any lies about how you really are." Johnny finally harrumphed in his throat with a slight smile which admitted that he gave Roy a point for being right on that. "Come on. This tire's all set. Let's get some food. Dixie says the tuna fish casserole's incredible. I'll vouch for it. I sure ate enough of it during my hospital stay.." --------------------------------------------------- |
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************************************************* From : "Katherine Bird" <kathbird@hotmail.com> Subject : Indigestion.. Date : Thu, 02 Oct 2003 05:06:55 +0100 Roy had just paid for his lunch of pasta when Johnny crashed into the back of his partner with his own tray full of the same thing. Gage had to go through heroics in order to keep from spilling his milk and keeping his cherry jello from jiggling out of its pudding dish. "Would you just cut that out already.." DeSoto complained. His tray had been uneffected by the impact since he was the bigger man in mass of the two and had absorbed all of it without ill effect. "What?" "Quit slinking around here as if you expect a firing squad to pop outta nowhere." "I'm not slinking around.. I'm ..I'm..just keeping an eye out, that's all." "Don't tell me, you don't want to run into Mike Morton.." he pegged in irritation in a half whisper so the surrounding hospital staff wouldn't overhear. He offered peace by pulling out a chair at a nearby table for Johnny first before grabbing and reversing another one for himself. "I thought we had settled all that." "...Not directly...no. Look, Roy, I mean, he's bound to show up looking for me sometime.." "How do you know? You haven't yet even talked to the man." Gage began to gesture pointedly. "Can't we just ...sit over there?" he pleaded half heartedly. "Where?" Roy said, irritated at the idea of moving again when his stomach was complaining so loudly. Johnny pointed again and Roy looked over his shoulder to the table his partner wanted. Roy frowned. "There's no sun over there. You wouldn't be able to see your plate well enough to eat from it if we ate over there. I'm fine right here. You can move if you like. Today, I'm gonna be part chameleon and soak up the daylight. Let's just say that tower's rubbed off a little too much on me. I suddenly find I really like open spaces." and he began to shovel it in as only a hungry fireman could. "Roy, would you jus--" And Gage broke off when he saw Dixie and Brice headed their way. "Oh, no.. He's bad enough.." But rather than looking like he was retreating, Johnny sat down next to Roy and nervously positioned his arms and posture to look like he wasn't nervous.. He failed miserably and Dixie McCall caught on right away. "Oh, come on, Johnny. It's not that bad." Dixie grinned. "Mike won't bite your head off. I've been working on him these last few weeks sharing with him just what you had to go through during the incident where Angie Morton was killed. I even showed him your medical chart showing how low your PO2 levels were because of those freon fumes." she grinned. "Dixie!" Gage said in mortification at that breach of confidentiality. Johnny made a hushing face, but Brice seemed to be oblivious. Craig just offered Dixie a third chair at Johnny and Roy's table before he took the last one and began arranging his tray and silverware just so on the china blue formica table top. He even passed over the salt to the head ER nurse so she could season her salad. Johnny was beginning to relax about Dixie's meddling admission when Craig Brice spouted off in surprise instant support. "No paramedic could have been expected to keep a clear head dealing with any rapid life or death decision making processes with the marked hypoxia you had during that crisis. I'll stand by what I read.." he said matter of factly. Johnny nearly choked on his tuna. "What is this? Why is my medical chart suddenly everyone's common property around here." he whined, unconvincingly angry. "I thought there were rules to protect my privacy that way.." Dixie held out a hand apologetically to Johnny and set a warm grip on his forearm. "I'm sorry, Johnny. But Dr. Brackett felt that that was the best way to defuse Mike from taking a legal course of action against you by spreading around just what you had to work with. " The color drained from Gage's face. "He's been doing what?" "Nothing official, Gage.." Brice said. "So far, it was just a meeting with Dr. Brackett, Morton and myself concerning competency.." Johnny threw down his fork with a clatter and jumped from his seat. "That's it! I'm going to go talk ta Morton right now. This is really getting insane..." "Wait a minute, Junior, where do you think you're going?" Roy asked. "Gage, hold on a short moment, before you take an action that you'll regret in the future." Brice suggested blandly. "Johnny.. pipe down everyone's gonna stare." Dixie hissed. They all said simultaneously. It took all three of them to pull the distraught young paramedic back into his cafeteria seat. "Shut up and eat." DeSoto said with finality, handing Johnny back his fork and pulling away the HT so Johnny couldn't leave. "Don't think I can. I just lost my appetite." Johnny mumbled. He toyed with the food on his plate, pushing it around while watching the steamy curls from his lunch waft away in the breezy sunlight. "Why don't you trust Dr. Brackett to manage Doctor Morton about all this? You're not to blame for what happened.." Dixie insisted. "That's what I told him.." Roy agreed in exasperation. "Only my half witted partner here doesn't believe me." "Wait a minute. Wait a minute.. Guys. Don't you think all of this should be between just Mike Morton and me?" "And a pair of lawyers, Gage. Can't forget them." Brice piped up, trying to interject a bit of reality to the problem. Johnny's face went even a paler shade of gray. "Oh, Johnny. Knock it off. You did what you could. I heard the whole story from Hank Stanley when he was here to see you two back then. Now, why don't you just sit back and let Kel handle all this? It's his job to go to bat for his paramedics." Dixie moaned. "And mine.." Craig piped up. Somehow, Brice's admission didn't feel all that warm and fuzzy to Johnny Gage like it could have been. He just stuck magnet eyes on Craig and mumbled tongue tied comments of no import while he twisted his brain around the convolutions of his current nightmare conversation. Finally, Gage said something the others could understand. "You mean, Brackett's cool about all this? That he'd know if I could be sued for incompetency over ..over.. Miss Morton's..?" "He should know. He was handling your medical calls that day." Dixie said firmly. "You're just going to have to trust your higher-ups to know what's best for you in the long run to patch things between Morton and the courts before this whole thing blows up out of porportion." "That's what I'm afraid of.." Johnny whispered, taking a bite of his suddenly cold food. "I'm not in control here anymore." he said in a way no one else heard. While the others ate and moved happily onto other subjects, Johnny Gage suddenly felt like the loneliest man in the world. ---------------------------------------------- |
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Johnny was heading out the cafeteria doors to rejoin Roy in the squad, when he overheard the clump of nurses he usually targetted for-asking out-on-a-date practice, speaking in animated voices amongst themselves. ::That's what I can do.. Get a new date to cheer myself up!:: Johnny thought smiling to himself. "Did you hear he's going to do it?" said one pixie like nursing student, to the others. "Who's going to do what?" asked another. Johnny started to head over to them wearing his best Johnny Gage suitor's smile, when the next sentence floating out to him from the entry way doors, made him flatten against a shadowy wall. "Why Morton, silly. He's going after a paramedic who seriously let him down on a run." A third nurse gasped, her breath going wide up in a whistle of shock. "No... I feel sorry for whoever that paramedic is. They're all so cute." "Yeah,.. looks like we'll have one less working here by the end of the week." a third joked. They melted away to their cars, going off shift while Johnny stood stunned in the corner. ::A lawsuit? Oh my G*d.:: He barely remembered getting into the squad with Roy. -------------------------------------- |
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************************************************** Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2003 00:18:37 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jeff Seltun" <finiterider@yahoo.com> Subject: Rated PG for Graphic Content.. The Tiny Miracle *Beep* Beep* Beep*. "Here we go.." Gage said, just to fill the heavy void in his mind and heart. ##Station 51. Woman down. 911766 Lander's Way. 911766 Lander's Way. Cross street, Buena Vista Blvd. Time Out : 10: 46.## "Looks like the engine's going to beat us there, Johnny." Roy said as he pulled into the drive of the hospital and turned right under the walkway to get to the freeway. "Hope it's a medical. Not a trauma. They don't have that much for gear.." They were half way there when the radio crackled, truck to truck. ##Engine 51 to Squad 51. We have a s-stabbing, with arterial bleeding. What's your ETA?## Gage didn't miss the odd tension in his captain's voice. He immediately frowned. "Now why would Cap broadcast a medical update over the radio?" he said aloud. "I don't know." Roy replied. "Let's just get there first. Sounds bad." He rounded a turn and then rubbed his lips in thought. "Lander's Way. Now why does that sound familiar to me?" "Gotta be a business with a street address number that long." Gage concluded. "Turn left here." and Gage thumbed the radio mic and replied. "Engine 51. Our ETA is three minutes." ##10-4. Be advised we have two victims. Repeat two victims..## Again they both heard the odd note in Hank's voice even through the normal tinny din of the open frequency. Then another odd occurance happened. They heard Cap calling out for another squad. "Squad 8? They're farther away than us. What the h*ll?" Johnny wondered as he listened to Brice and Bellingham acknowledge the call. "We'll know when we get there. Maybe it's that new rule of one critical per squad Brackett was talking about during the last meeting coming into effect a month early." Roy guessed. "That's right. I remember that. It was Brackett and Brice's idea." Gage replied. "And I know Cap's good with delegating tasks when he's got his hands full. Even for the medical stuff." "They've got two O2 tanks." Roy agreed. "Those'll last well for them until we get there with ours." Johnny glanced at his watch and scribbled a note in his book. "T-minus two minutes from arrival.." Roy stepped on the accelerator. ---------------------------------- |
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Marco was getting sick behind a parked car a short distance away. Chet's complexion was faring little better. Kelly looked up from the dressing he held over the woman's swollen belly and away from the movement he was seeing there. "What should I do, Cap? I don't want to tip her over onto her side to deal with that nausea or this fluid'll gush out and expose it more.." he said softly, with high stress. Cap continued to whisper reassurances to the half conscious woman on the ground. "Easy.. It's ok. Just keep breathing this in. The rescue squad IS on its way here." he said, holding a passive demand valve over her face trying to ease the oxygen debt she was feeling due to her massive hemorrhaging. ::I sure hope it's Brice who gets here first..:: "Chet. Just keep her on her back. I got the suction here if she gets ill, ok, pal? Just keep pressure around that wound without pressing down too much. Just apply dressings enough to slow the bleeding. We have to keep any more contamination from getting inside of her abdomen there." "Where's my husband?" she moaned. "I want to see him... Oh...hHHh." "Don't talk right now. Please, just keep still." Cap soothed, then he looked up with a tight mouth. "Stoker! Any sign of her assailant? There's more blood over here possibly from a second person, by Marco. On second thought, never mind. Go check on Lopez and see how he's doing. We need help here. She's waking up." "The thief's gone, Cap. I just talked to a witness over here who said he ran to the north with her purse. He must have mugged her when she came out of the grocery store." Mike replied. Hank nodded in agreement. "Probably because she was pregnant. Go handle Marco then get back here with more dressings. Also, we can at least set up a burn sheet to get her off the ground. Get a backboard and c-collar while you're at it. We can start immobilizing her, too, after we cut these clothes off. But first, get her covered up. There are too many gawkers gathering here." The sight of the engine and four firefighters was indeed drawing a crowd from the shopping mart and a coffee shop from across the street. There was as yet, no P.D. for crowd control. Hank got on his HT. "Squad Eight, Engine 51. What's your ETA?" ## Four minutes.## "10-4, Squad Eight. Our victim's regaining some consciousness but is developing complications." ##Understood. We're increasing our speed.## came Brice's cool reply. Cap wished he could tell his arriving people more but didn't want to run the risk for safety reasons. ::It's bad enough as it is..:: A choking sound drew Hank's attention downwards. "Maam?!" he shouted. "Can you hear me?" The woman's stomach began to heave as she tried to quell sudden rising bile. It caused some amber amniotic fluid to run from the gaping stab wound Chet was managing. "Easy.. easy!" Kelly urged. "Don't move down here.You'll hurt yourself further.." Hank saw the woman's eyes roll back into her head as shock finally stole away her consciousness. He tipped back her head and looked into her mouth with practiced cross scissor fingers. Quickly, he suction wanded out some welling emesis he found there from the back of her throat until the choking sounds were gone. When he looked up, he saw all three of his men around him over the woman. ::Good going. Now we'll get things done.:: Cap bent low to listen for sounds of respirations. "She's still breathing. Marco, get a resp rate after you're through strapping her onto that long board. Stoker. Get another sheet over her as soon as he's through. Her pulse's weakening. It's 130." he said, keeping one monitoring finger on a deeply sunk in carotid artery. |
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"Cap, I don't know about this." Chet said from where he was kneeling with his hold around the stab wound. "There's a lot of air getting in around the baby. I'm getting real worried here that I'm not doing enough." "Just hang on, pal. As long as she doesn't lose any more amniotic fluid, we're fine. The baby'll share the O2 she's getting, through the umbilical cord." And he stepped up his care, starting to actively ventilate the woman when her breathing grew too shallow for his liking. ::Come on, Johnny, Roy. Get the lead out.:: Chet willed mentally. ::She's one we can't lose..:: Cap looked up to see an arrowing squad flying towards them from the east. It wasn't squad 8. ::Uh oh. Didn't want that to happen.:: "Stoker get set. Watch Roy carefully when he gets here. And keep him away from me. Gage's the only one allowed to handle her." he said, keeping up his vents on Joanne DeSoto. "Regulations?" Marco asked. Cap nodded his head. All three were watching when Roy's horrid cry of recognition exploded from his lips. Mike Stoker intercepted DeSoto's desperate charge to get near his wife and unborn child. "Joanne!" Gage almost dropped the gear boxes and O2 he was carrying. "What?!" He ran by Stoker. "Don't you let go of him.." he ordered. "No matter what he does or says. Brice and Bellingham will be here long before I get in over my head." |
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Mike had brought Roy to his knees to keep him from getting into his crewmates' way. He kept talking to DeSoto, telling him what was wrong and what they had found on her. "Joanne? Stabbed in the abdomen? The baby!!" Roy panicked. "I gotta get over there." "DeSoto. Stay put!" Cap snapped. "Or it's your job, pal. Understood?" he said more softly, in sympathy. Roy nodded reluctantly, but finally he stopped struggling with Stoker. He tried to content himself with trying to see over the sheets to where Johnny, Chet, Marco and Cap were crouched. He could barely make out the slight rise and fall of Joanne's chest in between the breaths Cap was giving her. At a glance from Gage, Hank reported, "She got sick once. And I already listened. Nothing got into her chest. It's clear." Gage sighed in relief. ::One hurdle down. Let's see how far we get with the rest of things.:: Johnny was already sweeping over Joanne's body in a rapid assessment. "Only that one stab wound?" he demanded of Kelly. "Yeah, there's no exit wound. Johnny,...hurry. It's coming out.." Chet said in a tight whisper. "So's all the fluid bath." "What?" Gage leaned in closer, quickly pulling on a pair of sterile latex gloves from an obstetrical trauma kit. He nodded for Marco to lift the sheet a little higher and to place a penlight into his mouth so Johnny could shine it into the dark wound that way. He could see Roy and Joanne's third unborn child floating silently, without independent movement, deep within, with his naked eye. ::Oh, my g*d. Please be alive. Please. Please..:: he begged mentally, and he reached out carefully to a limb he saw just beneath the surface of inner skin surrounding the torn uterus. A tiny hand tightly gripped his finger in reflex to his stroking of its palm instantly. |
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Johnny's eyes teared up in a relieving surge of glad discovery. "The baby's alive, Roy. Looks like the knife didn't get down that far. I'm not seeing any bright arterial blood in here." Roy wilted in a relieved father's release and Stoker let him go. "Th- Thank you." he said glancing up. Bright tears had filled his eyes. "How's she doing, Johnny?" Johnny freed the tiny hand from his index finger and covered it with a damp sterile saline gauze pad carefully. "Chet. This doesn't come off. Got it?" "Clear as anything." Johnny addressed his distraught partner. "She's fine, Roy. I got pulses down to the brachial level on both arms and good bilateral femoral pulses. Looks like the knife didn't hit any major organs either. I'm not smelling any bowel. Just the anterior superior uterus here seems effected in the central umbilical region.This laceration's only about four inches long but it's penetrating clear through to the womb obliquely." He glanced lower and didn't find any bloody show further down. "The birth canal's intact, Roy. Thing's are looking real good." he sighed out loud. "All her trauma seems to be extremely localized." He peeled off his fluid stained gloves and got out a blood pressure cuff. "Ok, Chet. The bleeding's mostly stopped. Your job is to make sure the baby doesn't poke through again, ok? Put on this second pair of gloves and maintain a firm barrier over the wound." "I'm no nurse, Johnny. I don't want to hurt the baby." Kelly frowned. "You won't, the baby'll move back away from you shortly. It's not uncommon for free movement this late along, during a second trimester." Roy was nodding his head in agreement despite his numbing emotional fog. He nodded every step of the way, too, during Johnny's biophone call to Rampart, at every satisfactory aspect of his partner's examination results and vital signs report. "....Rampart, it appears she's lost about 800 cc's of blood to the outside and about......" he added, lifting up the cut away garments forgotten and shoved into a heap behind Chet, to look more closely for a better estimate of volume. "...200 cc's of amniotic fluid from what I'm seeing here." he said. Kel's firm no nonsense voice filled the air. "51, start two I.V.'s Normal Saline and run wide open until her B.P. comes up. Under no circumstances are you to pack the wound. I'd rather it drain freely. We'll handle any major leakage when she arrives and gets sent into surgery. Use no pain medications on the victim, at all. It might further depress the baby's vital signs. What are they, 51?" Gage read his notes. "Fetal pulse is 180 via stethoscope auscultation. Mother's respiratory rate, assisted, is 22 on 16 liters of O2." "Good enough. Watch for fetal protrusions such as free limbs or the umbilical cord in transit. Under no circumstances are you to push any such extrusion back into the uterus. Just maintain space around the area manually to keep good circulation going in the part." "10-4, Rampart. So far, just an arm's been visible, that only submerged, and a hand, briefly." Over the radio, Dr. Morton, who had been walking by, commented. "No doubt that's how Gage found out the baby was still alive. The grasping reflex.." "No doubt.." Kel agreed. Brackett re-thumbed the talk button. "Keep her warm, keep her legs elevated and get her and baby in here a.s.a.p. Tell the ambulance driver to avoid potholes if at all possible. Oh, and don't forget to apply an occlusive dressing over the wound to slow the amniotic fluid loss you're experiencing. That's irreplaceable at this stage of the game." "10-4, Rampart. Treat for shock. and use an air tight dressing." Right then, Squad Eight came tearing around a corner, screeching efficiently to a halt and Brice and Bellingham got out. "Rampart, an additional squad has arrived to help me keep her and her wound stable. Our ETA is approximately fifteen minutes. The Mayfair's here." Gage added when a second set of sirens grew in rising pitch, from the distance. |
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Roy was finally allowed to sit by Joanne's head, slightly to one side so he didn't get in the way of the oxygen being delivered to his still wife and very active baby. Already, the shock he experienced when he first got to the scene, was lifting. "I don't suppose you saw the baby's gender over there." Roy quipped, trying to smile and he gently caressed Joanne's pale face around Cap's jaw gripping glove. Johnny shook his head. "Sorry about that. Your baby decided to not cooperate in that way, Pally. Relax.. They're both in good hands. Mine. I promised you that I'd be here." "And you are.." Brice said, kneeling, as he snatched Johnny's notepad from his hands to read what Gage had written down. His speculative eye cast over Joanne once and his head bobbed in satisfaction over the progress of her course of treatment thus far. Craig waved over the ambulance attendants. "We're ready here. Looks like everything's set and good to go." ------------------------------------------------ |
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********************************************* Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2003 00:52:00 -0700 From: "Sam Iam" <lafddispatcher@yahoo.com> Subject: Bull in a China Shop.. "Hey..." Dixie gently woke her two favorite paramedics where they slumped in their seats outside the surgical family waiting room. Roy and Johnny both sat up, rubbing sleepers out of their eyes quickly and they both coughed to get their voices back from the depths of slumber. "It's over. The surgery was a success. Dr. Brackett managed to seal up your wife's womb without losing any more amniotic fluid. Joanne's just been extubated and is resting comfortably. So's the baby on the sonograms, Joe says. And there's a one hundred percent chance she'll be able to carry your baby all the way to full term for a normal delivery." "When can I see her, Dix?" Roy asked. "Oh, in about an hour or so. By then, she'll be awake enough for visits.." McCall grinned. "I gotta go. My shift's up." "See ya Dixie..And, thanks for everything." DeSoto said after her as she padded quietly down the hall towards the elevators in the semi darkness of the nighttime hospital wing. "Say, maybe this's is gonna fix everything." Gage said softly. "What's gonna fix what?" Roy croaked groggily. "This whole rescue and how Morton feels about me being the one who headed it. He can't possibly hold malice towards me now." "Oh, that again?" Roy said rubbing tired eyes as he almost began drifting off to sleep right where he was in his waiting room chair. "Maybe if he sees how well I handled Joanne and the baby on paper.." he paused. "With you, of course.. that he'll have no desire to press charges about how I handled his sister that day. He was there in the room with Brackett for this one. I know. I heard him." "Who knows what that man thinks. I don't think anyone around Rampart can say much about him personally." Roy admitted. "So how can you predict how he'll react with any certainty?" "Yeah, guess you're right.." Gage said, sinking into a depression once again that outshown the joy he felt meeting Roy's unborn son or daughter peeking out of the womb. He thought again about what he had overheard from the student nurses on his way out the ER doors the day before. ::Man.. Maybe I SHOULD bow out while I still have my pride left. I can't take this anymore. Gonna have to do something about that before I'm embarrassed publicly before everyone in a courtroom.:: Somewhere halfway to home, Johnny Gage made his final decision. |
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------------------------------------ It was the next day after a harrowing fire call, at the resupplying station. "Gage, I wanna talk to you." "About what..?" Johnny said, stiffening up at Morton's approach. ::Here it comes, the ultimatum.:: "About missing critical vital signs on a patient that we both took care of together." "On who?" Johnny blinked in surprise. "Baby DeSoto." "I didn't miss any vitals signs on the baby." he said fading from neutral into a tone which carried a tinge of irritation. "This here says you did. There's a blank space glaring out at me. Caused me and my receptionist a few headaches transcribing my ER report this morning." "Give me that.." Johnny said, snatching up the run sheet xerox from Mike's hands and reading where the young doctor was pointing. "I did take a fetal pulse. Apically.." Gage insisted. "I got a rate of 180." "Where? I don't see any notation about it on Joanne's run sheet. See? It isn't anywhere on here." Johnny just gaped like a fish.. |
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