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| Page Five |
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Kelly rolled his eyes ruefully so the boy could see him in the flashlight. "Aren't we all? Must've eaten a pound of mud crawling around in here." "I ate two pounds.." Marco croaked from where he sat propped up in the darkness. Chris laughed and winced when his father's laugh jostled his jammed knee. Then the sodden boy said. "Hey.. Before the mud slid on top of us, I only remember my left leg being held. Why does my right knee feel heavy?" Kelly aimed the flashlight under the seat beyond Chris muddy jeans and a few seconds later, dragged out the handy talkie. "Will miracles never cease. Detello, you keep right on complaining ,...cause it makes whoever you got looking after ya work that much harder." "I don't like to press my luck." the big man grumbled. "Especially with that.." Gage and Roy both made a grab for the talkie after Chet got most of the mud off of its controls but Detello was faster than both of them. He snatched the HT to his mouth. "Engine 51 this is Triage Ten, over.." The HT came alive in excited voice. ##That you Detello? Hang on, we're calling a cutting crew in right now. Cover your victims against the sparks.## Captain Stanley said. ##We start dismantling in two minutes.## "10-4." Detello grinned. "Standing by. We're all a bit slimy, but ok. Marco took in some mud but he's stable with only minor complications. And get a doctor on the phone. We've just one survivor in need of an IV authorization.." ##Understood. I'll have Stoker raise Rampart. Engine 51, out.## ------------------------------------- Outside the crushed bus, Cap didn't even wait for the bulldozer to leave the area before he waved his men in with the extrication equipment. "Ok, Move it in there.. Easy. That top chassis's bound to be weak from the mudslide, so go slow. Cut three quarters around only, we'll peel it back and get them out through the roof. I'm afraid opening the emergency hatch now will only collapse the rest of the bus on top of them." The men working at Cap's side nodded. Cap shouted. "Ok.. cutting now..!!" he shouted. ------------------------------------------- Inside, all five firemen and Roy's son winced when the bright fountain of tangerine sparks from a roaring K-12 bit through the steel shell of the bus above them. They winced when real sunlight sent shafts of brilliant daylight into their eyes. "Oh, man.. Now I know how miners feel when they've been in a cave in and we dig them out." Kelly complained. Roy covered Chris's face and his own with his own helmet as the firemen outside cut a hole into the bus. "It's a sight better than watching that flashlight die out, don't you think?" Detello flicked the coat over Marco's face and mask and hunched down himself after coating his own shoulders with wet mud to keep his shirt from catching fire. "A whole LOT better." he admonished Kelly. His voice was a little strained from his eagerness to win freedom for his companions. He began fussing with the cutaway section even before the man above was finished excising the flap. He had it accordianed out of the way in seconds. "All right, give me the K-12 on the double. I've a trapped medic and boy down here.." |
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Cap peered into the hole from where he knelt on top of the bus. "They hurt bad?" Roy squinted in the bright swath of sunlight that shafted down onto his face. He peeked around a protective arm as he spoke before Detello did. "Nah, Cap." Roy said from where he lay in the ooze. "We're just leg pinned. Got that authorization from Rampart yet?" Stoker said. "Here.. Morton wants to talk to you.." and he lowered the phone receiver dangling on its cord down to Roy so the biophone antennae would stay in the open air so it wouldn't lose telemetry with the doctor's base station. Morton was succinct and to the point. "DeSoto. Start a large bore normal saline, 500 CC's and run wide open. Give me a vitals set when you can on the child. How's Marco? Stoker couldn't tell me much." Roy glanced over at Marco and Gage, who was hovering over him, and said. "He was submersed underneath the mud for about two minutes. He was out until we got some of the sludge out of his throat and got him on simple masked 02. He's only a little groggy." "And chilled. His shivering's stopped." Gage added. "And mildly hypothermic Rampart.." Roy told Mike. "10-4, 51. Continue both victims on 02 and immobilize the child as a precaution when you get him out of there. That bleeder may indicate fractures we don't know about in that effected leg." Morton told Roy. "Understood. Large bore NS, wide. O2 and treat for shock. Long board immobilization for Chris.." Morton at the base station, frowned. "51, Could you repeat that? Did you say a victim's name at that last part?" Gage took the phone from Roy when DeSoto tried to reach for the IV box. Kelly took the kit quickly out of his hands too. Chet admonished him. "Now Roy, you know Johnny's gotta be the one to directly treat your son. Fire department policy. Just lie back and don't move while Detello makes that last slice by your leg with the saw...." Gage said. "Uh,10-4, Rampart. He did. Chris, the boy, is Roy's son..." ------------------------------------------ Nurse McCall, having just walked into the glass cubicle, gasped at that last admission. "What?!" Dixie exclaimed, She gripped Dr. Morton's shoulder. Morton shushed her with a motion as he listened to what Gage confirmed. He covered the receiver with a palm and sighed. "Oh, boy. How the h*ll did DeSoto get inside that bus anyway. I thought firefighters weren't allowed to treat family members as a standard working policy.." "They're not.." Dixie said. "Maybe their circumstances left them no choice in the matter.." Her curiosity got the better of herself and she asked. "What are his vitals signs? His trauma bad?" Morton answered. "Don't know. They're still extricating both him, Roy and Marco, a fellow engine crew man, who almost drown. It's a school bus in a mudslide.." Dixie winced in sympathy and bit her lip. "Roy must be frantic with worry being with him like that." |
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"Gage won't let him get into any medical hot water and something tells me that their captain won't let him do that either.." Morton said. He lifted his hand off the receiver in a quick motion. "Contact me in route of any consciousness level changes and I want a set of vitals on Marco and Chris the moment they're en route.." "10-4, doc.." Gage said and he waved to Stoker to hand over hand the phone cord back up again out of sight through the hole. "Thanks Stoker.. Hand down the first stokes. We'll get Marco outta here first.." "I don't need a stretcher, Gage, I can--" "...Relax and enjoy the ride, Lopez. And that's an order." Cap interrupted. "You're a victim until Rampart clears you, is that understood?" "Perfectly.." Lopez sighed, then he coughed when some lingering mud from his sinuses tried to trickle back into his throat. He lifted his mask off only long enough to spit the grit aside and out of his mouth. It wasn't long before Gage and Detello had Lopez bundled up in yellow plastic insulating sheets and had him ready to be hoisted out of the bus. Marco's face showed his uneagerness to be stretchered out, but he cooperated. He snuck in a move dettaching his own 02 tubing so Chris wouldn't lose his 02 bottle. Gage did a double take at that, frowning, but he saw Stoker immediately compensate for his respiratory care once they had Marco level with the portable 02 from the engine. Lopez did him one better by strapping the mask to his own face so Mike was freed up to help get Roy and his son out. Cap had the rest of Station Ten carry Marco out of the deep, treacherous mud slide to a wheeled ambulance gurney already waiting for him on the firm highway beyond. He crouched by Marco's side as the Mayfair attendants covered him up snugly in the beige blankets. "'Don't need a lift out', he says." Cap muttered. "You're colder than an ice cube there pal." Marco didn't deign to reply as the head of the stretcher was raised to make him more comfortable. "It's just from the wet, Cap. I'm not injured." "Hmmph.. I'll believe that once Gage gets a look at ya to be sure. Hang tight." And he ruffled Marco's caked hair with a glove. Captain Stanley returned to the bus just as Roy's boy was lifted out, complete with the IV Gage had begun. He could see a red sodden stain through the sheeting on the boy's left thigh and he saw Detello start to take the boy's shoe off to check for a foot pulse. "Ok. I've got a good one here. He's ok to move." Detello said. He watched the boy get lowered onto the next gurney wheeled over to them before he reached down to grab and haul both Kelly and Gage out of the bus with both hands at the same time. Cap's eyebrows lifted in amazement at that. "What a Sampson type." he said softly. Chet hopped down, eyes tearing from the bright sun. "He was Atlas earlier Cap. Kept the roof from caving in on us until you guys manage to shovel the worst of the muck off the bus.." He padded off with his shoes slurping liquidly but he turned, adding. "But really he's a real bonafide Angel.." It was Cap's turn to frown in confusion. Then he shouted after his departing mud covered man. "Were you guys short on air in there or something?" But Chet was already out of earshot as he asked Stoker to hose down his shoes and outer wear "really good". When they were out, Detello subtly shook his head to the other firemen surrounding him, that there were no other children still alive inside. |
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Gage took full advantage of Roy still waiting to be cut free to take a closer look at Chris. He kept expression off his face when he saw the extent of the laceration on the boy's thigh. He knew at least, that it would require plastic surgery to fully mend it after the deep gash was thoroughly cleaned of mud and sand and allowed to drain open for a few days. But he smiled when the boy's BP was only slightly below normal. "There.. That's not too bad." he grinned down at the boy, adjusting the cannula's prongs into the right place inside his nose. "Strong as all get out. You're not even moderately shocky." "Dad made me rest a bit while we were in there. I think I slept once." Chris admitted. "He sure did..." Roy said, jumping down from the bus with the ground crew firemen's help. One of them tossed DeSoto the IV box afterwards. " For about half an hour there." Roy fussed with Chris's blankets until Johnny slapped his hands away. "I got him, I got him, Why don't you go check on Marco in the rig? We'll meet you in there as soon as I relay his vitals to Morton." DeSoto reluctantly retreated. Cap gave Gage a subtle thumbs up for finding an excuse to separate Roy from Chris. But a further significant glint in Cap's eye made Johnny say, "He's fine Cap. Nothing major's been damaged here." "That's means good news, son.." Cap said, patting Chris on the shoulder. "I know. I could tell because my leg didn't squirt out at all when I first did it, trying to reach Carrie.." At the name, and another exchange of looks from Stoker, Cap learned the little girl hadn't survived the trip to the hospital despite her successful revival, so he had plenty of warning time before Chris's next question. "How's Carrie?"the blond boy asked. Johnny said. "Let's concentrate on getting you squared away first, ok? Does your head hurt at all? No?.... Just that knee.. ok.. now Cap and I are going to immobilize that leg in a splint just to keep it from jostling around.. ok?" Chris nodded. Once that was done, Chris, Johnny, the engine's 02 tank and the gear were all loaded up in the rig waiting with Marco and Roy. |
| Click the Resuscitator to go to Page Six :) |
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