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| Page Six |
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The strapping flame haired boy protested. "Gee. What a grouch. You sound like my ex-step dad." "Jeremy Conners..!" Stoker admonished recognizing the voice that he had overheard. "S-Sorry, Coach. Bad habit." Gage put on a grin he didn't feel. "I promise we'll be a lot less grumpy after we make sure Susan's not in any kind of medical trouble. So lead the way and we'll be nice as pie through it all." "She's under that gum tree. She crawled over there a few minutes ago. But she's probably faking it again. Like last time." DeSoto did a double take at that news. Then he remembered how tall kids tales could really get and dismissed the remark as exaggerated. Roy and John ran over to the tree with their equipment to the small blond headed tom boy appearing girl lying face down in the shade. They left Stoker and his young fans behind. Gage grabbed for the fourth grade girl's brachial pulse. "She's viable. Around 100." Then he bent down to check the quality of her respirations. "Hey, Susan, can you hear me?" Johnny listened to the back of her chest without moving her. "She's breathing, but I'm hearing substantial wheezing." he reported. "Could be asthma since her upper airway's clear." Gage lifted his head and shook her shoulder. "Susan ! Hey! We're with the L.A. County Fire Department and we're here to help you out. Now, come on and open your eyes." She didn't respond. Gage pinched the loose skin on the child's arm to further fine tune test her awareness. Susan only groaned and didn't try to pull away from the pain or attempt to open her eyes. "She's groggy. About a six on the Glasgow, Roy." and he bent to check her eyes with a penlight. "She's definitely not faking anything here. Slight dialation on both pupils, and she's getting more dyspneic by the moment." Meanwhile, Roy was losing his medical history source. Jeremy Conners was edging away from the scene. "Wait... wait ..wait, where are you going? I need to talk to you.." DeSoto said to him. "The game's going on.. I gotta get back.." the street wise Jeremy said. He started to turn away but Roy grabbed his uniform sleeve as he prepared an oxygen mask for Johnny to give to the downed girl. "Hang on. Just a minute more all right? Tell me about that last time this happened to her. Can you do that?" |
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The red headed boy seemed unnaturally nervous around the paramedics, and he squirmed in Roy's grip. "I don't remember. It was earlier this spring. I.. Uh... She forgot to bring her...onhal.. unhal.." "Her inhaler?" "Yeah, that's it. Now let me go.." The boy said, yanking his arm away and he danced out of range nimbly. He made tracks back to the grandstand across the parking lot and nearly crashed into one of its posts when he made sure Roy and John weren't following him. Johnny Gage had finished his assessment of the girl. "Not a mark on her." Only then did he sit her up against the tree to help ease her increasingly labored breathing. He took the mask from Roy and set the 02's delivery on light before setting it firmly over Susan's nose and mouth. He then began to search her pockets for forms of ID and for the missing inhaler. "We gotta move fast or she'll quit breathing on us." Gage said. Roy's face frowned as he took a BP. "70 systolic. I'm getting on the phone early. A doc can order epinephrine at least." "Here, guys." a voice said and an inhaler plunked down onto the grass between two tree roots at Roy's feet. Johnny and Roy looked up from Susan. Mike Stoker was being led over to them by two of the street gang players from his baseball team. "I made the kids check the outfield for anything belonging to her thinking things she had in her pockets could have fallen out during a rough play. They say her name's on it." he informed his coworkers. Gage snatched up the tiny inhaler and read its details. "Albuterol. MDI dosage .15 ml per inhalation." He sniffed its mouthpiece. "Looks like she didn't use this today at all, Roy." "Got it.." and Roy connected a link on the phone with Rampart. "Thanks Mike, but I don't know if having this will do any good. We don't have a positive ID on her yet. She's carrying no identification cards. No med bracelet. No nothing! I wish to G*d that you had your eyesight back right about now so we know for sure that it's her." Gage complained. He started loosening and freeing the girl's clothes from around her waist, chest and neck. He began setting up an EKG. "What's she wearing?" Johnny muttered. "What? Stoker, we don't have time for this.." "Humor me, Gage. I don't need to see to positively identify her. And I'm the only one who can. Most of these kids only know each other by their made up street names." "Well.." Johnny exclaimed in exasperation. He held up the jersey top he had removed from the girl. "It's uh, sort of like a gray and blue baseball uniform. But she's wearing no cap." "What number's on the front?" "Fourteen." "It's her. Guaranteed. These kids are very territorial about letting others wear their team jerseys. Doesn't happen. Susan's got short whitish, blond hair and a star shaped birthmark on her left cheek bone." Mike said. Johnny checked the girl for such a mark. It was there. "Well, I'll be.." he smiled. "Stoker you just earned yourself a day off from dinner detail the instant your butt's back on duty." "I'll take it.... Anything else I can do?" Mike said. Gage watched Roy give his medical report to the hospital and said. "Yeah, kneel down next to me right where you are and help me keep tabs on her resp rate. We may have to switch over to the resuscitator. Here, the apparatus is at your two o'clock. Think you can be a head vent?" "I can do it blind." "I know you can.." Johnny said seriously. "Be right back. I'm going for the defibrillator.." and he rose and ran to the squad full tilt. "Roy! Pulse's 140 and rising.." |
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DeSoto was completing his initial report. "...Vitals signs are showing acute distress. Pulse 140 and bounding. Respirations 26 and shallow. Marked wheezing even in semi Fowler's position. BP is 70 systolic. I can send you a strip on lead two." Dr. Brackett replied and Roy could hear his alarm. ##Do it.## "10-4, Rampart. Transmitting, lead two.." Roy said. ##51, what's her consciousness level? I'd feel better if we had a controlled airway on her. I'm reading a V-tach of 140 with precursor PVCs. Does she have a gag reflex?## Mike lifted up the child's 02 mask and slid a finger into her open mouth and down Susan's tongue, briefly touching the back of it. The little girl's stomach heaved in immediate reflex and he quickly stopped his move so she wouldn't complete the attempt to vomit. "That's affirmative, Rampart." Roy sighed. ::Damn..:: ##Ok, we'll tackle this head on, without one. Prepare to administer one dose of the patient's inhaler. Rig a nebulizer of a second dose to a humidified ambu on standby with 2 ml's diluted respiratory saline. Keep monitoring all vital signs closely. 51, is a defibrillator nearby? Albuterol with shock sometimes brings about acute cardiac dysrhythmias.## Roy saw Johnny hoofing it back with the unit across the parking lot. He had also grabbed a long wooden stretcher board for CPR and transport ease. "10- 4, Rampart. We have it in hand." ##Start an IV first, 51. We'll want an open line if she crashes. Make it of normal saline, a 500 ml bag. And keep it open only. Give me another set of vitals after her initial medication is in. And keep the EKG strip to base running.## "10- 4, ah,..Administer one dose inhaler post IV normal saline, 500, to keep open. Standby nebulizer second dose with 2 cc's respiratory saline in an ambu bag. Preparing for possible counter shock. Vitals to follow post med. Continuing the EKG send. 10-4." DeSoto said. He lowered the phone. "How's she doing Mike?" Roy asked in worry. |
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"Still attempting inhalations. But her rate's up to 36." "Tidal air?" "Building. She's barreling out a bit." "Johnny, let's move. She can't wait." Roy said, taping off the IV. "She's trapping air already." Gage scrambled to Susan's head, dropping the defibrillator paddles he had laid out and he shifted the girl from the tree to Mike's shoulder so she sat against him with her head tipped well back. Together, Roy and Johnny fitted and triggered the inhaler into her mouth so the medicine entered deeply into her lungs. Gage immediately listened to her chest with a stethoscope, holding his breath, while Roy and Mike held her still. Roy replaced the mask back over her face as she began to cough harder and harder. Stoker whispered into her ear, stroking her hair to comfort her. "It's ok, Susan, tastes bad but it'll work good. Give it a second or two to absorb, hon... just wait, then it won't be so hard to breathe. It's all right. Coach's right here." Susan jerked with an involuntary cry, suddenly stiffening, and her gasping stopped. The EKG fluctuated and the two paramedic firemen froze, their eyes glued to the heart monitor, and Mike, as he listened, as it danced irregularly for one second. For two. Gage reached for the ambu bag. But then, Susan sighed quite normally, and all of her respiratory distress ended. Her breathing deepened and eased and soon, the rapid heartbeat on the monitor smoothed out into calmer rhythm. A minute later Susan's eyes cracked open, swollen and red, as she came to fully. Johnny sighed likewise in relief at the positive proof of her now open lungs. "That's my girl. Hi there. It's ok.." he said softly as she began to cry. "The worst is over.. It's ok.. Mike, you can lay her back down again. Mike, you can let go of her. She's fine now." Susan's fright grew as she became more aware of being lowered to the ground and the fact that strange firemen were now hovering over her instead of her playmates. She immediately screwed her eyes shut again. The heart monitor blipped out a faster rate. |
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Gage took her IV free hand into his own. "Susan, Susan. Now listen to me." Johnny soothed as his partner and Stoker wrapped her in a warm blanket. "I know you're scared, and I know that medicine's probably making you sleepy. But you're gonna be all right now. So go ahead and take a nap. I promise, you'll wake up in a nice big, comfortable bed later tonight in a place a whole lot better than this nasty old root knotted lawn here in the ball park, ok?" The siren of the approaching ambulance grew louder, startling his young friend, so Mike added. "A hospital doctor's gonna look at you next, just so we know you're better for good." "Coach?" She sobbed. "I- is that you?" she said, peering up in confusion at Mike's wrapped eyes. "Yeah, you're not dreaming." "But--" "Shh, rest. Don't talk. My answer is, Yeah, I'll watch your mitt for you. Got it right here." and he held it up. "Scout's honor?" "Scout's honor.." "Ok, and watch my jersey, too. *Yawn*" Susan's cheek snuggled up against Stoker's hand where he held her face around the 02 mask and fell asleep instantly. Roy called Rampart, smiling from ear to ear, with a glowing vitals set for Kel Brackett. ##I saw the improvement. Glad the one dose protocol did the trick. Now get her in here ASAP.## he grumbled happily. "10-4, Rampart.." Roy replied, waving a "Come on!" to the attendants hustling it across the parking lot. They arrived and positioned the gurney near the sleeping child. Roy set the empty long board first onto the cot and Gage said, "Ok, let's load and go." he told them. "No need to semi-elevate her. She's a very stable asthmatic recoveree. The board's only an arrest precaution." He said moving the EKG, portable 02, drug box, and the defibrillator to the foot of the cot. "Easy. " Roy said loudly for Stoker's benefit. "This one's special." "Right.." One of the two burly attendants gently gathered Susan up into his arms without waking her, blankets and all. "Is he going in too?" the second attendant asked, gesturing at Mike with his bandaged wrapped head. Stoker was leaning against the tree, reining in his reactions about the nearly soured rescue of the little girl. "Him? No, no no. He's a fireman on medical leave. He's with us. Go ahead. My partner's riding in with you." Roy answered. "Ok, Joe.. Whatever you say.." he shrugged in a New York accent. DeSoto watched the man leave after the girl laden gurney and Gage. Then Roy walked the few yards back to the tree where Mike rested his head. Roy tapped his shoulder. "You coming with, Stoker?" Trembling, Mike lifted his head to face DeSoto. "Oh uhhhh.. " he said thinking hard. "No." Stoker said, still cradling Susan's jersey top and baseball mitt. "I'll take a cab back to the station in a while. I want to hang around to see if I can locate Jeremy and his friends or even Old Ben's daughter. I want to bend their ear a bit about what they've been up to lately since I've been gone." "Suit yourself. If you're not back by dark, we'll send out a search party.." DeSoto quipped. Stoker waved a get outta here gesture at the departing footsteps he heard. "Thanks Roy, for not letting her die." He called out after DeSoto. "I don't know what I could've done if she.." and his voice cracked. "Hey, just relax. She didn't die. Johnny and I make it a point to never lose any kids on any of our runs as that would be a gross violation according to BOTH our personal rule books." "Thanks just the same, Roy." Roy stopped and turned back. "No, thank YOU. Your remote consent to treat, power-of-attorney, over Susan made all the difference in the world today. I'm just glad you decided to ride along with us on your sudden instinct like that." "Yeah.." Stoker said. "So am I." "See ya, later, Mike. I'll keep you posted." Roy said. "See ya." Soon, ambulance and squad left the ball park and their sirens faded into the distance, leaving Mike alone in the parking lot surrounded by wind and seabird calls. Then Mike turned his face into the sun and felt his way back to the grandstand where he sat on the hot planking, pretending to be engrossed in the ongoing game he couldn't see, until..... |
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