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The Story Unfolds... Season Two, Episode Seventeen.. §§ That Latin Flair §§ Debut Launch: 1 December 2004. ------------------- ********************************************************************* From: "Robert Gutheim" <rguthei1@twcny.rr.com> Date: Thu Dec 2, 2004 9:00 am Subject: Green Christmas Chet as usual checked around for a certain dark haired paramedic before he went and filled a balloon with water intending to rig the paramedics locker so that it would spring out and get him wet when he opened the door. He was having a little trouble setting up the spring mechanism though when he heard a voice behind him. "You do realize, Chet, that a certain white bearded man in a red coat is watching. You wouldn't want to get a stocking full of coal on Christmas morning. Or worse, latrine duty, if Cap finds out about you trying to pull a phantom act on me yet again," a voice said causing Chet to startle and the water balloon to fall on top of him. |
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"Gage, you don't actually believe in that whole Santa Claus bit do you. After all, your wha? Almost thirty? Plus you are half Native American." Chet pointed out. "I know. But we celebrated Christmas using the non-religious aspects like other human beings," Gage said as he started to put on his uniform. A few minutes later, they were gathered with the others for roll call. "OK, everyone, let's start with a few memos from various Headquarters." said Cap. "First off, no egg nog is to be found on any departmental property by order of Chief Houts. "The Departmental Christmas Party is at Headquarters in the main commissary on December 22nd all firefighters off duty are required to attend and on duty firefighters are encouraged to stop in, so long as their rigs are on hand. "McConikee wants me to remind everyone to keep a careful eye out for any holiday related fire hazards. Now the fun part, daily chores. Cooking, Stoker, Dishes, Lopez. Apparatus bay, DeSoto. Hose tower,Gage. Latrine duty, Kelly." "Ah, Cap, why am I stuck with latrine duty? Isn't it obvious I'm the one who's wet, not Gage?" Chet moaned. "I know how you tend to be, Chet. Now get going, or I will stick you with latrine duty from now until Christmas." Cap threatened him. The tone box went off right then. ##Station 51. Car crash with injuries. 2300 E 223rd Street. 2300 E 223rd Street. Cross Street, Alameda. Time out, 0810.## "Station 51, K.M.G. 365." Cap said, before the engine and squad rolled out of the station. ----------------------------------------------------------- |
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******************************************************************* From : patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> Sent : Thursday, December 16, 2004 11:30 AM Subject : Snap! Crackle and Pop.... Station 51 pulled up at a curb deep in the heart of Carson. The accident had occurred as reported, but involved only one car and a power pole on the outskirts of the landfill /junkyard which flanked the L.A. river bed. The pole was down and sparking. Cap kept a nose and eye out for gas pools even as he informed Headquarters with what he had. "L.A. Engine 51." ##Engine 51. ## "We have a single vehicle overturned on the boulevard. Lines are down. Have the electric company cut power to the east side block of Alameda between 223rd street, and Franklin." ##10-4, 51.## came a reply after a short pause on the air over both the station's vehicle radioes and all of their HT's. ## Power utilities says electrical power will be cut in five minutes.## "Copy that. Engine 51, out." and he threw the HT onto the seat of the open door of the Ward LaFrance. "Gang, circle and look for any victims a safe distance away. Stoker, draw out the reel line and wash down all this grass only when those lines have been powered down." "Right, Cap." said Mike Stoker. "The rest of you. See what you can see without getting too close!" advised Stanley, yelling over the angry hiss and crackle of violated powerlines from the toppled pole which leaped and tangled with themselves on the pavement. Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto walked to the down wind side of the wreck with a healthy thirty feet between them and the downed pole and writhing wires. It was a tan car, resting on its roof, in the middle of a grass island which split a fork in the road into a Y. A man lay on his stomach and his legs were pinned by the heavy weight of the crashed car. It didn't seem like any live wires were touching the car or the man. Gage sniffed carefully in the breeze blowing in his face as he pulled on his gloves. "Can't tell if he's still alive. There's too much wind moving his clothes around. No gas, though. We're lucky that way at least." Roy shouted to the victim. "Hey! Can you hear me?! Don't try to move! There are wires down all over the place. We'll be right in to get ya, just hang on a bit and don't panic!" |
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The two paramedics circled the wreck site even as the rest of the gang laid protective hose and got the heavy extrication equipment lined up in a safe area. Johnny picked up a flashlight and aimed it onto the man's face in spite of the bright sunlight. "I see sweat beads. He's gotta be alive still. Anyone dead would've been dried off already in this wind." The two pacing firemen backed away from the accident site even further when the wind rolled a bucking wire into their direction. Johnny threw an axe on top of it to pin it to the cement, and then leaped out of the way. Cap's head snapped up at the clanging noise, but then he gave Gage a solid thumbs up of approval. Roy had taken the flashlight from Johnny and he was trying to see into the dark recesses of the car's compartment. "Where's the driver?" "What?" said Johnny, from where he stood, resting his gloves on his knees, as he studied how they would begin to get their victim free once the area was safe. "Our victim's the passenger. See? That seat belt is still around his waist. Broken free, but still around him." said DeSoto, as he played the light over the bluish belt and into the car. "I think you're right. Even if the car flipped, there's no way he could've slid over fast enough if he were driving to get pinned like the way he's pinned now. It doesn't add up." Johnny rubbed his nose. "Cap!" shouted Roy over the angry spitting from the wires. ##Go...## said Cap from the other side of the scene, by the station trucks, over an airwave. Roy belatedly pulled out his walkie talkie and hit the talk button. "We're a victim shy. This is the passenger, Cap. Belt confirms it." ##Ok, I'll assume a possible ejection and call out a search. Stand by for news..## Roy could just make out Cap verbally sending Chet and Stoker into wider and wider scouting patterns, looking for blood and other traces the driver might have left behind. Cap himself jogged over to the police officer keeping away the public to see if any of those people had seen anything about what might have happened. Marco got ready with a plastic tarp and extrication gear. He left a stokes next to a longboard in case the man's legs were too badly broken for easy securing once they got him out from under the car. Then he stood waiting by an idling K-12 for signs that all the electricity was turned off. It was hard to tell in the wind which lines were hot and which were not. It seemed like all of them were swaying. So Lopez used the spot where Johnny's axe was connecting and kept an eye on the blue orange sparks dancing around the head and handle. |
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Chet came back with a clump of hair in his glove and he showed Cap. "It's human...too fine to be dog.. and I think I smell Johnson and Johnson's on it. " "Where'd you find that, pal?!" asked Hank, shouting over the noise of the electrical wires. "Between us and the river bed!" replied Chet, dropping the clump of hair to the ground. Hank sighed, turning so he could see the long barb wired wall of fencing marking proximity to the river spillway. "Oh, boy. Better start casing along the edge. The brush's pretty thick down there. The driver could be anywhere if he flew out of the car in that direction." Then he rubbed his face. "Tell you what. You and Stoker grab some ropes and rappel down on in. The flood gates won't be released until noon for this part of the city. See what you can see and keep in touch by walkie. Johnny, Roy, Marco and I will handle the passenger ourselves. It'll take at least ten minutes for more help to arrive on this." "Will do, Cap." said Kelly and he jogged off to the engine to get two harness sets. Cap called out onto the rescue channel. "Engine 51, L.A." ##Engine 51.## "Respond an urban rescue truck and air support to our location for a victim search. We may have one in the river bed." ##10-4. UR reports an ETA of four minutes. Chopper 10 has been informed. Pilot has your canyon in sight. He reports an arrival time in two.## Marco, Johnny and Roy all stood by, antsy and restless, all staring hard at the man on the ground for signs of life beyond the cold sweat pouring off of his pale skin. Then a hand twitched and his lips moved in a gasp of pain as some awareness returned. Cap shouted, getting their attention. All three firefighters whirled towards the engine. Hank gestured a cut throat motion across his neck and then pointed to Johnny's axe. It had quit dancing and there was no sign of high voltage fire encircling it any longer. "Ok, let's move out. Marco.. grab the K-12. We already know there's no gas leaking. Try and get that weight off of his legs while we stabilize his C-spine for his extrication...It won't take long. He's already laying in a line." Gage mapped out. "Ok, Johnny." said Lopez, hefting up the seventy pound tool onto a shoulder. The three men carefully stepped over the wind swaying wires in case the power came back on. They could see Cap talking with a police officer, trying to find any witness to the moment of the crash to help pin point the river bed search. In a test, Roy leaned over and spit on a wire. Nothing happened. "So far so good." he said, pulling off a glove to test the quality of the man's carotid. "Johnny, 126 and thready. Breathing's real shallow at 22 and he's diaphoretic." |
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Gage nodded, running his hands over the man's back and arms until finally he reached in to see if he could locate the man's feet to see if they were still attached. They were. "I got pulses in both ankles." and he started to cut away the man's shirt, sleeves and pant legs to look for further injuries. He found a few pieces of glass embedded in his hip. Those he left alone. Roy got the man onto some oxygen, right where he lay on his stomach, and contented himself with getting an initial set of vital signs while Johnny worked to get a more complete assessment. All the while, the fair haired paramedic talked to his victim. "Easy, mister. My partner and I are gonna take real good care of you. Just try to relax. We're looking for your friend right now. Just don't try to move around too much. We're gonna get you splinted up here in a minute or so once a firefighter's cut you free. So get ready for some noise. I'm gonna cover your face for protection, all right?" The man on the ground moaned a reply and his fingers crawled on the grass in affirmation. Roy took off his turncoat and lay it over the man's head and body. He used the edge of the biophone to keep an open view of the man's face to watch for any color changes there. Marco Lopez fired up the circle saw and tapped Johnny on the shoulder to get out of the way. Gage scrambled to join Roy by the gear boxes at the man's head and there he busied himself with getting a double set of I.V.s laid out and ready for a doctor's go ahead. Lopez lowered his face shield and dug the blade into the car door's hinges to slice them apart. A loud crackle made everyone yell. |
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A brief repowering surged through the power pole wires and one of them touched the car and sent Marco flying. The K-12 spun into high gear where it was wedged into the car and sang angrily. The electricity also made the man cry out and twist up in a spasm. Johnny and Roy jerked away from the car and the man. Gage took a risk and used both his gloves, wadded up, to flick off the K-12 so that it wouldn't cut itself free and fall on top of the man. Roy whirled, crawling around the once again live wires to Lopez's side. "Marco?!" The hispanic firefighter was on his back, cradling his hands into his lap where he lay. Roy crawled on top of him to protect him from any more wires. "You ok? Did any of that power get to you?" "Ahh!... yeah. A little bit. I'm ...kinda short.....of breath.. And.. Ow!..*gasp* I think I jammed one of .....*gasp* ..my fingers." Roy looked down and saw an index finger jutting out at a ninety in a direction that it wasn't meant to bend in. "You did more than that. Just try to keep your head down!" puffed Roy. He held Marco's legs still with his own when a muscle spasm jerked through the fireman's body involuntarily. He kept a hand on Marco's wrist to monitor the bounding pulse there. "Easy.. Don't move. I can see Cap running to call the power company back. I'll help hold you still. You managed to land in the only safe spot in the area..." "Roy?! You guys ok?!" came Gage's voice. Roy didn't dare lift his head. "Yeah... Marco's conscious.. You?!" "We're fine. G*dd*mned power company. I'll kill em as soon as we get out of here!" Roy chuckled, "Let's just concentrate on getting out of here first junior! Worry about the rest later.." There was a pause around the hissing popping noises. DeSoto didn't dare try to see where they were coming from. "How's he doing?!" Johnny asked from that direction. |
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"Some cardiac changes. He's SOB." Roy said, burying his face a little deeper into the smoky grass. "Awake for now." Marco's face contorted as another series of muscle cramps shot through his thrumming body. An involuntary groan slipped out. Then the radio snapped into life from Roy's pocket. ##Hang in there fellas. The power's going back off. A construction crew down the road didn't realize that we were on emergency shutdown. I see you're all ok and that Marco's still awake. Just keep still with your helmets on and I promise you a solution in less than a minute. ## came Cap's welcome, amazingly calm voice. ::Guess that's why they pay him the big bucks.:: Roy tried to lighten the mood where the two of them huddled on the ground. "Hell of a way to earn a little vacation time, Marco, you know that?" he said, flinching when a snaking wire swung a little too close near their heads. Marco tried to laugh but a convulsion got in the way. Roy turned him onto his side and just hugged him closer, loosening his turnout and uniform shirt collars away from his neckline. "Keep still. Just a minute or so longer.." Lopez began to fight to breathe as his muscles cramped up from the voltage's earlier violation and the pulse under DeSoto's fingers started to skip beats. "Marco?" Roy asked from where he lay across the fireman's stomach. |
 
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*************************************************************************** From: "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com> Date: Sun Dec 19, 2004 4:22 pm Subject: The Other Side... Marco's eyes weren't seeing anything, staring and seemingly sightless, pointed upwards to the sky in an unfocused gaze. His whole body spasming took on a unified tetany and then, he froze that way, extending every muscle. "R---r, g-get off my chest. Cru---sh---ng me." Roy, keeping low and away from the lashing wires spitting electricity so near them, subconsciously glanced down in worry, even as he held down Marco's shoulders to keep him from touching any of the swaying power lines buzzing angrily around them. DeSoto was nowhere near Lopez's upper torso to cause any pressure there. Not with any part of his body. "Marco...can you hear me? Are you having chest pain right n--?" Marco hissed, the color draining from his face as he contorted at its unexpected arrival. "Y---sss!!" he gurgled. The pulse Roy held at Marco's wrist, disappeared and Marco gasped, suddenly air hungry. Shifting onto his stomach, the flax haired paramedic immediately reached higher up on Marco's arm, grabbing for the groove where Marco's brachial artery lay. He found the pulse again. It was fitful and way above 150 beats a minute; his rhythm, oddly disjointed. Tipping his head way back didn't help with Marco's shortness of breath in the slightest. His attempts to breathe were still hitched and irregular, barely adequate. Roy tore away his shirt, tearing off buttons as he got down to Lopez's heavily sweating skin. DeSoto put an ear to Marco's ribs. He heard the liquidy rubbing gravely sound of rales beginning to take an ominous hold inside of the fireman's lungs. His head whipped up. "Johnny,... Marco's V-tachy! 150 with irregularities, with marked rales. No radial pulses. LOC's way down. We have to manage something for him...now! I've no head room to work if he goes into cardiac arrest!" he said, keeping shifting, panicky eyes on the swinging cables sparking around him. Gage tried shouting over the roaring ping of raw power zinging in cabled tangles over his helmeted head to Cap. He couldn't move or get eye contact because of the crumpled bulk of the automobile. He had to stay laying over his own victim, the dazed car passenger, to fend off the wires as best he could with a piece of the splintered telephone pole. "Cap!! Hey!..We gotta get Marco out of there, now! He's unstable!" |
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But Hank's back was momentarily turned, shouting orders to the growing neighborhood crowd, to get further away from the area. As yet, there was no sign of Chet and Stoker reappearing along the ropes cast over the riverbed's wall. Johnny wasn't even sure if they could hear the snapping and popping of electricity shooting into the downed powerlines. Fruitlessly, Johnny searched his turnout jacket for an HT. But he didn't have one with him. The squad radio was in the hands of his partner, who couldn't let go of Marco's head at all or risk losing a tenuous open airway. Yelling in frustration, Gage's gloves shot out and he dragged the biophone on the grass nearby into ready reach. Then quickly, he hailed out. "Rampart, this is Squad 51! Come in!" A long space of fifteen seconds passed before the voice of Dr. Brackett replied. ##Unit calling in, this is Rampart. Go ahead..## Johnny abbreviated his out transmission. "51! Male Code I, electrical shock. Fall : standing to the ground. Unstable V- tachyarrythmias. 150 plus. BP under 90. Conscious! I'm separated from Roy, who's on him. I'm with all gear under loose live voltage wires out of direct access! Orders?" Dr. Brackett shoved the phone a little closer to his ear. He squinted and straightened up in alarm at the hair raising din of energy howling almost completely over Johnny's voice. ##Are you within tossing range?## "Affirmative!!" yelled Johnny, as he pinwheeled an arm round and round, until Cap finally noticed him. He whistled, pointing to Marco, making a cut throat gesture, then jerked a thumb over his shoulder to show that Lopez needed an immediate out. ##Ok, Johnny. Now listen close......## said Kel over the biophone. Gage plugged his other ear to be able to make out the words. Gage saw Hank's head cast around rapidly for a ready answer and he held up a hand in a hasty I got it, wait, move. Johnny heard Hank recalling Chet and Stoker to the engine distantly over Roy's radio. It echoed around the houses on the block, lacing through the spits and whines and howls of power curling in the air around them. Then he did something else which made Johnny nod in complete and total agreement.. "Yeah.. yeah.. That'll work. Bring it on in!" Brackett's voice over the landline was terse, focused. ## Six milligrams, adenosine rapid IVP into a Normal Saline line! Flush through 10ml NS bolus. Then recheck for conversion. If none in 1 to 2, double it with a second flush! Get him out of there, 51! I don't care how you do it. With those findings, his crash potential's a guaranteed certainty in as short as five! Forget about any C-spine precautions! Saving his life's more important! His contact with a wire at ground level, most likely didn't break anything critical. ## "6 of Adenosine in NS IV. Push 10ml's same solution. Double in 1 to 2!" Johnny spat back in intense concentration. ##Confirmed. Move, Gage! Re-contact only when you guys have him!## shouted Brackett. Kel heard the clatter of the phone onto something made of metal and the line went dead, or so he thought, but then the liquid lava spit of electricity burned his ear. He gripped the phone in frustrated anticipation. |
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Johnny Gage snatched a hand each into the IV and drug boxes and pulled out tubing, a fluid bag, needles, and three packs of pre-mixed adenosine in the right dosages. He stripped off his belt and bundled the pack together tightly. Then he swung the medicines around his head like a bolo and he horse whistled, piercingly, until Roy's head shot up again from where he crouched over Marco's chest and face. Lopez was no longer blinking, nor moving,.. and his color was almost completely, the washed gray of old river mud. Only his chest rising and falling in unregular jerks showed that he had any shred of fighting life inside of him. Thin choking moans trickled out of his mouth, which Roy soothed away with fast encouragements and what he was doing to help him. Johnny let the bundle fly at the top of an arch and it arrowed through the maze of snaking power lines through the air at Roy.... The bag of I.V. saline slipped out and impacted a wire in an explosion of steam, which made both paramedics flinch sharply. But the rest, Roy caught with all the skill of a practiced soft ball catcher. ::Thank you, Chet.:: Roy thought, ::For making me be your soft ball umpire in the backyard all summer long.:: Johnny swore, and grabbed up a second bag, which he threw it like a football into a gap between the wires. It got through and sailed into Roy's chest, and bounced, undamaged into his hands. Then Gage crouched once more over the biophone while his other hand kept tabs on the car victim's carotid. Roy moved until he could keep Marco's head tipped at the proper angle with his knees. He began to work leaning on his elbows over Marco's shivering body. "Marco. I got help right here. Keep still while I start your I.V." said DeSoto, breathless and strained. Lopez didn't act like he heard Roy and he screwed up the arm Roy wasn't pinning down with a shoulder, against his chest in renewed pain. "No.. don't fight me Marco!..." Roy grunted. "Can you hear me?!" "AgggGG-gh! *gasp* Make...it.....st-----" Something in Marco's eyes shifted, moving from agony, to fear and all of his muscles loosened, just a tad. It was all Roy needed. He spoke again as he pushed a fast needle into a vein using a strip from Marco's torn shirt as a tourniquet. He strung a line, barely bleeding it fully of air before he injected the internal cell energy hormone into the infusion chamber followed by the plasma bolus wash. The increments on the two syringes couldn't empty to zero fast enough for Roy and he yelled in frustration at the slowness at which they were delivering. He killed the time by talking, urgently soft. "This'll med'll do that.. As fast as I can get it into ya... Try to do something else for me that might ease that pain in your chest." Roy urged. "Take a deep breath and blow it out against your nose and mouth without letting any air escape...." |
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Marco sobbed, unable to control the muscles of his lips to obey Roy. "Take another breath in. Bigger.. That's it...now...hold it." And Roy covered Marco's nose and mouth firmly so air couldn't escape. "Blow it out, hard, against my fingers. That's it.. Do it for ten seconds and I'll let ya go." Roy followed up the valsalva attempt by leaning an arm over Marco's abdomen to increase the pressure just enough inside of him internally, to make Lopez tighten his face with resisting effort, but not with any pain. "Ok...let it out... let it out...easy....." said Roy, pulling his hand away. His other one monitored the racing tachycardic pulse in Lopez's neck. ".....blow it out slow... Now breathe, best you can, like normal..." The skipping beats underneath Marco's skin slowed, almost to normal, for long seconds.. But then the crushing chest pain and shortness of breath and the dangerous rain of rapid beats, returned to reinstate themselves with a vengeance. Lopez choked as he re-immersed into difficulty. Roy turned him over onto his left side. "Ok, ok...it didn't work. Just relax. I got you..That move usually resolves any tachycardia on the first try. We won't do that again. Sorry for giving you nausea... Johnny! Tell Brackett! Valsalva and first dose. No effect!.. I'm timing it for the second!" he shouted, looking at his watch while he held Marco's head still in his lap. "Got it! Stand by!" hollered Gage. DeSoto's head snapped to the right as a new sound of power filled his ears. It was the squad, thunking tires up onto the curb, with Cap behind the wheel. He was coming to get them. "To your left! Your fenders will push the wires away! Then I think I can get Marco into the cab with us!" ::Smart idea.. the tires'll insulate us from any wire he drives over. I can tell him when none are in contact with the chassis for the rest of it.:: Roy decided. He shouted directions until he was absolutely sure the rescue squad wasn't getting infused with electricity. Then he snatched open the passenger side door in a guts move. Cap's eager hands grabbed Lopez by the collar and back of pants and dragged him into the squad belly down. He shifted him upright against himself into a hug and caught the I.V. bag and line Roy was protecting as Lopez moved. "Get in!" Hank shouted. "Then roll up the window, tight! Use this asbestos tarp to insulate yourself and Marco away from all the exterior metal, Iike I did with mine. Roy did so, flopping Marco's head back over his shoulder, once he was done. Hank had had the foresight to grab an ambu bag and this Roy began using to help Marco with his inhalations. The IV bag continued running, just over KVO, hanging from DeSoto's teeth. Lopez fought the mask over his face but Hank and Roy managed to pin down his arms enough for it to work and some of the worst of the grayish blue coloring began to recede. One handed, Captain Stanley made a U- turn away from the crashed car so they wouldn't endanger Johnny with the wires they were accumulating in tangles against the hood and light rack of the squad. |
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Hank pulled far enough away to break all the wires knotted around them from the energized transformers. Then he got out and between him and Roy, they shoulder walked Marco to an open space and lowered him to the ground as carefully as they could. All the motion roused Marco enough that he managed without the ambu breathing support but Roy didn't count on that lasting and hurried to connect it up to some oxygen from the engine's apparatus. Johnny had completed getting his medical orders for the man under the car so he accepted the rope Kelly tossed in order to tie off the biophone so that it could be dragged into the safety of the street for Roy to use. The same went for the drug box and other gear. Right then, the power went off in the main neighborhood line and all the writhing lengths of electrical wire dropped into smoking, stinking stillness. Chet and Stoker wasted no time in helping Gage get the car accident victim's extrication by K-12 going again, followed by a thorough long boarding evac complete with a C-collar and the one hare traction splint that they had found that they needed for a left femur fracture. Roy re-established contact with Rampart in seconds. ##Johnny's already told me about the valsalva maneuver and the adenosine not working well enough. Any further improvement? ## the worried doctor asked. "None.." replied Roy, as he watched Cap start to hook Marco up to the EKG monitor. Marco, was only gasping, no longer trying to speak, on his back under a flowing oxygen mask. "He needed assistance breathing a few minutes ago." Roy couldn't wait... He kicked open the defibrillator with a foot and got out the paddles for a quick peek, and he settled them onto Marco's panting chest. He spoke into the phone receiver that he had perched onto a shoulder. "Rampart, I'm reading gross multifocal ventricular bigeminy with a rate of 160. Stand by for telemetry on your end to confirm it." DeSoto, said, shoving the I.V. bag under one of Marco's shoulders. He bumped it up into wide open to get set for more meds. There was a long pause as Cap and Roy both fumbled to set the EKG Tetronix's controls on strongest signal and to wire the unit into the biophone output port. Johnny kept looking up at them as he and the others worked to free the man completely from under the car. He only vaguely heard Chet acknowledge that Chopper Ten was starting a run along the riverbed, looking for the car's tossed out driver. He was very concerned by the audible chaos coming from Marco's cardiac tracing. "Roy? What does it show?" DeSoto told him. |
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"Man, Brackett's gonna order a cardio--" Johnny started to say. ## I concur with you wholeheartedly, 51. Unstable Ventricular tachycardia. What are the rest of his vital signs?" "B/P ......." Roy spoke, breathing fast,....." ..'s 78 over P. Rate's the same with barely palpable carotids. Respirations are irregular and work of breathing's marginally poor on fifteen liters of O2." ## Looks like we have no choice, 51. You're gonna have to give him a shock to cardiovert him into a more stable rhythm before you transport..## Cap's eyes didn't like the sound of that. They filled immediately with alarm. "Can you do that while he's still awake?" Roy licked his lips and nodded reluctantly. "When we have to. It won't be too fun at all. For him, or for me." ## 51, is your victim still conscious?## DeSoto lifted up the receiver once more. "That's affirmative, doc. Very. And he's feeling....alot." cracked Roy's tired voice. A long thoughtful, I don't like it sigh was heard clearly over the biophone line. ##....ok, Roy. Let's get the job done. Now I don't have to tell you twice. Get set for a full blown ET intubation in case this doesn't work out. Prepare for v-fib, the worst case scenario. Make sure you have enough personnel on hand to handle it...## "10-4, Rampart...uh, we do." Roy said quietly, looking to Cap, who gave a silent command for Kelly and a policeman to peel off their coats in order to provide CPR help. Hank himself, crouched at Marco's head, setting the waiting, clear rubber, O2 filled ambu bag, onto his knees. DeSoto didn't like the idea. ::Who knows how badly his heart's already been damaged by all that electricity. Simply adding more might throw him into unconvertible fibrillation due to excessive energy induced ischemia. :: Roy thought. Roy found his eyes being met by Marco's in a strange moment of clarity.::Do it...:: Lopez seemed to say through them.::I trust you, Roy:: DeSoto looked away from Marco's face and almost started pumping up the BPcuff again just to bury his burgeoning negative emotions into such a familiar task. :: In less than two minutes, I might be cutting Marco's life short, permanently.:: Kel Brackett broke him out of the frightening, nightmarish possibility. ##Roy, I'm now seeing a wide complex tachycardia in the range of 170. We can't wait. We can't allow this to go on. His system won't tolerate it much longer.## |
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