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****************************************************************************** From: Cassidy Meyers <killashandraRey@hotmail.com> Date: Wed Jun 22, 2005 10:14 pm Subject: Alone.. Al the ambulance attendant heard the slam of the Mayfair's rear doors and immediately, he flipped on the sirens and checked for his clearance before slowly pulling away from the street's curbside. "Is she intubated already?" he asked Roy, who was nearest his peep window. "Just disturbin ya to see if there's a chance we'll need to stop along the way. Dispatch wants to know." DeSoto didn't look up from the compressions Johnny was delivering to the young junkie nor did they stray off the EKG monitor turned to face him in the captain's chair. "She's as set as she's gonna get. But try your best to avoid the bumps. This's gonna be a long CPR and we all gotta last until we reach Rampart." he said of Johnny, Al's partner, and himself. "You got it." said Al. "I'll go a way that's big and easy. Along Santa Monica Boulevard. It'll be faster than the freeway this time of day that's for sure." And the window snicked shut between them. Johnny was already drenched in sweat maintaining the rhythm. He grunted, fighting to keep his depth correct despite the jolting the Mayfair's travel was giving him where he stood over the stretcher and the girl's chest. "Roy, you going again?" asked Flint, the other ambulance attendant. "Morton didn't tell us not to try and zap her back." "You ......read....between.....the......lines.......pretty......good." gasped Gage. "Ever thought of.....joining the para....paramedic.....program? Give her some. That's fifteen again." he reminded the bigger man. Flint bagged Diane twice on the oxygen even as he pulled her lips back to check for any sign of fluid or material working its way back into her mouth. "Nah,..don't have the brain for all those medical calculations and I.V. ratios. Guess I'm too old a dog to learn new tricks." said the salty haired man. DeSoto punched the defib button once again, calling it out himself so Johnny could concentrate on pacing himself and keep on breathing without getting light headed from his exertions. "Charging.. One, two, three, four... Clear?" Gage sat back onto the cushioned bench, keeping his hands well away from the gurney frame. "We're clear." Roy shocked full charge, making it the fifth of the run. Flint began rebagging while they waited for the outcome on the screen. The lit needle danced high and settled into course V-Fib. "Well, that's an improvement.." Gage said, resuming CPR. "Least her heart's getting irritable again." he said breathing hard. "Flint, take over..I'll trade with ya. Roy's gotta stay free to try and get in an I.V. line on her somewhere." He shifted places and Flint swept Gage's hands away and set his down without missing a beat. Johnny was sopping wet and he turned the air on in the ambulance full blast until it blew on all three of them. "Found any veins yet, Roy? The epinephrine's done all that it's gonna do until we get her blood neutralized a little better." DeSoto spoke from around a needle cover set in his teeth. "Yeah, goin' for a jugular stick. Seems she's been too chicken to shoot up there. Just about everywhere else has been scarred too badly to use." |
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Carefully, Johnny turned the young woman's face away from Roy's knee until the side of her throat was exposed at the proper angle without jeopardizing the endotracheal airway's alignment any. He bagged unconsciously with his left hand, while his right wiped off his face on a sleeve. Gage checked the positioning of the broken ankle. It had fallen off the bed on loading. He shifted it back into place by grabbing some pant leg as a sling and he flipped it up until it lay alongside the other foot. Roy called for Flint to halt his compressions while he attempted the deep neck vein that was still flat from lack of circulation. His long years of experience paid off and rewarded him with a feeble flashback. "Ok, got it." he said, planting two fingers over the catheter as he withdrew the needle. He let the blood run out freely until he was able to snap the normal saline I.V. line into its hub and tape it off tightly. He used a soft cervical collar to safeguard the site and a second one underneath her shoulders to keep Diane's head tilted back enough to not kink the tube in her jugular vein. "Bicarb's going in.." he announced. "Johnny, how long since her last Narcan dose?" "Two minutes, twenty seconds." "I got her next one right here." he said, He bit the cover on its fluid needle off. And then he handed it over to Gage, from its niche in a fold of her bloody pillow where he had placed it earlier. "ET'll be faster still. I'll check to see if she's aspirated any after this is in." Flint pinwheeled at a sharp turn and caught himself on the wall to avoid injuring Diane. "Whoa! Take it easy up there, Al! I almost broke a few ribs here.." he snarled. "Sorry, something's holding up traffic. I had ta slam on the brakes big time." came his partner Al's muffled reply from the front. Flint shook his head in frustration and quickly started up compressions again, stamping his foot on the floor to rid himself of a cramp twisted up his back. Gage noticed, "Wanna trade off?" "No, you're still giving out them meds. I'll call it when she's been defibbed twice more." said the older man. "We could be at the hospital by then.." reasoned Roy. "Fine by me. I'm still fresh. This girl's only our first call of the day, so use me to your best advantage fellas, while you can." Flint said levelly. Despite of his best care, another dip in the road made his finger laced hands slip downward too deep and a rib snapped audibly along Diane's breastbone. "Sorry, hon." he said automatically, without looking up. "Damn streets. You'd think the city would remember us ambulance people come legislation day and budget in even more than the usual meager repair funds. They don't realize how much pain we cause folks by running over the bad spots. There adds at least two more days in the hospital for you, dear thing. I am trying to be careful." he told his patient. Gage and Roy didn't pay any attention to Flint's venting. They were deep in lung assessments and listening to the biophone for more orders. "Rampart, bicarb's in. Still no vital signs. Request permission for atropine." Roy asked. Morton countered immediately. ##Go ahead, 51. One milligram IVP every three to five minutes to a total of .04 mgs per cubic kilogram. Give her another countershock afterwards. That narcan loading should start to do something for you real soon if it hasn't already. Our success of defibrillation's gonna decrease dramatically with the passage of time if she continues her ischemic slide downwards. The progressive imbalance in her myocardial oxygen supply and demand will kill her in less than ten minutes if we don't see some positive progress soon. I want to see a live rate in two, 51. You've got nothing better to do now since you've already countered all the heroin in her blood. Pick it up, boys. Use 0.5 milligrams epi this time I.V. along with the atropine or we're gonna lose her before you hit the freeway.## "10-4, Rampart. 1.0 mg atropine piggybacked with 0.5 mg epi, both IVP." Roy said quickly. He was just as determined as the audibly frustrated Morton to save the young woman. He couldn't push a thought away from the back of his mind. ::What if it was the pile of clothes falling on her that pushed the heroin plunger down too deep and not Diane herself? Then all of this mess is actually accidental and not the usual desperate druggie's attempted suicide, if that's the case. She'll fight hard to come back even if we give her just one more chance to make it.:: The Mayfair was only crawling now, at less than twenty miles an hour. Gage snapped. "What's the hold up?!" he shouted to the front. Al said, "Traffic jam. The ramp's a parking lot, Johnny. I don't know why the cars are like this. Dispatch said there's nothing going on up ahead." Flint frowned and a drop of sweat rolled off his nose and landed on the back of his hands. "That's strange." he said, keeping up his CPR until the paramedics were set to defibrillate Diane again. "It's nowhere near rush hour." Roy looked up out of the window from where he sat timing the wide open I.Vs drops when he saw the road sign that bore his namesake flash by. Only it wasn't the comforting inside joke it normally was for all of them seeing the avenue bearing his last name. For the mountains behind it, were gone. |
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"Holy---" DeSoto exclaimed, almost dropping the paddles he was re-gelling. "Roy? What's wrong? Go ahead and get her again. It's charged to four." Gage said sharply. "Keep it together. Take care of her, and then tell me." Roy framed the sticky paddles once more, and fired them off. Diane frighteningly re-animated as soon as her heart started pulsing again following Roy's shock, and she continued where she had left off, falling right back into the superhuman mode that had so scared all of them in the house. Her violent gyrations to fight and spit out her airway, threatened the very gurney straps that held her down onto the bed. DeSoto shouted as both Flint and he threw themselves on top of Diane to pin her down. She choked and air popped loudly around the endotrach tube in her throat, as there was no possible way for her to talk being tubed as she was. "Pull over!" Roy ordered. Al did so. Gage drew out his HT to Chet. "Chet! She's fighting! Get in here!" But the rear doors didn't snatch open like Johnny wanted them to. There was a long pause of dead air over the walkie talkie. Then came Kelly's voice. ##Oh mother of g*d. Johnny! Roy! The whole mountain's come down up ahead in La Conchita! The whole friggin' hillside!## "Roy, what's he talking about? Diane! Diane!! If you can hear me, don't pull out this tube! It'll damage your voice box! We'll numb ya up just hang on a second. Diane? Do you understand me?" said Johnny. Diane went on struggling, oblivious to her surroundings. And her eyes never tracked nor focused on anybody's face. "Brain damage?" Flint asked as he got her arms back down at her sides. To calm her, he covered her completely with a light sheet up to the neck. "It's ok, it's all right. We're taking ya to the hospital to get that junk outta your system, hon." Diane's severe agitation didn't ease in the slightest. In fact, it was growing worse. The three men soon found that they weren't able to hold her at all. Until Kelly finally got the urgency of Johnny's message about their patient and tugged the Mayfair's doors open. Swiftly, he used his turnout jacket as an improvised reverse straight jacket and used its snaps to cocoon Diane's writhing body under the railings by fastening each fastener around the bars like a world war II canvas stretcher. Johnny was freed up to hold Diane's head firmly around the C-collar Roy had applied earlier to protect the girl's I.V. "Who gave you that idea? It's working, Chet! Roy.." "Yeah, I know.. Get her sedation order.." DeSoto gasped, sweeping sweat soaked hair out of his eyes. Morton beat him to the punch. ##51, I'm getting no cardiac signal anymore from your end. I'm gonna guess that she's now combative. Treat her agitation with chlorpromazine, 25 mg I.V.## |
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Before the paramedics could move, Diane jerked her hands up and yanked, with both sets of fingers, at her loosely taped mouth piece. A flood of bright blood fountained up as her unthinking reaction caused the inflated balloon at the base of the endotracheal tube to tear away the soft structures on the inside of her throat. Hart gagged and vomited weakly as her pressure suddenly plummeted and her eyes rolled up to their white undersides. The heartbeat still registering on the monitor slowed from its racing tach into a vagal reflex brady rate of thirty. Diane went limp. Kelly yelled in fear and fluttered to unhook his jacket from around the girl as the others rolled her sideways to drain out the gushing flood of fresh blood. Roy listened to Diane's chest with a fast ear. "The tube's completely obstructed! Get it out!" Gage rapidly deflated the ET and drew it free to suction out Diane's blood filled windpipe."D*mmit! She must be a long time user. It took only the three Narcan doses to put her into waking withdrawal. She ripped herself up even before we could even think of sedating her.:" he said angrily. "Flint?" "She's not breathing anymore." the attendant reported from where he rested Diane's stomach across his chest where he knelt, using his body to keep her tipped onto her side. Gage got out an antibite ring to hold Diane's teeth apart, then he used just the ambu to drive some badly needed oxygen back into her lungs without moving her position. But soon, Diane began to gurgle from all the blood that was bleeding out of her ruined throat and it flowed too rapidly for the suction wand to pull away despite of Roy and Johnny's best efforts to clear it. The heartbeat on the monitor started speeding up into rapid v-tach as profound shock set in. Gage dug a hand into her carotid. "Pulseless ventricular rhythm. Flint, let her go. We gotta--" "I heard. I'm on it yesterday.." the attendant sighed sadly and he resumed active CPR once more over the girl's bruised breastbone. "I was afraid of this kind of thing happening. She must've taken the entire mixed ten mg's I thought I saw her take." said Johnny. "Now, she's bleeding to death for her troubles." Roy replugged in the EKG monitor feed that had been disconnected from the biophone in all the struggling. He handed Johnny a short oropharyngeal airway for him to insert once he felt he could stop suctioning Diane in between bagged breaths. "Dr. Morton. Our victim went into acute withdrawal syndrome up to consciousness. But we've lost her airway. Damage is severe. I am estimating around six hundred cc's blood loss. Now ceased due to a return to an acute cardiac arrested condition. We're reading a pulseless ventricular tachycardia. " ## I confirm, 51. Continue the best you can. Stop all medications and maintain the patient's circulation and breathing manually. I'll see you in a few minutes.## Roy and Johnny felt their world suddenly contract around them. "Uh,, negative, Rampart. There's been a massive landslide a few blocks away from what we can see. All routes leading to you are most likely blocked off." Roy reported. There was a dead silence from the other end of the phone line. "51, re-route to another hospital then. Who's closest from your current position?" "Rampart, we're in a gridlock. There's too many panicking people out here." said DeSoto as he peered out the side window of the ambulance. "I don't think we'll be able to go anywhere fast, anytime soon, doc." A fierce pounding startled him when a hand slapped his window and drew open the door at the back. It was a bystander, from one of the many blocked in automobiles now surrounding them. "Hey, guys! There's a lot of hurt people just ahead. A mudflow's covering the road. We're clearing a path for ya!" said the construction worker. "Come on!" "Look, mister! We can't." Johnny started to say. "We already got a p--" But the man had already swung the doors shut in their faces. They saw him waving animatedly through the back windows for them to follow behind him as he ran towards the wall of gray dust rising above them. The Mayfair was shoved sideways from an unexpected jolt from the left. A giant fist of earth and rock rolled over them. It soon blocked out the sun, plunging the Mayfair and its suddenly overwhelming CPR plight, into semi-darkness. |
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******************************************************************* From: "Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com> Date: Thu Jun 23, 2005 10:22 am Subject: It's Not Nice To Mess With Mother Nature~~ Al began shouting, "Everybody out! This is a rock fall! Not mud! Grab what you can!" cried the ambulance driver and he rushed to the back of the Mayfair. Chet Kelly paused only for a moment at the sight of huge boulders rolling down the coastal road from the mountain. Any one of them could've crushed a bus without stopping. He ran for the squad to move it closer. "Get her on! Then climb aboard." he shouted. "We're getting outta here!" Johnny and Roy grabbed the squad gear, throwing tanks and cases on top of Diane's gurney in between her strapped legs. Flint hesitated. "What's he talking about?" as he kept up CPR. "We're evacuating before the next wave of debris hits us. Something else's giving way on that hillside out there!" Gage coughed. He snatched a spare french 6.0 from the supply rack and jammed it under Diane's pillow for later reinsertion for her new airway. He hefted up the engine's oxygen supply and they got out of there. The five of them got Diane lifted onto the top of the squad, stretcher and all, that nestled into the air bottle gap storage firmly. Chet fled in the squad then, carrying them, using the route the excited witness that told them about. Behind them in the mirrors, he saw the Mayfair get swept off the road by a twenty ton boulder that tumbled down noisily from the nearby slide a few seconds after they had started moving. |
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Soon, Chet parked on a section of ground he knew was stable. "There's no pistol butt trees here. See? None of these trees are warping yet. I'm stopping!" he shouted to those clinging on top of the squad. Diane was lifted from the squad in between CPR sets, and the entire group headed for a grassy slope that was undisturbed by substrate shifting. They placed her, head side downhill, while they worked to keep her going, so her lungs would drain out even more. Roy stood long enough to get his bearings and call for their nearest help over his HT. "Squad 51 to Engine 51! Do you read me?" His mind was still reeling with disbelief at the moving chaos flowing around their island of calm earth. ##This is Captain Stanley, HT 51. What's your situation?## "Mudslide in La Conchita has destroyed our ambulance. We've no injuries. We need backup CPR assistance. Other casualties are being reported in our immediate area. Uh,..From what I can see, your best approach will be from the beach access road until you reach the edge of town. We're on the south side near the water tower, with the squad." he said to ease Cap's worries about another vehicle loss. "This slide's huge. I see at least, a dozen homes disintegrating." ##10-4, S quad 51. We've just received word from L.A. about La Conchita. Hang tight, pal. We're on the way.## said Hank. Chet smiled when he heard the airhorn blast briefly over the channel. "Remind me to hug Stoker when all this is over, Roy." "You're gonna haveta get in line, Chet, after us.." said Gage. "Flint, need a switch out yet?" he said giving Diane another easy breath on the ambu. "I'm good for a while yet." the man said. "Now what? You've lost your antennae link when the Mayfair disappeared. That biophone won't work very well in this low spot of ours." |
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Roy checked over the defibrillator to read its power level for if and when they decided to try and use it again on Diane. "We'll improvise." he said, without smiling. "Joe Early has been preparing us for just this kind of communication isolating circumstances." he said, rechecking the flow of I.V. fluid to Diane. He rehooked up the EKG pads that had fallen off in the commotion. "We've recently been given broader decision making powers with a new brainstorm project of Dr. Brackett's." "What kind of brainstorming?" asked Chet, using the suction wand to help Johnny work his vents a little better. "We've new procedures being put into place. They're called standing orders. They're doctor's instructions given out in advance to fit specific medical findings in any given situation so we won't always be tied to the phone for confirmations and permissions. Johnny and I were going to drill on them this afternoon with Dr. Early to make sure we had them committed to memory all right. Now we're here." Roy explained. "So we don't need the biophone any more?" Al asked, taking off Diane's sock to begin splinting the broken foot as best he could with a piece of wood he had found. "Not now. It's dead. We need just additional help to care for anyone ELSE we find in trouble. We got our engine coming. And she's just three minutes or so behind us." Gage nodded. "How can you tell that? I didn't hear you get a time estimation.." frowned Al. "The airhorn blew three times over the transmission. It's Stoker's way to tell us an ETA when somebody else's talking over the HT. Something we set up a while ago." Kelly smiled. Kelly knelt down by Diane's side. "Johnny. What do you want me to do? I got the O2 tank ya got out with ya cracked and set on wait. But that's the last suction reservoir. Sorry. Didn't think we'd need more than the one on her." "Be Flint's trade when he says he's tired. Roy and I have to work out something." Gage replied, nodding. Kelly nodded and got busy. Johnny watched Roy drag the drugbox closer to their knees. He squeezed the ambu bag a little faster without realizing it. "Roy, you're not doing it." "Doing what? I'm just getting out another roll of gauze for when we reintubate her." DeSoto said. But his fingers brushed over a bretylium syringe briefly. "We can't use any more medication on her. Morton's live order supercedes any of Brackett's standing ones." Gage reasoned. "I think....." he frowned. Roy glared at his partner. "You of all people should know me, I'm like Craig Brice, I usually follow the book to the letter, only second best to him. But consider where we are, Johnny. If we find even one unconscious breathing victim from the slide, we'll have to abandon Diane here in favor of their better chances for survival. We're on triage ground now." Gage blanched at that, glancing down at Diane's still beautiful face. "I know that. I thought we'd have more time to--" "I know. I thought that, too. But look at the monitor, Johnny. She's asystole again. And with pulmonary artifact this time from all the blood in her lungs. She's so full of rales I'd be surprised if any oxygen is reaching her at all anymore. Her pupils are blown and unresponsive. Even in this sunlight. We have to make a decision about her and hope that Dr. Brackett's experimental protocol is concrete enough to save our butts afterwards. Before we are officially locked down by fire department triage orders. Now are you with me or not?" DeSoto said, licking his lips. "Make a choice now 'cause I see a whole lot of people coming our way and some of those being carried, aren't moving at all." Gage looked up, startled. And saw that it was true. Patients were coming to them from the disaster site, zeroing in on the only help they could see, the red flashing squad. "Bretylium, ok, drawing up 5 cc's for IVP. Roy, she IS dead already but we've three other witnesses attesting to the second flatline and we've the paper strip as our bargaining chip to go ahead with another attempt. Let's do it.. If we're gonna get fired and jailed, I can think of no better cell mate to have, than you. Chet! Hit the defib recharge, we're trying again!" "Ok, Johnny. I'll re-gel the paddles for ya." Chet replied. |
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DeSoto prepared the D5W I.V. that they would need and he tried very hard to stop his hands from shaking. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cap Stanley and Marco and Stoker raced the Ward up from the beachhead along the same street where they could see the red dot of Squad 51 in the distance. She was parked hastily angled on the only road not jumbled forty feet high with debris. She came trailing hose for the hydrants that were sticking out of the ground abundantly all aroundJohnny, Roy and the others. Hank stepped out of the cab to give Battalion the short and thorough of what he was seeing in the neighborhood. "Battalion One. Engine 51 is on scene. I'm estimating a slide a quarter of a mile wide. It has spilled over a row of houses half a block long. No fire is in evidence but we're setting up in anticipation of gas leaks. We're 10-6 with 51's casualties on the corner of...... Topanga Canyon Drive and Rocky Peak Road." ##10-4, Engine 51. Sending a helicopter evac to your location as soon as one's available. Keep me posted.## Cap Stanley knelt down by his paramedics where they were working over Diane. "Is the squad damaged much? She's awfully dusty." "No.." replied Chet. "But that Mayfair may be leaking some. We watched it get carried off the road twenty five yards that way by a river of mud." Kelly said jerking his head so he could keep going on his CPR. "That won't be a problem for now. Being buried means no air will be around to ignite anything. I'm satisfied. What do you need here?" He saw that the paddles had been used twice more on the strip growing by the foot off the monitor. But the indicator still showed no signs of electrical activity. At his question, Roy and Johnny's body language, fell subtly. "A tarp to cover her." said Roy quietly. "What?!" said Chet. "You guys just can't quit on her like this.. Don't you need a doctor's order to pronounce somebody?" he hissed, still working hard to keep on circulating Diane's blood. Gage ignored him. "Cap, Roy and I have another victim right there." he said, pointing to a pale boy looking like a cardiac case stretched on the ground on the other side of Diane's stretcher. He was breathing but the manual read from the paddles showed him to be throwing off what even Cap recognized as multiple PVC's. Cap was no nonsense. "Are you absolutely sure of this, you two?" His unspoken statement questioning the basis for their rational hung silent on the dusty air. Johnny was grateful that he didn't ask anything sensitive out loud. He knew Cap knew about the experimental protocols newly put into place by Brackett as he had been the one to field the phone call from Joe Early asking for a date to set for testing Roy and Johnny out on them. "Yeah. We've done all that we can do for her. She's max'd out on limits for all the drugs we're allowed to give anyone in her situation. He comes first now." Roy said, not looking at Hank directly. Kelly started protesting. "Captain, no! That's stupid! I'm not needed yet. And neither are these two.." he said of Al and Flint. "Let us work her until we can't anymore. We owe Diane at least that much more. I'm sure her family would appreciate it in the long run.." he glared at Roy and Johnny. "Who knows? She may come back again." |
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Cap sighed in exasperation. "Kelly! I can't let y--- " But then he saw the fresh haunted look of weighty stress dragging down his two paramedics, and he relented. "..ok, but the three of ya are through the second another unconscious makes it over here. I'm sorry but she's gonna have to be lifted off of that gurney so they can change the sheets and get it set for the little boy. A triage station's setting up down the block and we're gonna need the stretcher to get him there. I'm saving all our stokes for future victims we may have to dig outta this mess later on." he pointed out sharply. "You got that tank of O2 only, and that's it, Kelly." "Enough for me, Cap. We'll be under that tree and my HT will be on." he promised. Diane's head was stretched out on the soft earth for only a couple of moments when Chet jerked his hands off of her chest and started screaming. Flint and Al likewise leaped up and began peeling their clothes off rapidly. "AhHHH! Sh**t!" Hank ran to them. "What's wrong?!" Chet writhed on the ground, rolling. "Fire ants. Aww, man.. Get em off! Get em off!! AhhhhHHH! I'm burning from their stings or something!" Cap dragged Chet clear of the large pile of dirt that Diane had been inadvertantly set upon and he immediately called for a fire hose to spray the three men down to get rid of the attacking ants as fast as possible. From his new angle he could see the warning shape of an ant nest that hadn't been clearly obvious until just then. He was horrified anew right along with Chet. "I'm sorry, pal. Stay still. We'll get em off in a minute. Looks like your turnout kept most of them off. Marco's washing down the ambulance attendants. No. Don't move until I'm done getting you soaked down. Don't worry about them. Let me get you taken care of first. Marco's covering them. Hold still now. Any get under your clothes?" Chet sputtered under the water stream. "No...they just got my hands and arms and a few crawled into my hair. Sh*t these hurt like the son of a mother. Ugh! Cap, as soon as I'm done we can get back there an--" he broke off, seeing the thick carpet of red feathery ants now swarming over and stinging the body of Diane Hart. His horror shattered into nausea and he looked away. "Oh, my G*d. Cap..." he sobbed. |
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"Come away, pal. There's nothing else we can do. If we spray around, getting her off that mound, that whole colony will come out and attack all of us, including them..." he said pointing to where Roy and Johnny were working hard to save their second victim. "And we can't allow that. I'm sorry it had to happen like this. Believe me, no one's more sorry than I am right now." "Cap, isn't she more important? We had her first.." "Shh.. pay attention to me. Don't look at Diane. Stoker's covering her up. We're through. Now refresh my memory.. Are you allergic to bee stings? Fire ants are in the bee family if I remember my first aid training right." Cap said. His eyes swept over the many raised white pustules coming out thickly on Chet's hands and arms and at the red flushed color rising around them. "Uh,,, I .. d-- I can't think straight right now." Chet gasped, still hunched in a ball of pain. "I think they're still trying to bite me!" "I got em all off. Let's just get you to a dry spot." ::And away from Diane Hart's body.:: Cap led him away from the puddle of water which was drowning the ants that had been washed off Kelly's skin. Kelly let himself be supported and sat back down as soon as he hit the curbside. His legs wouldn't allow him to stand for any longer. |
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"Chet, you're shivering. Take my jacket." Hank said peeling his off and giving it to him. "I'll have Johnny or Roy come over and give you a once over on vitals as soon as that cardiac's stabilized. You sure you can breathe ok? Is your throat getting tight any?" Chet's was, but not from any ant venom. It was from soul pain, and that, he knew, would remain with him, for many many days. He answered Cap by coughing wetly and with a small wheeze. He started crying and gasping uncontrollably, in his grief. "Easy, Chet. Just relax. I'll have someone over here for you just as soon as I can. Marco! How are they?" he shouted, asking about the ambulance attendants, who were down to their boxers and t-shirts, standing soaked underneath wrapped blankets. "They're fine. Shaken, but they're not stung as bad as Chet. They're refusing to see anyone for further care. They only got a couple of stings each." Lopez replied. "Understood." Hank counted a quick pulse in Chet's neck as he sat next to him. Kelly didn't even seem to notice his touch. " Marco. Come stay with Chet for a while and keep him company." Cap ordered."I have to get going on the landslide." "Right, Cap." As Marco went by, Hank grabbed his arm. "He's busted up over losing the drug victim. He's got symptoms but I don't think he's anaphylactic. But go get the O2 if you feel he's getting shocky past this mild stuff. Keep tabs on his consciousness level." Lopez gave a look of sympathy for the dead woman and he crossed himself and said a fervent prayer for her. "I will, Cap. I won't let him stay sick like that without treatment." Marco went to be a friend for his shattered co-worker for a few minutes and before he knew it, something else called him away. |
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************************************************** From: "Derrick" <rescueman1962@...> Date: Fri Jun 24, 2005 1:24 am Subject: In Certain Terms : It's Not Nice To Mess With Mother Nature . " Marco , Marco ! " Gage yelled . The boy had slipped into v-fib as Johnny and Roy were working on him and they needed and extra hand to help with ventilations as Johnny and Roy started CPR and defibrillation . ::Oh God now what ? Not the boy !:: Marco thought to himself before he went up the hill to help care for the boy who was now slipping away from Johnny and Roy's hands . " Waddya need ?! " Marco shouted back . " Get up here . Take control of his airway. He's in v-fib ! " shouted Gage . " All right . " Marco shouted ." Stay right there, Chet , I'll be right back . " Marco said to his pal . " Just get back here . " replied Chet . " Cap! Gage and DeSoto need my help with the boy. He's getting worse . " Marco said to Captain Stanley as he passed by him on his way to help Johnny and Roy . " All right. Go . I will keep an eye on Chet when I can." Hank replied . Marco charged up the hill and took over ventilations from Roy . Roy went to use his HT and he called into Dr. Brackett through L.A.'s frequency in an emergency patch. Roy : "Rampart base , County 51" . Dr . Brackett : ##Go ahead, 51 , this is Rampart .## Roy : " Patient update , 10 year old male in respiratory distress due to an asthma attack . We have placed him on high flow O2 at 15 liters per pediatric non-rebreather mask and have given him 1:1,000 epinephrine SQ . As we were attempting I.V . D5/W , patient went into v-fib . We do have CPR in progress and we're attempting to defibrillate at 60 joules . We will be preparing to intubate . Any further instructions ? " Dr . Brackett : ##51 , go ahead and intubate and continue resuscitative efforts . Administer 3ccs 1: 10,000 Epinephrine I.V. If he does not respond from the three initial shocks . Go ahead and administer 60mgs 2% Lidocaine I.V. Defibrillate 30 to 60 seconds after each dose . Contact us if anything changes . ## Roy : "Copy Rampart , intubate and continue CPR followed by 3ccs 1:10,000 epi I.V. If unresponsive, give 60mgs 2% Lidocaine I.V. and keep you posted . " Dr . Brackett : ##10-4 , 51. ## " Okay , charging 20 , 40 , 60 , CLEAR ! " Roy said . The defibrillator delivers a shock to the boy's heart as his small body jerks from the jolt of energy . Marco Lopez checks for a carotid pulse and tells the two paramedics , " No breathing , no pulse , continue CPR ." Johnny starts compressions again as Marco ventilates with the ambu bag . He notices the oropharyngeal airway in place as Roy hurriedly assembles the equipment necessary to facilitate intubation . He orders Marco to start hyperventilating the patient as he prepares and lubricates an endotrachial tube . Marco removes the oropharyngeal airway as Roy inserts a laryngoscope blade to visualize the vocal cords but he sees a very serious problem . |
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"Oh sh*t." , exclaimed Roy . Marco and Johnny quickly glance up at Roy, not stopping their work as he continues , " His trachea is swelling shut and we may have to trach him . I bet he has pulmonary edema as well . " " Well , ..we are not gonna lose this boy ! " . Johnny said as he signaled to switch places with Marco . Roy gets back on the biophone/HT patch with Rampart to advise them of their new findings . Roy : " Rampart , County 51.." This time Dr . Joe Early answers the call on the second base station console as he had just completed a difficult cardiac case with Squad 14 . Dr . Early : ## Go ahead, 51 .## Roy : " Rampart , we have attempted to intubate and cannot due to tracheal edema . We are suspecting a development of possible pulmonary edema as well . We have defibrillated once with no conversion and have an I.V. D5/W established . We have not given any meds yet . " Dr . Early : ## 51 , give 60 mgs Solu-Medrol I.V. and keep us advised of any changes . Continue orders from Dr. Brackett. ## Roy : " Copy. 60mgs Solu-Medrol and keep you advised " . Dr. Early : ##10-4 , 51 ## . Johnny and Marco continue CPR on the boy as Roy prepares to administer the drug . He shoots it up the I.V. line and hopes that the swelling will subside soon so they will not have to end up having to do a trach . Roy decides to defibrillate again after two minutes have went by since the last shock . Roy says, " Charging , 20, 40, 60,80 , 100, 120 , CLEAR ! " Marco and Johnny get clear of the patient as another shock is delivered to attempt to convert the life-threatening arrythmia . All of the sudden, Captain Stanley calls to Johnny and Roy on their HT, that two more squads have arrived with three engines as help in their area . ##Squad 51 , HT 51.## " Squad 51 " . Johnny replied . ##We have more help arriving here, shortly . It will be Squads 36 and 45 , Engines 127 , 236 , and 18 . ETA... about 5 minutes . ## "Squad 51 , 10-4. " Gage replied . " Still no ambulances, Cap ?" ##Negative.## Captain Stanley replied . ##No helicopters either.## "No breathing , no pulse , continue CPR . " Marco replied . Roy pushed the button to charge the defibrillator again and again said " Charging 20 , 40 , 60 , 80 , 100 , 120 , CLEAR ! " Marco and Johnny backed off as another shock was delivered . There was still no breathing or pulse from the boy , but the guys were determined not to give up this time , not after all they had went through with Diane . Johnny and Marco started another round of CPR while Roy got the first dose of epinephrine ready to administer . As that was occurring , Flint and Al met up with them on the hill and Flint spoke , " We may have got bitten by fire ants , but at least we can give you a hand." |
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