|
| ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
| Page Three |
|
"Great , you and Al take over CPR so Johnny and I can get to work on this kid." Roy said as he administered the epinephrine up the I.V. line . " Marco , go back and check up on Chet." " Gotcha . " replied Marco . " I sure hope that this boy will make it , and Chet will, too! See ya . " Roy and Johnny were so concentrated on their patient, that they completely ignored Marco's departure . Another shock was delivered to the boy's heart at 120 joules per second and still no response was noted . The swelling in the boy's trachea had decreased enough so Roy could successfully intubate the patient . They had administered the lidocaine I.V., when just seconds after the next shock was delivered , the monitor blipped . Gage : " Roy , we have activity on the monitor ! " Roy : " Okay , hold it a second ." The rate and wave strength increased on the monitor as the boy's color began to improve from deep cyanosis to a pale pink . He then tried to show signs of purposeful movement as his eyelids fluttered and hands trembled lightly . Gage noticed the boy's movements and said . " Roy , he's trying to wake up . He just fluttered his eyelids and his hands are moving a little ! " As Al was ventilating , he stopped to check for a pulse . " I have a pulse, guys , about 76 and increasing in strength . I think he's trying to breathe on his own ! " " Respirations 10 and labored. " Flint said . " Don't stop. Let's keep going and I'll get Rampart . " Roy replied . ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 |
 |
 |
|
************************************************************* From : Derrick <rescueman1962@yahoo.com> Sent : Wednesday, June 29, 2005 4:50 AM Subject : The Recovery Effort " What is the BP Al " ? Roy said as he grabbed the biophone handle with his gloved hand . " 70 over 40 " . Al replied back . " 70 over 40 ? " asked Roy . " Correct . " Al nodded . Roy then speaks into the biophone's transmitter . "Rampart base , County 51." There was no answer for a few seconds and then Dr. Mike Morton, attired in surgical scrubs, responds. ##Unit calling Rampart, identify.## " Rampart , this is County 51 . We have another update on our patient . He is now exhibiting motor response by fluttering his eyelids and making purposeful movements with both hands . We now have vitals to follow . BP is 70/40. We have a pulse of 70 and slightly weak and thready , respirations are 10 and labored . He is now exhibiting sinus bradycardia on the monitor at 70 , oxygen saturation is now at 80% . Any other orders at this time ? " Dr . Morton : ##51, give another dose of 1:10,000 epinephrine I.V . at 30ccs followed by 60mgs Solu-Medrol I.V. Let us know if anything changes . ## Roy Desoto : " Copy, Rampart. Repeat epinephrine and Solu-Medrol and keep you advised of any changes . " Dr . Morton : ##10-4, 51.## Roy gets the medications out of the drug box and prepares to administer them while Gage does a sternal rub on the boy to try to ellicit another motor response from him . " Hey kid.. Kid! Can you hear me? Wake up ! " Mayfair ambulance attendant Flint is still ventilating the boy through the endotracheal tube and monitors his color which is still a pale pink . His partner Al, continues to monitor his vital signs and motor response. Johnny sees the boy trying to open his eyes again . His hands are now making more purposeful movement as his fingers make a clawing like figure then extend slowly out to their normal position . " Roy ! " Johnny exclaimed . " The boy moved again ! " Roy had just administered the dose of epinephrine and was about to administer the second dose of Solu-Medrol up the I.V . line when he said , " Johnny, is the motor response the same or different than the last time?" " He moved his fingers as if he was clawing at something then straightened them back out." Johnny replied . " Okay , Soul-Medrol is in. Let me try." Said Roy as he now knelt down beside the boy and gave another sternal rub . " Hey kid , kid ! Can you hear me ? Can you feel this ? Wake up ! " DeSoto shouted. The boy's eyelids then flickered and his fingers went into a clawtype position and straightened out again . Roy tried rubbing the boy's sternum again , " Hey kid , kid ! If you can hear me, move your fingers again ! " " Hey guys , vitals picking up." Al said . " Give 'em to us " . Johnny replied . Al felt for another carotid pulse and he said " Pulse 86 and regular. Stand by for BP " . Flint, who had been ventilating the patient, had observed the boy's facial color change to a slightly deeper pink then earlier before, and he said. " Come on little boy , breathe ! " Not soon enough , the boy's chest rose and he made a gasping sound and he jerked to life . " Hey hey ..Take it easy...We are here to help you ." Johnny said . " Al , Johnny , Flint , let's roll him over to his side . I'll get the suction and O2 ready . Johnny , get Rampart . What's his BP ? " Roy asked. Al said. "105/70. Pulse.. 86 and regular . He's sure looking good ! " " Okay , are we in position ? Lets roll him 1,2,3 . " Roy said as he got to the head of the patient as the two attendants and Johnny gently rolled the boy onto his side . Johnny heads over to the biophone as Flint disconnects the oxygen supply tubing from the Ambu Bag and attaches a pediatric non-rebreather mask that was capable of delivering 90 to 100 percent oxygen . In the meantime, Roy turns on the portable suction machine and tells the boy . " I want you to stay as still as possible . I am going to remove a tube that is inside of your windpipe that was put there to help you breathe . I need you to take a deep breath for me , okay ? " The boy tries to talk through the tube and makes muffled cries as Roy talks to him . ::There is a concern of how his mind and lungs will function after such an aggressive resuscitation..But if we can save just this one precious life in this disastrous situation , then our day was worth it .:: he thought. Johnny is witnessing the extubation procedure by his trusted partner, with the biophone in hand at the ready, if something else should go wrong with the boy . He now makes contact with the hospital . Johnny : "Rampart , County 51." A very tired Dr . Brackett answers the radio , ##Go ahead, 51 .## Johnny : " Rampart , update again on our patient that we initially contacted you about . We have administered another dose of epi and Solu-Medrol . Patient 's vital signs and level of consciousness have increased significantly . Vitals were BP 70/40 , pulse of 70 and thready , respirations were 8 to 10 and labored with an oxygen saturation of 80% . He was making purposeful movement upon painful stimuli by fluttering his eyelids and flexing fingers on both hands into a claw like position and extending them back into normal position " . " Vitals are now BP 105/70 , pulse 86 and regular. We do not have current respirations and oxygen saturation at this time . The patient is displaying a normal sinus rhythm on the monitor. Request permission to extubate . " Dr Brackett : ##51 , obtain respirations and oxygen saturation and contact as soon as possible.## Johnny : " Standby, Rampart " . Johnny ; " Al , what are the O2 sats ? " Al : " 92 percent . He's got respirations of .... 18 . " Johnny : " Okay , I'll tell Rampart . Rampart , County 51 " . Dr . Brackett : ##Go ahead 51 , this is Rampart and it better be good ! ## Johnny : " Update on our patient's vitals . We have respirations of 16 and his oxygen saturation is at 92 % . Requesting permission to extubate . " he repeated. Dr . Brackett takes a long sigh to calm his already frazzled nerves and says. ##Okay, 51. Go ahead and extubate. Keep the patient on high flow oxygen at 15 liters by non-rebreather mask . Monitor his vitals closely and set up a breathing treatment with 0.90 ml , 0.5% Albuterol SVN when you can .## Johnny : " Copy to extubate , keep on high flow O2 at 15 liters by non-rebreather. Give an albuterol treatment at 0.90ml SVN and monitor vitals . " Dr . Brackett : ## 10-4, 51. ## " Hey, Roy. Brackett said to go ahead and extubate. Then let's give him that albuterol treatment at 0.90ml. Put him on high flow O2 ." Gage said. " Yeah , and let's hope that we can get him outta here " . Roy said . " Hey there ! " Roy said to the boy . " We are going to take the tube out now . Try to take a deep breath for us and hold it as long as you can . " The boy musters enough strength to take in the deepest breath he could get into his lungs and with a gentle tug on the ET tube , paramedic Desoto places the end of the suction tip into the boy's mouth and suctions it out as the tube is easily removed . The boy begins to cough violently as Flint puts the child sized non- rebreather mask on his face . " Okay , take deep breaths " . Roy instructs the boy as he coughs and gasps and holds the mask to his face . " What's your name ? Can you tell me your name ? " The boy takes a breath in and says " Timmy.. " " Timmy , my name is Roy. I am a paramedic with the Los Angeles County Fire Department . This is my partner, Johnny . We are going to help you and give you some medicine to breathe in and then we'll get you to the hospital, okay ? " Timmy then nods his head in agreement . Johnny Gage came up to Timmy and said. " Hey, Timmy. My name is Johnny . I am going to listen to your lungs . I understand that you have asthma . Do you take any medicine for it ? " Timmy nods his head in affirmation to Johnny's question. Gage says to the boy. " Timmy , can you tell me if you have allergies? It's really important that I know . " Timmy nods his head in agreement to Johnny. Al then sees an object near the boy that appears to be a nylon wallet . Al picks up the wallet , opens it and sees a medical emergency card inside it belonging to the boy . Al comes over to Johnny and says . "Johnny , this might help you guys out . It looks like a medical emergency card. We found it here in this wallet . " " Timmy , is this yours ? " Johnny said . Timmy nodded yes . Johnny and Roy look at the medical information on the card and Roy said. " This boy has asthma , he's allergic to penicillin , peanuts , seafood and pet dander . He has O+ blood type and takes Proventil and receives antigen shots every three weeks . " Gage turns to the boy and says " Timmy , did you take your medicine today ? " He shook his head no . " When was the last time you had your allergy shot ? Do you remember ? " Johnny said . All of the sudden, the paramedics' HTs crackled with Captain Stanley's voice on the air . ##Squad 51 , HT 51 .## " Squad 51 , go ahead, Cap." Desoto replied . " Good news. We have word on three of our helicopters. Two of L.A. City's and one CHP are headed to this area for a med-evac . Mayfair has two ground units headed for this vicinity as well . HT 51 out .## " HT 51 , Squad 51." Desoto said . " That is good news.. How are Chet and Mike doing ? " , Roy inquired . ##They are trying to come to terms with the Code F . They still are Code I emotionally and have been taken off this assignment .## Captain Stanley replied . " Mommy , mommy ! " Timmy cried . " Where 's my mommy ? " " She's not far away . She is being taken care of by some paramedics just like us right down in the hill there . In fact , she will be going to the same hospital as you are as soon as soon as the ambulance gets here . But maybe you will both get to ride in a helicopter instead... " Roy said . " Mommy ! " Timmy cried out again . " Hey Timmy,..don't worry . Now you will have to lie down and be quiet for us, or you might get sicker . " Johnny explained to him . " We are going to give some medicine for you to breathe in, to help you breathe better , okay ? " Timmy 's emotional state settled down some as he replied , "Okay. " , in a weeping voice . ::For a boy his age, the trauma of being involved in such a catastrophe as the landslide in La Conchita Canyon, and being separated from his mother and friends, could be more than he could bear .:: thought Johnny. The radios crackled again as Sam Lanier put out a countywide broadcast to all L.A. County Fire Department units from Pomona to Malibu , and from Pear Blossom to Palos Verde, as the dust settled from the landslide . Four alert beeps went off and Sam announced from his console at L.A. County Fire Department Headquarters . ## L.A. to all units involved with the La Conchita Canyon incident : Situation report from Division 2. -- All access roads have been closed off due to light and heavy debris making motor vehicle traffic not possible . There is widespread damage to existing structures and utilities . Broken underground natural gas mains may rupture, causing high risk for explosions due to sparking power lines . The main power station has been severely damaged, resulting in widespread power outages within the region . Local water supply may be subject to contamination. Break ...## |
 |
 |
 |
|
Sam continues as those in command on the incident listen attentively . ##L.A . continuing . ..As of this time, here are the latest reports on casualties: 43 confirmed civilian Code F , ..no firefighter Code F .., 655 civilian Code I , 18 firefighter Code I ...Regionwide mutual aid has been requested and is en-route , L.A. clear . ## --------------------------------------------------------- |
|
************************************************** From : crash200225 <crash200225@yahoo.com> Sent : Thursday, June 30, 2005 5:50 AM Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] I Lift Up Mine Eyes Captain Stalney had settled Mike and Chet behind some boulders where the two emotionally shocked men could rest. Cap didn't want to leave them alone, but he had his hands full with the landslide. He left Mike an HT and reassured them he would be back to check on them when he could. Neither man responded, which further worried Cap. After a few more reassuring words, he left to join Johnny and Roy where they were working on the young boy. Mike sat Chet with his back leaning against a large tree, then sat back himself. Both wore a dazed expression. Though Chet had not had an allergic reaction to the fire ants, Mike knew they had to still be burning and stinging. Chet never moved, and spoke not a word. In Chet's mind, he was reliving the events of the past hour, over and over again. The chatter on the HT was comforting to Mike, though he didn't listen to what was being said. Instead, he concentrated on a flower at his feet. He was too numb to think and really didn't want to. At this moment, it was just a flower and Chet. That's all he would allow to enter his mind. He heard a noise to the left and uphill from where they were sitting. He turned his head and looked, but went back to contemplating the flower and a shining pebble next to it. "You boys okay?", a soft voice asked. Receiving no reply, the question was asked again. Mike looked up at the voice and was stunned to see a young woman squatting beside him. "You guys are firemen, are you hurt?", she questioned. Mike managed to shake his head 'No'. "What about your friend? Looks like he got into a mess of fire ants." Chet was still wet from the wash down and shivering. He was still in his own personal waking nightmare. He didn't speak or move. Just stared straight ahead. "I got some water bottles and a couple of blankets in my backpack, if you need them. My name is Jolene, by the way." Her soft, southern accent was slowly beginning to clear away the fog that seemed to envelop Mike's mind. "What's your name?", she asked quietly. It was obvious to her that these men had seen something that had really rattled them. She didn't want to startle them. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
"Mike, he's Chet", Mike mumbled. Digging through her backpack, she brought out a bottle of water for Mike and a blanket which she wrapped around Chet. It was then that Mike noticed she was completely covered in dust. "You were in the landslide?", he asked. "How did you get out?" "Oh, us southern girls are tough as nails. Dern mountain came down on me. Had just enough time to grab my bag." Jolene smiled slightly. "Hey, got some stuff in here that'll take the sting out of Chet's bites. Think he'd mind?" Mike just shrugged. His brain was still on overload, and talking was never one of his strong points. "Where I'm from, that's a yeah." As she rummaged through her backpack, Sam's announcement came over the HT. "Oh my....." "You understood that?", Mike asked as his face paled. "I'm an EMT, so yeah, I understood it." Jolene's face was as pale as Mike's. Neither man recognized the title she gave herself. "They may need you down there. I'll contact Cap on the HT and let him know.", Mike stated, thinking she was hurt. "I look more like a victim than EMT right now. Not certified in California yet." She knew she couldn't be of much help down there. "Why don't you call your Captain and let me speak to him a moment. I am more than what I appear to be." After a brief conversation with Cap, it was agreed that Jolene would stay with Chet and Mike. Cap was secretly relieved that someone with some kind of medical training was with his two men. "Well, it looks like you boys are stuck with me for awhile. Let's get Chet taken care of and then we'll see about getting a bit more comfortable. That root you've been sitting on must hurt your tail somethin' terrible. At least sit on this blanket or scoot over a foot or so." Jolene had taken over care for these strangers as a good samaritan. The barest hint of a smile crossed Mike's face as he remembered a saying he had once read. ::I lift mine eyes unto these hills, from whence cometh my help.:: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 |
 |
|
************************************************** Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 06:18:35 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jeff Seltun" <finiterider@yahoo.com> Subject: Loose Ends Marco Lopez looked up the moment the child had been taken by a secondary engine crew to the triage evacuation site. "Cap, I've marked these oxygen cylinders as empty with a fire search crayon. Where should I leave them for support pickup?" Captain Stanley only briefly looked up at him. "By the road, there's a county oxygen supply truck running back and forth through town and they're exchanging them for new every fifteen minutes." Lopez nodded, setting the two that had been used on Timmy and Diane with a clang down onto the cracked ground. "Who's that with Chet and Mike?" he asked, rubbing sweat and grime from his nose. Stanley shrugged. "A girl who says she's an out of state EMT named Jolene." Lopez frowned, "What's an EMT? Didn't know they have any of whatever those are, in our day and age." "As far as I know, they don't. It probably means emergency mobile transport or some such. Or....maybe it's offshoots of Brackett's paramedic program branching out throughout the rest of the country or something that we haven't yet been made aware of, but that's a moot point. She's not certified to treat in California, so she says, with whatever her credentials are. But I'm sure glad someone who knows something medical's with Kelly and Stoker. They're still a bit emotionally winged. Go check on them and get a feel for their statuses. Roy says he'll be set to check them out in a few minutes. It'll be at least ten minutes or so before we're pulled out of here to go into the damage zone." Captain Stanely ordered. "Right, Cap." Marco jogged over to his stationmates. "Jolene? My name's Marco." The dusty, plaid shirted blue jeaned girl looked up from where she was digging in her camper's knapsack. "Oh, you must be one of these two's crewmates." She read Marco's stencilled name on his turnout. "Mr. Lopez, I got some salve here for Chet's stings. Could you put some on? He's agreed to it. I know better than to practice out of jurisdiction so you can just wipe those suspicions right out of yer mind and be at ease. I only want to help. Even if only through the tiny legal ways I still can use. Is a paramedic coming soon to check em out?" "Yeah, Roy is. He's getting set to come over here after he speaks with a policeman about the treatment he and Johnny Gage gave a little boy without parental consent." Jolene set out six water bottles and the rest of her blankets. She handed the tube of anesthetic salve to Marco so he would use it in her place. "Who's Johnny Gage?" and before Marco could answer, she figured it out. "Ah,..his partner. Makes sense now." Marco noticed the out of state EMS i.d. she had set out next to her feet on the dirt to thwart the PD scene patrollers from ousting her and to keep others from considering her a walking wounded who was unattended. "Where were you when that hill came down?" "From my house, I saw the mountain pop loose." she said. "At least four homes in that area are destroyed or seriously damaged. Including mine." She lowered her head as she watched Marco apply the salve to the worst of Chet's bites. She cracked both Kelly and Stoker some water bottles and made them drink. "A lot of kids were on my street, too, because the schools were closed for PTA meetings." "Can you tell me what you've seen with all the debris? The reports from L.A. aren't covering that part of it." At that, Stoker sighed, shook himself, and started paying better attention to what was happening around him as he drained the whole bottle of water in his hand. Then he concentrated on getting Chet to drink something, including bathing his face with some of its icy chill and a towel from Jolene's survival pack. The dusty young woman went on with her account. "The slide is about forty feet high. It was very scary. It looked like that it wasn't going to stop. It looked like liquid dirt. But it didn't surprise me too much. This south facing beach has gotten over twelve inches of rain over the course of last night." "That explains the fog hanging over the area even during these late afternoon hours." Marco said. "I saw broken bones with the crews that are working and a lot of injuries, but only one fatality. I've been the one directing folks to come over to your squad and engine." "We'll, we're bringing in all sorts of heavy equipment now. So we are making progress." Lopez said. Cap, nearby, started giving orders out to the arriving fire stations that had been assigned to them. ##Assess the area, Engine 236. Make sure the site is secure so none of our rescuers are in danger. Truck 127, stand by foam in case of fuel leaks from the roadside oil pumping stations north of town. Engine 18, grab chainsaws, and axes. Try to locate any potential trap victims.## he barked into his HT. Jolene nodded with satisfaction at the alacrity with which Cap was delegating tasks. He reminded her of a Battalion Chief she knew very well in Texas. "Marco, it's bad. I found two people. I got one young girl out. Firecrews just extricated the other one." Marco startled and looked around for folks headed into their direction. Jolene touched his arm. "It's all right. They were on the other side of the slide. They'll be getting to the triage station from the opposite side away from us." she went on. "I could hear the voices. I climbed up on top of the rubble and the mud. And two other guys came in and were helping me. She was buried. Very buried." "Did she make it?" Marco asked as he finished putting the pain killing ointment on the worst of Chet Kelly's ant bites. Then he pulled Chet's shirt and turnout back on, leaving one of his arms bare for a future BP cuff. "She made it. They got her out." the young first aider woman said, biting her lip. "I have another theory about why this happened. It's not the first time you know. Cutting a road seriously undermined the stability of the slope's mass and contributed to the slide. You can just see it there at the head of the scarp. There's been a long history of problems in this area. Some even blame the one rancher up there for planting all those avocado and lemon trees and how he irrigates them." Mike Stoker suddenly shook himself and pulled his HT out of his pocket. "Engine 51 to HT 51 Command." he said. Jolene and Marco looked at him with close attention while he twirled the stem of a wildflower in his hand as he waited for a reply from Captain Stanley. ##Go ahead, Stoker.## "Cap, put me to work. It'll do a lot to ground me even faster. I can't just sit here." Mike said non regulation. There was a pause on the other end of the frequency. ##10-4, HT 51. Report to me at the west intersection in one. Grab a shovel.## Stoker smiled then, giving Chet's shoulder a caring squeeze and he let out a quavering sigh as he still struggled with the stress of victim loss as he stood. "Tell Chet I'll find a live one for him." he said to Jolene and Marco. "We will." grinned Jolene, wiping some filthy hair away from her eyes. Stoker jogged off into the direction of the sunny, fogged shrouded, Ward LaFrance for tools. He waved as he left at Roy, who was coming from the opposite direction to attend Chet with a drug box and vitals kit, to show the paramedic that he was fine. Roy did a double take back at Stoker as he knelt by Kelly to begin a vitals set. "I thought he was still pole axed mentally." he grinned. "He was, but he got over it." mumbled a sleepy Chet. "Never underestimate flower power. He's still got one in his hand." Roy glanced down in a frown at Kelly. "What's he talking about?" and he started to examine Chet's eyes with a pen light for signs of abnormal reactions from the ant venom. "Nothing that's a fantasy. Your man used the weeds growing in front of him to focus on for a while until he worked things through enough to shake himself out of it." answered Jolene. "Fair enough. Thanks,...Miss..." Roy dug for a name. |
 |
 |
|
"Jolene. Jolene Morphew.." she replied. "His breathing rate's twenty and even. I've been keeping tabs on it." Roy's eyes glanced down at the strange cert card lying on top of the knapsack, but he didn't inquire further. "I take it Stoker cleared himself." "Yep. And Cap went along with it." Marco supplied the rest of some vital signs. "His pulse's still 120 and rapid, but he's cooling off. He's had some of this water to drink and the red rash on his chest isn't getting any larger." Roy nodded. "Thank heavens for small miracles." he said, taking a quick blood pressure reading off Chet's blanket bared arm. "....Well,..." he sighed. "You're not doing too bad after being ant bait, Chester B. Kelly. It's 100/68. How do you feel now with this salve on?" "I still feel like a pin cushion. Those things were biting and stinging at the same time, Roy. From both ends!" "Yeah, well. They're gone and it'll cheer ya to know that they don't leave behind any stingers like bumblebees or yellow jackets do." "Oh, wonderful..." moaned Chet. "They save em for later to get the next guy, huh? Don't think I like that idea very much." "I don't think the state does either, Mr. Kelly. That's probably why they're still spreading into California from Texas.." said Jolene. "No one can get near enough to some of the larger fire ant colonies to exterminate them with chemicals." "How's the kid? I saw you two working on him." coughed Chet. Roy smiled openly for the first time in hours. "He's gonna make it. He was almost one hundred percent stable when we loaded him up." "Good.." said Chet, too quickly. "That's--that's very good news.*cough*" Roy got out his stethoscope and checked out Chet's lungs, listening for any signs of fluid buildup. "Shhh, and let me listen.. Take three deep breaths, Chet. I want to know why you're coughing." The four of them fell silent as the quick chest exam was conducted.Then Roy looked up. "You tight in here at all?" DeSoto asked, gesturing to his own chest. "A little. But it's not bad. Just slightly itchy. I think it's from all this dust." Kelly replied. "Yeah, well. Let's be safe better than sorry. Get set, Chet. The new standing protocols of Early's requires that I give an IM of epi to anyone with the slightest hint of chest trouble." Chet started to anse. "Oh, man.. Roy, you know I hate shots." "You'd hate getting intubated even more if I don't nip this light edema of yours in the butt right now. You're not reacting, but you might a few hours later on when more of this venom leaves the fat under your skin for your blood stream. Let's stop your mild reaction process before it decides to roller coaster on us, ok?" DeSoto said, holding the unsheathed needle and syringe behind his back so Chet couldn't see it. "I promise it'll hurt less than one of those ant bites did on ya earlier." "Ok, get it over with. All I want is a hard cot out of the sun in a personnel recovery station somewhere to sleep it off. I'm groggy." said Kelly. Roy said. "Now that's just the emotional part of things working on ya. Your BP's doing fine for getting partially eaten alive by hundreds of insects." he quipped. "It'll come up faster if you drink that whole water bottle. Then I won't have to start an I.V. on ya." "Not a second needle?! No way, man. I'm not getting another one." And with that, Chet lifted up his previously barely sipped water bottle and started chugging away. Jolene went on with her tale of how it happened. " The news choppers were all set on hover over my house and they weren't going away. I thought, how annoying. So I called the police department to complain...'Why in the devil are there all these helicopters over my house?' I asked." 'La Conchita Canyon's had a major landslide. 20 homes wiped out. We're evacuating the canyon. Turn on your TV.' they said. 'Which channel?' I asked. 'All of them.' said the sargeant. Yikes....I no sooner flicked on the TV set when the rest of the hill came down on me." she said, brushing more dirt off of her shirt and pants legs. Roy glanced at her. "You sure you're not hurt?" "Positive. Save your skills for someone else." Jolene answered. "I know how triage works in California and how scarce the medics are around here today. I've only seen three squads responded to our location." "That'll be my squad from 51's, squad 45 and squad 18. The others must all be busy elsewhere in the city." DeSoto said rubbing his chin as he gave Chet his .3 mgs of epinephrine. |
 |
 |
 |
|
"Owww.." said Chet. "You'll live. Now let Jolene get you to the road and to the rest and recovery tent. Stay near a nurse for the next two hours in case you go into rebound, ok?" "I will." Roy packed up his drug box and BP cuff set once more. He got up and started jogging after Johnny, who was headed towards Cap to get their next victim to treat. "Take it easy, Chet. Thanks, Jolene, for watching my friends." He uptook Cap's jacket, which had been cast aside for one of Jolene's camping blankets, to give back to him. "Anytime. Be careful out there." she said, helping Chet get up off the ground. She slung an arm of his over her shorter shoulders and slowly, they got up to head for the road. A police car quickly stopped to give them a lift to the first aid tents and budding incident command center. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dixie McCall turned to Kel the moment the child had been stabilized. "What's got you, Kel? You're acting like you've got ants in the pants." she chided. "You nearly bit Roy's head off when he said he didn't have an oximeter or resp count for you yet." "Gee, Dix.." he replied sharply. "I'm surprised you even have to ask me that. Let's see... I've got three paramedic teams out there with hundreds of slide victims and none of them has a working biophone between them. They're in a canyon shadow, remember? This kid call came to me through an emergency HT patch through the county fire department comm board. Now what happens if they have to treat simultaneous victims when we can only listen to one case at a time through the intercom patching system?" Dixie didn't even blink. "Then aren't you glad Joe started updating all of them on the new off radio protocols last week? The only station he hasn't gotten to on that, for final testing, is 51's. But you've no cause to fret about Roy or Johnny's ability because they are just too d*mned good at what they do to screw up." "We hope." said Brackett, rubbing a headachy head. "Who knows what happened with that drug overdose. I haven't heard any ambulance dispatcher call her in, as arriving here." Dixie fell silent. "Maybe she didn't make it for some cack odd reason. They are in a danger zone." "Maybe. But I hate not knowing." he replied. "Join the club. I'm sure they feel the same way searching for all those slide victims. Be glad you aren't one of them, digging out." McCall sniffed. "Sorry, Dix. You know I hate disaster calls." "I think everyone does." she said, accepting the apology. "But I'm easing your sense of helplessness even as we speak.." she admitted. "How?" asked Brackett. "I told Joe Early about the landslide way before Squad 18 got their call to respond. I'm sure he's now riding along with them." "Dixie, you're beautiful!" celebrated Kel. "He can cover any questionable treatment territory from the triage station on a walkie!" "And you,...can finally stop chewing up your nurses. See ya.." she said, heading for the coffee lounge down the hall before Brackett embarrassed himself further by hugging her in public. Brackett sat down heavily onto Dixie's vacated desk chair in profound relief and chuckled ruefully. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 |
 |
|
***************************************************************************** From: "Cassidy Meyers" <killashandraRey@hotmail.com> Date: Thu Jun 30, 2005 2:59 pm Subject: Basement Depths Captain Stanley watched Roy and Johnny run up the hill to where he was standing along the line of fire engines working the landslide. He directed them to task instead of to another patient care call. "Roy, Johnny.. Stoker's working on the third house down there. Searchers thought they heard activity underneath it. But watch yourselves, there's still some mass wasting coming from the cliff like scarp at the head of the slump from unconsolidated sediment. Note this, you've got people from the town's local fire department helping you out so you don't have to go get tools. They're on channel seven. I'll have a link open to them and to you. Stoker's got one of our K-12's and three air bottles in case of a fire." "Right, Cap." "How's Chet, Roy?" Hank asked as they walked by. "He's fine. He had some light rhonci which cleared up right away with only one injection. I sent him to the R & R part of the triage station." DeSoto replied. "Good going. Thanks for the update." Cap nodded, his helmet strap swaying in the breeze. Then he turned back to Battalion One to plan out broader rescue efforts. Overhead, the newscast crews buzzed the canyon site with their helicopters relentless. But they didn't interfere with the landing zone set up by the school for patient evacuations. In fact, the pilots from the televisions stations often gave out condition reports to the incoming rescue pilots. Gage and DeSoto got to work. They met up with Stoker right away. "Mike? Whatdiya got?!" Johnny shouted over the din of the working circular saw. Mike Stoker didn't stop spliting the main beam he was slicing through. "Witnesses said they saw a man dive in between a couple of cars when the slide came down. I've found the two cars inside this house. I'm cutting down into a crawl space to see if the victim's still there where he took cover." "Have you heard any signs?" "Not me. But these guys from La Conchita did." and he nodded at the two volunteer fire department men rapidly digging off jumbles of mud and a pile of splintered wood from under Mike's spinning blade. "He's down there." said one of them. A creaking sagging sound of stressed roofing made all the men duck as the cockeyed slanted floor and ceiling of the house started moving again infinitesimally. Roy spoke again as he took up a pike and started rolling large timbers out of the way with his feet. "Are you sure we're on stable ground?" "As stable as it gets. The USGS said this spot's ok. Any settling will just be damaged house support beams giving way to gravity. The worst is over and the landslide's energy was spent in the first couple of seconds." |
 |
 |
 |
|
"Until the next one.." said his partner ominiously. "This slide only took five years to build up after the last one." "Then why do they build here?" asked Johnny. "For the money. The climate and the natural springs in La Conchita are just too good to pass up. But I'll agree, it's stupid that they don't see the old slide zones as well as we can. I've been at city hall for years trying them to stop rebuilding in this arroyo because of the slide risk. Now, this happens and it's gonna suck when I have to tell em, I told ya so.. yet again." said the local fireman. "It sure will.." echoed his partner. "What were you doing in the area? We didn't hear 51 get called out from the county." said the first fireman who was helping Roy push away massive cracked timbers from the house's garage frame. "We were transporting a drug case by ambulance, taking a short cut. Then the slide hit us as we were going through town to avoid some traffic we didn't know was related to the slide here." Gage replied. "Oh my G*d. We saw that boulder in the road. Anyone get hurt from that?" "Not directly. Our victim died on us when some fire ants ravaged her, a crewmate, and our ambulance attendants, after we got out of there."Johnny said tightly, grunting as he dug in with his shovel into the disturbed dirt sucking around his ankles. "I'm so sorry. Those d*mned things came with the home builders. Came on a load of southern state lumber according to one teacher in the school who's been studying them. Are your buddies ok?" "Yeah, no one was allergic. And everyone else effected will get over it." ::I hope.:: he thought privately. Joe Early came over 51's HTs. ##Squads 51, 18 and 45. I'm on scene and will be open for any medical traffic should you encounter a situation warranting detailed treatment decisions. Use your walkies normally. I have been given three to cover each of you.## "HT 51 to La Conchita Base, 10-4, doc.." smiled Gage as he heard the other two pairs of paramedics acknowledge Dr. Early at the same time over the airwaves. "We've got a live one working, but he's still out of our reach. Stand by.." he said. ##Standing by, 51.## replied Joe. Johnny pushed down his HT's antennae and he stuffed it into a side pocket. Roy gave a shout. "I think I see something! Mike, hold off on the K-12 a second. I wanna hear for a bit.." Stoker snuffed the power to an idle and set it down. "Hey!!" Roy shouted into a deep hole that seemed to be in the basement of the foundation jilted house. His feet rested on the roof of one of the two cars that had been described by witnesses. And the bumper of the second was just visible through the pile of red dirt that Johnny was sifting through. "Fire Department! Can you hear me? Shout if you can!" he ordered. A muffled moan to Roy's left sounded, from underneath the still buried car. "He's alive.." DeSoto said with a tight expression. "But he's under there." he said pointing to the still buried second car with his lit flashlight. Gage coughed. "What I'm trying to figure out is how these cars... got into the basement." One of the La Conchita men replied. "Easy, the house rolled on top of them from the cliff top upslope. This is actually the streetside curb underneath us. See?" and he pointed to a yellow fire hydrant that was oddly jilted against a pool table that was still standing upright next to them. "I just hope nobody was home when it did." "Yeah.." Johnny agreed wholeheartedly. " Uggmmhhf! I can't get to him. Looks like all of us are going to have to crawl down into the basement to get to him. Let me get my belt on. Roy, tell Incident Command where we're headed. I'm sure Cap's gonna wanna know that we're going into a slide hole." "Already did. He's coming himself to help us out. Battalion Two has taken over for him." Roy replied. Soon, Stoker, Cap, Roy, Johnny, and Marco were completely covered in darkness inside the destroyed basement. Only a tiny hole showed the way back to the top of the landslide's edge. Johnny began to take heart when he smelled neither natural gas nor blood or bowel material in the shattered room. "La Conchita.." he said into his radio. ##51, go.## said the two firemen watching the climbing ropes which had carried station 51 down into the angled house. |
 |
 |
 |
|
"Looks like we won't need our air bottles nor the mast suit. Just a stokes!" he shouted. ##It's on the way down.## Roy crawled under the first car and had to drag himself from bumper to bumper in order to reach the moaning man they all heard clearly now under the second. He was grateful that all eight tires on the cars hadn't been blown by flying slide debris. "Hey,.. how are you doing?" DeSoto asked as he peeled off a glove to feel for the semi conscious man's carotid. "I thought I .. had found myself a really...good safe ...spot." he panted. "You did. A house fell on ya and you're not a pancake on the pavement." quipped Johnny from above. "Can you tell us what hurts on ya?" "My head...and...my knee. The left one. I think I blacked out for a couple of seconds." said the trapped man. "Can you move at all? Is anything pinning you down?" "I can move. Just too dizzy to." he gasped. "Afraid to move.." "You don't have to. We'll do all the work getting you outta here." soothed Roy. "Just try to relax.." he said sweeping his hands over the man's back and sides and limbs, looking for wet spots or deformities. "No fractures or major bleeders, Johnny." "Ok. How's his neck?" Gage asked. Roy felt along it. "What's your name? Can you tell me that?" "Martin.." said the man. "And it's Tuesday around six o'clock. Look mister, I'm not that bad. Just got a headache. My neck's fine, just get me outta here. I gotta find out where my brother is..." The rescuers fell silent. Captain Stanley spoke up from where he crouched under the low ceiling of the broken house's floor boards. "Where was he when the landslide hit?" "At the school....He always goes to play on the swingsets on vacation days." Everyone let out the breaths they were holding. Hank smiled. "Martin. Everything's fine. The school wasn't hit at all. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if your brother's running around all the fire engines parked there. That's where we have set up our triage operations." Martin sighed as he let Roy check his eyes out with a penlight. "That's a relief." DeSoto grinned. "Well, it looks like you aren't hurt too bad. Your pulse's strong and both your pupils are reacting normally." "Thought I was just bumped and bruised. Can I try and get off my stomach now?" "Wait until I get this lifebelt around ya.." said Roy. "Then we'll get you pulled out of there." "Ok.." Gage motioned in the dim space. "Stoker.. go ahead and start cutting. If we get this fender off right here. I think we can get Martin out sideways instead of making him crawl the same way Roy did getting to him." "Martin, I'm gonna give you some oxygen to help push away some of that dizziness you're feeling. Ok. Just breathe this in normally." Roy said as he pressed a passive demand valve over the dusty man's nose and mouth so he could get its full benefit. Martin closed his eyes gratefully. |
 |
 |
 |
|
Stoker and Hank got to work on splitting the car open just behind the front driver tire. They had pulled the chassis away when the rest of the house came down unexpectedly, sending the two firefighters from La Conchita spilling into the hole after the 51 gang and it motion sprawled them spreadeagle on top of the two cars. Dirt and debris rained down, covering everyone like sand into the bottom chamber of an hourglass. Gage's panicky voice rang out through the main emergency channel on HT. ##Emergency! Cave-in at 51's location. We need an immediate emergency resp---## Then it choked off. Dirt completely filled the basement and started to bury all the firefighters as the house collapsed like a falling house of cards. Two minutes later.. firemen came in a barely controlled panic when none of their hails were answered by 51 or La Conchita on any band. They started digging at the ruins of the house's front porch as fast as they could. |
 |
 |
 |
|
************************************************** From: "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com> Date: Thu Jun 30, 2005 5:23 pm Subject: In Certain Terms... The glow of the setting sun, twinkling off ocean waves, now glinted off the large brown gash that marred the verdant hillside above La Conchita. The whole gang of 51's sat up in a row on the grass of the school yard, on a curb, getting treated for suffocation effects. Each one wore a high flow oxygen mask and were getting medically treated by the remaining members of La Conchita's fire department. Joe Early was working down the line listening to each fireman's chest in turn for any developing problems. Johnny Gage was still coughing occasionally, so he was the first to get his blood pressure taken by a rescue worker. He pulled his mask to the side as he spit out a wad of dirt from his mouth. "Roy, tell me again how we all managed to get out of there. I still can't believe it..." "Stoker dove under the pool table and found a firewood storage bin under the stairs. He opened it up and we all piled in, jammed together like sardines. Guess we ran outta air soon after. I only remember waking up here a few minutes before you did." Gage held his arm still while a first aider took his blood pressure. "Thanks, Stoker.. I owe you another one...." coughed Johnny. "Pay me back by cooking dinner tonight. Then we'll be even." sighed Stoker from where he sat a little farther down the street curb wearing his own oxygen supply. "Awww, man.." sighed Gage. "Not KP again. You asked for that when you got me out of that factory fire last week." "I stick with what works, Gage. I'm that kind of guy." Stoker said, peering over around Cap and Roy, to peg Johnny with an ironic glare. Gage tried to smile for his caregiver and hide some residual shaking. "What's it at?" "120/74.. Coming up.." she replied. "Thanks." he told her. Then he raised his voice again. "Hey, hey, hey. That's seven out of seven not in bad shock. What a track record. Say, Cap. Wouldn't you say that La Conchita's got a faster rescue response time than we do? They dug down to us in two hours flat, and through rock debris, too." "They're fast enough, or we wouldn't all be breathing so good right now." Hank replied. They all watched as a sleeping Martin was closely attended by firemen getting him set to fly out to Rampart. Joe Early had long ago treated him and stabilized his oxygen levels enough for an aerial transport. |
 |
 |
|
The helicopter bearing him away had become a dot in the darkening sky when they all turned their heads at some jaunty whistling that somehow didn't seem out of place. It was Chet Kelly, bearing a box full of ice cold bottled water and some sandwiches. "I love the Red Cross. Ran into Jolene again and she got me these. There's enough for everybody here. Eat up.." Gage went with that completely. "Yeah, eat up guys, I promise I'll cook tomorrow night. That okay with you, Stoker? I'm kinda tired still." "Fine with me, Just make sure dinner isn't pizza again like that last time. That was cheating." Mike replied. The others laughed, looking comical behind their oxygen masks. Chet paused when he reached Johnny, who was the only one who had had an I.V. started. "So you didn't wake up fast enough for them, huh?" "Guess I didn't. My NS I.V.'s still running wide open. But gimme something, I'm just as thirsty as the rest of em." he complained. Chet grinned, playing keep away for a few times until relenting and finally giving Johnny his allotment of food and water. "Got a joke for ya'all that I've been thinking about." "Oh, yeah? What's that?" smiled Roy from where he was getting a small head cut bandaged. Chet lined himself up so everyone, including the two La Conchita firemen who were caught inside the collapsing house with his own station's men, could hear him. "Why is hating fire ants considered a genetic trait?" No one knew the answer. Kelly delivered his line. "Because they often run in people's jeans. That's why." he said smacking his own pair that he had changed into once he was recorded officially as a code I casualty off duty. All the sitting firemen groaned, startling their caregivers for a moment until their rescuers realized that nothing was actually wrong with them. Cap sighed under his oxygen mask and toyed with his still actively broadcasting HT. His eyes wandered over to the sunlit slope nearby that showed clear signs of backward rotated trees that had been going on for years. "I wonder if they've seen that..." he said pointing them out to the others. "We have.." replied one of the injured La Conchita men. "That's plot 76-A in the teacher's log, who's been studying the mountain. He's been my main supporter whenever we start crying wolf about landslide conditions cropping up again, in city hall meetings. Seems the obvious in front of their noses still means nothing to the mayor and his board of directors." he said, wincing as a worker splinted his sprained ankle carefully. "Well, I don't think anybody can ignore that, this time around.." said Hank, tossing his helmetless head up at the gouged hillside above the town. "Not this time.." said the passionate fireman. "It's just a shame that so many people had to die before something constructive gets done. You can count on me fighting the house builders in a few months so they don't make the same mistake a third time." "Maybe instead of saying I told ya so to them.. you should just sit back and wait to see what they do on their own this time.." Stoker suggested. The La Conchita fireman laughed. "I'm nice, but I'm not that nice. They need their butts kicked so no more people will die. Isn't that strange how suddenly, everybody's gets selective hearing whenever someone starts talking future-disasters-that-could-be, in council?" "Ahh, now that's the 'what ifs' factor working..." Cap chuckled. "We encounter that all the time working with our brand of bureaucrats about earthquake risks in L.A. Only we don't have just a isolated hillside to think about. We have miles long faultlines,.. and some of them are cutting right through the heart of downtown." "I read that. Isn't the La Brea Tarpits bubbling up from one?" "Yep." said Roy. "Seems the smell isn't enough of a warning sign. And they built a museum situated there right alongside the tar lake." Chet chuckled. "Now isn't that the craziest idea you've ever heard?" "Nope." said Gage with a wry smile. "Building at all in California's the craziest." He started ticking off negative points on his scraped up fingers. "We got too little water for the population, we burn up every fall with all the brush fires because we let things overgrow too much, and we let ourselves *cough* suffocate under our wonderfully orange traffic caused smog cap because of perpetual desert/seabreeze inversions that we know we can't do anything to eleviate. Now that's stupid." "Speaking of ideas. I've been thinking..." Kelly went on. "Uh, oh. Here it comes.." Marco said taking another breath from his oxygen tank. "No, hear me out. This is good, guys. Remember the contest the chief sorta ordered us to enter this morning?" "Yeah.." Roy replied for the rest of them. "Well, I tinkered a bit in the first aid tent and came up with something that I think will revolutionize at least one of your older paramedic protocols. I brought it along with me. It's right here." At this, Gage started paying attention and stopped chewing his food. Chet Kelly reached under himself and pulled out what looked like a low metal stool with an opening square of bars between the support legs in front. He picked it up and headed for the gurney that Roy and Johnny were sitting on. "Roy, get up for a sec. Johnny, lie down on the bed on your back. Here, I'll string your I.V. up on the pole." "What are you up to?" "Just something I thought about, thinking about Diane Hart." Chet replied. "I had hours to do that you know, while they poked and prodded at me." That quieted the others respectfully. By then, everyone knew the name of the drug overdose fatality that squad 51 had run unsuccessfully due to horrifying circumstances. Johnny lay down and Chet set the modified stool over Johnny's stomach, Then he climbed up and sat down. Its foot stands were completely on the gurney. Then he reached down through the square gap and flicked opened Johnny's shirt, "Hold still Gage, I'm using you as a demo." Chet framed his hands into a CPR position on Johnny's sternum. "See this? I'm gonna call it a CPR jack. Sitting up here like this makes me part of the gurney so I'll bounce at the same time any arrest victim does in a moving ambulance no matter how bumpy the road becomes. Compressions will stay even constantly. Can you picture it? You guys won't ever have to give sh*tty CPR again en route. This special seat of mine will smooth that right out." And with that, Kelly got down off the stretcher, lifted his invention off the gurney and he helped Gage sit up again and he helped him swing his legs over the side and back onto the ground. He gave a jaunty little bow as the others slowly started clapping in utterly stunned amazement. |
 |
 |
|
Captain Stanley took off his O2 mask, pulling it around his neck. "You know, I think this idea just might win McConnike's contest, gang.." he said, getting excited. He startled when a rescuer first aider suddenly hurried to his side to put it back on again, chiding him for taking it off when her back was turned. "It might at that.." smiled Roy. "It sure would be nice if we had no inspections for an entire year." Johnny was so incredulous, that he forgot to cough. "We're gonna win." "We sure are.." said Chet. "I was inspired by Diane directly, guys. I'll even call this the Hart CPR jack in her honor, man, on the official papers. It's the least I can do. And when it goes to market, I'll make sure to set it up so her family gets all the profits instead of me." "What a guy.." said Stoker. "That's so cool. Wish I had thought of this." said the station's CPR expert, examining all the solder marks Chet had made to it. "In certain terms, I thought of it for all of us, guys. And I'm dedicating it to everyone who's died here today." Kelly whispered. Thoughtfully, Station 51 and La Conchita's crew raised an impromptu toast with their cracked bottles of water and soon, all of them said their prayers and humble thoughts of consolation for the La Conchita and firefighter dead, to the arriving night wind which was blowing up softly from the beach below them. FIN Episode Twenty Two- In Certain Terms END |
 |
 |
 | ||||
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
| |||||||
 | |||||||
| |||||||
| |||||||
| |||||||
|
|