Page 66 of Five Alarm Love
The compact sedan, however, was completely crumpled.An accordion.
The driver was still in the vehicle.
Mav spared her a quick glance before unbuckling and launching himself out of the rig.
Lou followed, opening the back doors and pulling out bags of gear.Then she headed to the vehicle.
Bystanders milled around, their alarmed voices rising and falling.Even with the people nearby, Lou did her standard check for safety before moving closer.Oil and other fluids slicked the asphalt.No smoke.No visible flames.No engines running.No electrical wires.Safe to approach.
She and Mav peered through the spidered glass of the side window.The driver, a thirty-something male whom she didn’t immediately recognize, lay unconscious, his head lolling to one side.The airbag had deployed, dusting the man’s face in white powder.The steering wheel pressed into his chest.She couldn’t see his legs with the dashboard compressed against him.
Maybe she could access him from the other side.She hurried around.Not going to work.There was even less space on that side, and the dash and door were both destroyed.Thank God there hadn’t been a passenger.
The man’s breathing rasped through his gaping mouth, a froth of blood dripping down one corner.He needed to get out of this car.Now.The golden hour to definitive care was counting down quickly.Outside of that hour, the chances of survival dropped significantly.Minutes mattered.
Yanking on the door, Maverick shook his head.“Won’t open.Damn.”Sirens blasted through the clear afternoon.They both looked up.Fire vehicle.“Hope they have their extraction tools,” he said.
Louise ran back to the ambulance to pull out the gurney, so it was ready nearby.At least it gave her something to do in this hurry up and wait scene.
The late afternoon air cooled on her damp brow.Slanting sunlight through gray clouds illuminated the unnatural scene.Tuli and Hunter exited the fire engine as Mav called for the extractor.Lieutenant Kate Lucas and one of the other troopers directed bystanders to remain a safe distance away from the wreck.
Lou laid the equipment bag on the gurney and gripped the railing, waiting.
Like a well-oiled machine, Tuli and Hunter unloaded the generator onto the asphalt with a thud.
“Hook up the StrongArm,” Tuli said, his voice carrying despite his helmet and the zipped up bunker coat.
Hunter attached the extraction device and turned on the generator.With a rapid, soft chugging sound, the hydraulic equipment drove a prying tip attachment as Tuli shoved it in between the destroyed driver’s side door panel and frame.
Antsy, bouncing on the balls of her feet, Louise pulled on latex gloves, reset the stethoscope around her neck, and checked that bandage scissors were in her right pants pocket, ready to remove a seatbelt or clothing so she and Mav could examine the man.
With a screech of metal, the compressed door was freed from the crumpled frame.Tuli lifted the equipment higher, repeating the movement until the door opened about a foot away from the frame, still attached by the hinges.The back door was destroyed and compacted.
Still not enough room to remove the patient.
Hunter gripped the driver’s side door and pulled, straining against thick, crushed hinges.“No good.”
“Hold up.Swap out for the cutter tip,” Tuli said.
The patient in the car moaned, and Lou glanced at Mav’s tense expression.He, too, hovered, pacing, ready to act.
After another few seconds that felt like hours, Tuli had cut through the hinges to the point where Hunter, Mav, Kate, and the trooper pulled the door completely open.
“Let’s clear the back door for access,” Tuli said.
Hunter waved a yellow crowbar and pick tool.“I’ll try the Glas-Master.”He jammed it into the back window, shattering the surface.He cut through the remaining glass, removing it with a sweep of the tool.Yanking on the unlocked door, though, he couldn’t budge it.“Bring the StrongArm back, boss.”
After another few hydraulic pries and cuts with the machine, and more whines of unhappy metal, the back door was off.
Lou and Maverick surged forward.Hunter and Tuli dragged their equipment away.
“Lou, you’re on C-spine,” Maverick said.
Crawling into the back seat and being careful of the broken glass, Lou removed the headrest and reached behind the man, holding his neck in line.The odor of alcohol made her eyes water.
“Sats are 85%.I’m going to get the nasal cannula on him.”He held up the tubing with a hiss of oxygen from the tank attached to the gurney.
Mav carefully slid the oxygen tubing under the man’s nose and behind his ears and then maneuvered the cervical collar into place from the front.
