Chapter 7
‘QAS are incoming, lights and sirens!’ Maddie yelled from the counter of the nurses’ station, slamming the phone back in its cradle.
Adrenaline kicked through Piper’s veins as she moved from the bed she’d just finished making. The wails of the sirens rang from outside the double doors. She grabbed a pair of latex gloves from the box on the wall and pulled them over her hands, purposeful strides moving her through the emergency department. The sun was low in the sky and she was due to finish in an hour. That seemed unlikely now.
The doors slid open and Stef pulled the stretcher in with one hand while the other was busy squeezing the bag over the patient’s mouth to provide oxygen. Emmett was on the stretcher, his knees on either side of the woman, performing chest compressions. A defibrillator sat at the woman’s feet, pads attached to her chest.
‘Resus bay,’ Piper directed as Maddie smoothly took over the bagging.
Cara hurried into the emergency room. ‘Doctor’s turning the car around. Tell us what we’re dealing with, Stef.’
‘Fifty-eight-year-old female with chest pains following a motor vehicle accident. Compound fracture to the right thigh bone following the head-on collision, suspected broken ribs and a collapsed lung. We stabilised her at the scene, but she started crashing in the ambo when we were about three minutes out. The defib’s shocked her once already. Eddie and Mick are coming with the driver, maybe five minutes behind us.’
The stretcher came to a stop in the bay and Piper stepped up to the side, placing her hands together over the patient’s chest. ‘Switch out, Emmett.’
Before he could lift his hands, the automated voice of the defibrillator spoke. ‘Stop CPR. Analysing rhythm.’
Emmett climbed down from the stretcher in a way that screamed he’d done it before and Piper held her breath.
‘No shock advised,’ the machine said. ‘Continue CPR.’
Piper folded her hands over one another and commenced her round of compressions, building an even pace. It didn’t take long for the muscles in her arms to start burning.Must be doing it right.
Dr Estella walked through the doors, her scrubs in place, and Piper breathed a small sigh of relief that it was Estella still on rotation and not Sean. He was a cocky locum doctor who wouldn’t believe anyone who didn’t hold the same degree as him. The movement of Piper’s arms continued her assault on the patient’s chest. Come on, please beat.She caught Emmett’s eye and read the same plea in the serious lines of his face.
The machine again commanded her to stop so it could analyse any rhythm and Piper stilled instantly.
Estella kept a sharp eye on the screen before pressing her fingers to the woman’s neck. ‘No pulse,’ she murmured.
‘Shock advised,’ the robot voice said.
‘Clear for a shock,’ Estella said more loudly.
Piper stood back as the machine’s voice garbled through its assessment. The machine sent a shock of electricity through the woman. Piper ignored the instinct to look away as the patient’s chest jolted in a stiff jerk. She’d never get used to that, no matter how many times she saw it.
The doors to the ambulance bay opened again as another stretcher was pulled through.This must be the driver.Piper suspected he was this woman’s husband.Please be okay.
‘She’s stable,’ Estella announced. ‘Let’s get this lady a one-way ticket to Townsville via air transportation.’
Cara gave a nod and picked up the phone. ‘Piper, get her ready for an airlift. Maddie, on the driver with Greta. Emmett and Stef, make yourselves useful.’
Piper moved around the patient, adjusting lines and collecting observations. Emmett moved too, each doing what needed to be done and somehow not getting in the other’s way.
‘Did Stef say it was a head-on collision?’ she asked.
‘Two teens stole a car from Townsville and were joyriding out this way when they took a corner too wide and veered across the white line, straight into these guys.’ His jaw was tight as he secured another strip of tape around the cannula in the back of the patient’s hand.
‘Are they …’
‘Apart from a few scrapes and bruises from the air bags going off, they’re fine and in the back of a police car.’
Piper’s eyes widened. Rage and injustice burned through her as she continued working on the woman, who remained unconscious. She swallowed the feelings down. There was no room for them in the ED. ‘They’ll need to get checked over.’
‘Yeah, well, we ran out of ambulances. The cops will bring them by. I just asked that the couple get a head start.’
Piper moved her hand to cover the back of Emmett’s, drawing his troubled gaze to hers. ‘Hey, I get it. It’s okay.’
The corners of his mouth flicked up before they got back to it.