“What? Why?”
“Because there’s a puppy in that box and it isn’t house broken yet. You better find a newspaper. A copy of the New York Times would be perfect!”
Sudden understanding came to him, along with a big grin, and he took off out a side door. George Bush gave me a curious look which I silently smiled at and gave him a hidden ‘OK’ sign with my good hand.
Once we were all in place, Dr. Shooster looked out into the crowd and asked, “Are we all ready?”
Most everyone was, but one of the TV guys yelled something about a bad feed. We waited a few more minutes for him to fiddle with something, and then he yelled out, “Try it again!”
“Try what again? I’ve never done this before,” commented the doctor.
“Got it!”
She looked at me in confusion and I covered the mike with my hand and said, “We’re fine. You’re doing fine. You can start now.”
She nodded and I sat back as she started. Around us some flashes started up, and the camera lights were blinding. “Hello. Thank you all for coming. My name is Doctor Elizabeth Shooster and I am the attending surgeon for Congressman Carl Buckman. I was also consulted on the treatment for Mrs. Sylvie Torquist. Congressman Buckman and Mrs. Torquist were the only victims of the tornado that hit Springboro two days ago who were treated here, and as far as I understand it, the only two victims who received more than cuts and scratches. I think we can all be thankful that the level of injuries was so light.”
That seemed pretty good for the destruction I saw in Springboro. Doctor Shooster kept going. “With me up here is Congressman Buckman and his wife Marilyn and his daughters…” She looked down at an index card before continuing, “… Holly and Molly. On my other side is Mrs. Anna Simpson, the sister of Mrs. Torquist, who will be able to speak for the Torquist family.” Mrs. Simpson flashed a big smile and waved at everyone. She was a blonde like her sister, though older and more heavy set.
“I asked if the Springboro police or fire department wanted to contribute to this press conference, but they indicated that they were too involved with operations in Springboro to send somebody to attend. However, they did wish to thank the Congressman, and said that he had as good a view of what happened as anybody, and that he could speak for them.”
Thanks for the vote of confidence, guys. Now watch me step on my crank! The doctor wasn’t finished however. “As a doctor, I will be speaking to the medical condition of the two patients.” She bent over and picked up a medical dummy, upper half only, and set it on the conference table. “Congressman Buckman was injured when the Torquist home collapsed on him after he rescued the Torquist family. At that time he received a mild concussion and some abrasions to the left side of his head. There was also penetrating trauma from wood splinters to the left side of his chest and upper arm, along with two cracked ribs.” As she mentioned each injury, she pointed it out on the dummy. “While Congressman Buckman’s injuries were significant, they were not life threatening, and the Congressman has responded very well to surgery and treatment. I anticipate releasing the Congressman from our care either later today or early tomorrow.”
I smiled at Marilyn. It couldn’t be any too soon for me.
“Mrs. Torquist’s injuries were considerably more severe, and were complicated by the fact that she was pregnant. I have received permission from the Torquists to provide relevant information. Before the Congressman was able to reach Mrs. Torquist, she had been injured by some falling shelves in her storm cellar, which gave her an extremely deep cut on the back of her right calf, penetrating and partially severing her posterior tibial artery.” She now pulled out a dummy leg. “Congressman Buckman was able to fashion a tourniquet and remove Mrs. Torquist from the basement, where she was transported here. Further medical treatment required that we perform an emergency Caesarian section here, and then we transported Mrs. Torquist to Oklahoma University Hospital in Oklahoma City for vascular surgery to repair the arterial damage to her leg. While I am not a vascular surgeon, the doctors I spoke to at O.U. expected that Mrs. Torquist would fully recover and come home again in a relatively short time. In addition, while the delivery of their baby wasn’t planned, the birth was only about a week early and the baby is in good health. For more on the Torquist family, you will need to speak to Mrs. Simpson here, as the family spokesperson. Now, I’m going to sit down and let the others here speak.”
And pandemonium ensued!
Everybody began speaking at once, and both the doctor and Mrs. Simpson seemed stunned by it. Finally I stood up and motioned people to silence with my good hand, and then said into the mike, “Okay, one question at a time, just like when we were all back in the first grade!” That got me a few laughs, so I sat down and pointed at somebody in the first row. “You first.”
“Congressman, why did you go into the basement? Why didn’t you wait for trained rescue people?”
“There wasn’t enough time,” I answered. “When we were yelling to see if anybody was in there, we were told to save her children. That put a whole different light on things. We had to go in, right then. By the way, my job was the easy one. All I did was hang around in the storm cellar. The guy we really ought to be thanking is one of my staff, Jerry McGuire. He’s the guy who kept going in and out of the house to bring out the Torquists.” I looked around but didn’t see Jerry. The rat must have ducked out when he heard me mention him.
Another reporter popped up. “Why didn’t you rescue the children first?”
“Because Mrs. Torquist’s injuries were pretty bad. I’m no doctor, but she was losing blood pretty fast. The children were uninjured. I simply did the best that I could at the time.”
Doctor Shooster broke in at this point. “The Congressman is correct in this. Mrs. Torquist lost an awful lot of blood before he got the tourniquet on her. If he had waited even a few minutes while rescuing the children, both Mrs. Torquist and her unborn baby would have died. As it was, she needed massive transfusions both during the ambulance ride and here.”
Huh! I had no idea!
Another question came in, this one really dumb! “Congressman Buckman, weren’t you frightened to go into a house on the verge of collapsing?”
“Of course I was, but you can’t let that stop you. All I knew was that there were people trapped, at least a woman and some children. Once I was inside, I was much more scared of messing up the tourniquet than anything else. Like I said, I’m no doctor, but I do know you can screw that sort of thing up and really hurt somebody!” I looked over at both the doctor and Mrs. Simpson. “She’s going to be all right?”
“She’ll be fine,” assured Doctor Shooster.
Mrs. Simpson got into the act, which was fine for me. “I talked to Tom this morning. Sylvie is doing fine. The surgeons think the damage is fully repaired, and that she can come home in another week to ten days. She’s a tough girl. She and Tom said to make sure I thanked you for saving her life. Oh, and I wanted to say that your daughters are simply darling girls. The kids loved them.”
Holly and Molly lit up at that, and the conversation turned on them. Another reporter asked, “How did you meet the Congressman’s daughters?”
“They stayed with us last night. Mrs. Buckman came over last night and checked on them, but it seems they had orders from their father to take care of the children.” She turned to us and asked, “What was that about, anyway?”
I rolled my eyes at that and Molly answered, “Oh, Dad told us to take care of them right before he went to the hospital. We figured it was his last request, you know?”