The young woman nodded eagerly, "Yeah, Doc. Right here."
"Good, then let's get him intubated before we load him into the ship." She walked to the head of the stretcher and accepted the offered equipment. "Danni, can you give me a little pressure over the cricoid, please?" She opened the laryngoscope and positioned it in her hand. Then she slid the blunt straight blade of the scope into her patient's slightly agape mouth and followed the tongue to the back of his throat using the instrument to prevent his tongue from dropping into her view. The tiny but bright fiberoptic bulb lit her way into the darkened region of his throat as she searched for his vocal cords and where to place the tube for his breathing.
"Press a little harder, Danni. That's it, I see them. Give me the tube."
The size seven and a half endotracheal tube was pushed into her hand after having been approved by the nurse who made sure the small retention cuff on the end worked. Taking it, Garrett inserted it through the cords and into the trachea, letting the blade slip out of the patient's mouth, then pulled out the stylet that was used to hold the flexible plastic tube’s shape as it was inserted. The surgeon held on firmly to the tube so as not to lose her placement of it as Danni inflated the small retention cuff once more only this time to hold it in place. "Okay, let's bag him. Danni listen for his breath sounds."
A roll of tape was quickly produced from the EMS provider and the end of it was hastily wrapped around the tube protruding out of the patient's mouth. Danni slipped the earpieces into place and positioned the bell of the stethoscope over the patient's chest. Listening for a moment, she moved the instrument from one side to the other, then to the upper most abdominal region.
"Lungs sound good, equal and clear bilaterally." She pulled back from the patient and looked at her friend. "Finish the securing and we're ready to go."
Garrett nodded in agreement as she held the tube with one hand and squeezed the plastic bag with the other, delivering air into his lungs. "Danni, run ahead and have Cowboy get the ride ready for us. Tell him he's done a good job so far." The surgeon motioned to the stands of interested students mesmerized by what they were hearing. "We'll start out to the ship while you do that."
"Will do, Doc." The nurse took off on her mission while Garrett directed the EMS personnel to deliver their patient without delay.
As she got closer to the small stage, Danni could hear what the pilot was saying and tried to keep from laughing as she recognized the story of her first flight. She waved to get his attention, then motioned to the helicopter.
He understood what she wanted and just as calmly as the podium was handed over to him, he ended his story, thanking the students for their attention. It was his turn to jump into action as he made his way for the craft and started his checklist for take off.
The nurse caught up with him as she opened the back door and readied for the oncoming patient by getting her helmet on. "We'll need a fast lift off, Cowboy. It doesn't look good for the patient. We need to get him to the Trauma Room, STAT." The pilot nodded and continued with his routine.
With the patient loaded and the surgeon boarding the ship, the pilot made sure that no others were near the blades as he readied to throw them into action. Once seated and buckled in, Garrett checked for Danni's safety belt and gave Cowboy the thumbs up for take off. The surgeon was concerned for her patient and needed additional testing to determine whether the head injury or perhaps an injury to his spine was causing his deteriorating condition. The faster that they could determine this, the better his prognosis would be.
The sound of the whirring rotors cranking up to speed signified their fast approaching take off and soon they were in the air, speeding toward the hospital that they had left no more than an hour ago. This time the patient was for real and in a life or death situation.
Only a few minutes had passed since they handed off their patient to the Trauma Team when the X-ray images started to appear on the view. The surgeon studied them and sighed. The bones in his neck where not in perfect alignment and suspicion was high for a cervical spine injury from his fall. That finding could attest to his lack of movement and labored breathing alone. But until she saw the CT Scan of his head, Garrett would not put all her coins on that single injury as the cause of his problems.
She stood back from the viewer after examining the chest X-ray, content that there was no underlying problem there and that the placement of her intubation tube was correct. Sensing the presence of someone behind her, Garrett turned and commented. "Nice job with that speech. I don’t think anyone outside of that area knew that there was a real emergency going on when you handed it off to Cowboy. Nice idea to get him involved." She shook her head and smiled sadly. "I'm going to miss that after the end of the month."
Danni looked at her funny. "I don't understand."
"I've a…" the surgeon turned her attention back to the viewer, "accepted a position at a hospital in Arizona. I'll be working there next month." The surgeon felt the sting of tears at her eyelids as she closed them to hide the pain. "I guess I didn't quite know how to tell you."
The Flight Nurse stood there somewhat in shock. The thing she thought that she was prepared for was finally said and she realized that she wasn't ready for it. She'd never really be ready for it as far as she was concerned. "Oh." The word fell out of her mouth like a whisper. This was something that she didn't want to hear and surely didn't want to accept. Danni chose denial and, to the best of her ability, that's what she would do until there was no more time to deny it and she'd have to accept reality. Garrett would be gone from her life and, more than likely, from her world.
"I…I’d better replace the supplies that we used." Danni turned and walked away, not wanting to show her feelings to anyone, especially to the surgeon herself.
Garrett let her head tip downward and sighed. She knew that she had just dealt a blow to her friend. ‘She’ll just have to understand that it’s for the best…’ then she turned and watched the young nurse walk away, ‘for her best.’ She hated causing Danni any pain but some things couldn’t be helped. ‘It’s better this way than if….’ No, she didn’t want to think of anything that could possibly hurt her friend anymore.
Realizing the nurse’s need to walk away, the surgeon emersed herself into the X-rays displayed on the viewer once more, content that she was doing what was right for all of them.
The time was flying by quickly now as Danni began to count the days she had left with the tall surgeon. Vowing not to let even a minute go by without some sort of contact with the woman, the nurse got ready to spend the day lost in the fun of a picnic with her friend. No, it wasn’t the kind where a simple blanket and food would be all that was needed besides each other, but instead it would involve games, contests and a large group of people. People who were there for one reason, they were all lone survivors. It was one of the things that Garrett had planned when she was off healing her ankle injury.
When Danni had first heard the surgeon’s idea, she wasn’t sure that it would be a good thing for the group to do. But now, faced with the fact that in a few days she too would be a member of their ranks, in spirit then not in reality. It made it all that more apparent to her that she needed this time with the surgeon. She needed to bank away all of the sunshine and good times that she could before the gray and lonely days would overrun her life. And with that in mind, the petite nurse got out of her bed and met the day head on with only positive thoughts involving one raven-haired woman.