A/N: This one was requested by pigwideon on AO3. Shot in the shoulder/broken collarbone is treated as a minor flesh wound by pretty much every action movie. If something nicked the shoulder, sure, but not the classic shot right at the top of the pectoral muscle.
Shoulders are complicated and broken bones are like steak knives. As well as the muscles there's a major artery and nerve that snakes from the base of the neck, under the collarbone/clavicle and through the gap between it and the top of the shoulder blade/scapula and then down the arm. If the collarbone is broken you don't want to move it if you can avoid it, the odds of shredding important things are high. Between that and how the muscles are arranged, you're going to have severely restricted use of that arm, if any, once you've been shot in the shoulder or broken the collarbone.
I've gone with a broken collarbone for this one, bullet wounds will probably be their own chapter later on.
Rigby knew he was in trouble as soon as he landed with a solid crunch. His shoulder screamed at him with a throbbing pain, the grating of the broken ends of the bones like shards of glass scraping down his nerves. It was only sheer force of will that kept him from crying out as he clutched his wounded arm to his body and used his legs to push himself into the meagre cover of a piece of machinery. His radio dead, his team scattered to the winds and his shoulder broken, things were not looking good.
On the gantry overhead, metal gratings clanked underfoot as Fuse stalked through the manufacturing plant. "Come out, come out, wherever you are, soldier boy!" He chuckled darkly, tossing a detonator from hand to hand. "I won't hurt you too much."
Curled in his bolt hole, Rigby bit his lip and forced himself to breathe through his nose to try and slow his breathing down. Every breath he took moved his shoulder, triggering fresh bolts of pain that made his vision grey out around the edges.
"Rigby!"
The hissed whisper made him start and he looked around. "Here!" He whispered back.
Kayo slipped from the shadow of a conveyor belt and crossed the floor in three quick steps to crouch beside him. "What's wrong?" She murmured, zeroing in on his injured shoulder.
"Broke something."
"May I?" She asked, gesturing to his shoulder.
At Rigby's nod, Kayo produced a folding knife from her boot and sawed through the shoulder strap of his bullet proof vest and the underlying jersey, her fingers ghosting across the muscle and bone as she investigated the injury with a feather light touch. "Broken collar bone, looks like a complete break." She frowned as she considered their options. "I can secure it, but not much else." She flicked a quick message out on her communicator, then took an oversized safety pin from a pocket of her uniform. "I'm going to improvise a sling." She murmured. "Just relax and focus on breathing in through your nose, out through your mouth and using your belly muscles, not your rib cage, to breathe with. I don't have any painkillers on me, sorry."
"Just do what you've gotta." Rigby gritted out.
She took the cuff of the sleeve on his injured arm and used the safety pin to secure it to the opposite shoulder, gently manipulating it only as much as she had to. "There, that should do it."
Rigby blinked, surprised at how effective just repositioning the arm was in reducing his pain. "Better, thanks." He murmured, bringing his good hand up to support it further.
"Good." She nodded curtly, then looked up as Fuse called out his taunts again from not too far away, but the echoes made his location hard to judge. "We need to leave but without jostling that too much. There's a side door nearby, just on the other side of the conveyor belt. Can you walk?"
"I can run." Rigby insisted, pulling his feet under himself and forcing himself up.
"You'll take three running steps and fall over screaming." Kayo corrected as she smoothly stood. "Or puncture the artery, or rip the nerve or the muscles from moving the bones too much. We're doing this at walking pace."
"How?" He demanded in a harsh whisper. "If you haven't noticed, we've got the trigger happy explosives guy looking for me."
Kayo smiled at him, the dangerous one he'd learned the hard way meant trouble. "Are you willing to overlook a misuse of munitions?" She asked him with a distinctly mischievous lilt to her voice.
"If it gets me out of here intact, sure." He answered back.
She triggered her comms. "Virgil, is that distraction ready?" Kayo requested. Rigby didn't hear the answer but it must have been an affirmative because she clamped her hands over Rigby's ears, trusting her helmet to protect her own hearing.
He was about to ask her what was going on when a sharp explosion rocked the warehouse. Somewhere above them Fuse suddenly started swearing and ran in the direction of the main doors. Kayo let go and led Rigby at a stroll towards the other exit she'd found.
Outside, Two's dangling rescue chairs were waiting for them. She guided Rigby to one of the chairs, made sure he was secure and took the one next to him. As Two reeled them in, Rigby could see the shape of Basher, Fuse's all terrain vehicle, parked beside the warehouse and smoking. "When did International Rescue get explosives?" Rigby asked in astonishment.
Kayo gave an elegant shrug. "Oh, years ago, but for space operations usually. Virgil just took the C4 out of one of the warheads of the demolition missiles." She told him with an impish grin. "It won't be enough to damage it, Basher is too well built for that small amount, but it made for a hell of a distraction."
A/N:
Sineater on AO3 gave me the idea for the distraction with the comment about 'universal keys' in the last chapter.
An elevated sling where the wrist is to the opposite shoulder is usually the most comfortable position for shoulder injuries because of how the weight of the injured arm is balanced. A broad arm sling (with a splint) where the injured arm is across the torso is usually best for forearm/wrist/hand injuries. Using a sling to do either can be a bit tricky, but if you've got a safety pin and they're wearing the right kind of shirt you can improvise an elevated sling like Kayo did or a broad arm sling by pulling up the hem of their shirt to cradle the arm and pin it at about mid rib height, depending on how long the shirt is.
Positioning is sometimes an incredibly effective way to manage pain, the patient will let you know what's comfortable for them so be guided by them.
Sometimes your patient will be in too much pain and distress to want anyone near it, in that case distraction or simply covering up the injury can help- can't see it, doesn't exist and they can ignore it more easily. This works great for embedded objects too.
If you do have access to a sling it can be hard sometimes to remember how to place it to get the sling you want. Slings or triangular bandages are isosceles triangles- two short sides, one long side. The long side always goes to the uninjured side with the corner over the shoulder, the short corner to the injured elbow.
A memory aid I use for slings is 'down under, up over'.
A broad arm sling- where the arm is down- you want the sling to go under the injured arm. Get the sling draped on the torso first, arm across the body and then bring the trailing corner up and knot at the back of the neck. The leftover corner at the elbow can then be knotted or pinned to secure the arm.
An elevated sling- arm up- you want the arm in position first, place the sling over the arm and then bring the trailing corner up and under the elbow and then sort of under the arm so it crosses the back and then is tied at the base of the neck and the elbow corner secured. It's hard to explain without pictures, but there's plenty available online if you're curious.
As always, if you have a suggestion for another injury, just let me know.