When the situation called for it, Virgil could be scary.
That was Alan's conclusion as he squirmed through the gap between the collapsed sections of wall. Behind him, Virgil was toe to toe with Fuse, using his exo-suit to wrestle the nutcase demolitions expert into submission and somewhere outside the partially collapsed building Scott and Gordon were playing a dangerous game of tag with Havoc, distracting her.
All they knew was Kayo had been tracking the Chaos Crew, then her comms went down, her bio-monitors in her suit threw up red alerts and reports came in of an explosion at her last known location. When they got there, they'd scanned the building and found her signal right off ground zero of the destruction and the Chaos Crew were combing the rubble for her. Smallest and slimmest, Alan had been sent into the building after her while his older brothers ran interference.
Trusting his older brothers to have his back, Alan focused on turning himself sideways to fit through the gap and somehow pull the medical kit along with him at the same time. He ended up propped up on one elbow and carefully inching his way forward, pushing himself forward with his feet with the kit balanced on his hip. The lights of his helmet made the air shimmer and sparkle from the dust and his back armour scraped against sharp corners of rubble. He paused long enough to check the map on his bracer controller and saw his little red icon closing in on the teal one. "Kayo!" He called out. "I'm almost there!"
No reply.
He squeezed his way through the last of the rubble and into the darkened alcove that Kayo had sheltered in right before Fuse's explosive charges had gone off. "Kayo!" He carefully picked his way forward over the cracked floor, his heart going double time when he heard the high and tight whimper that was the only admission of pain she'd make, the eyes behind the dusty face plate of her helmet screwed shut and lips pressed into a thin line. Her hands were clasped over her abdomen and he swallowed hard when he realised the hilt of a knife was peeking from between them.
"Kayo, it's Alan, I'm here." He told her as he knelt at her side and ran the medical scanner over her. Alerts flickered into life- bleeding, abdominal trauma, heart rate of 103, oxygen saturation at 100% thanks to the automatic systems of their helmets. Her breathing was rapid and shallow, 28 a minute at his quick estimate, blood pressure of 112/60, a little low for her. "Kayo, look at me." He urged. "What happened?"
One gold-green eye cracked open. "Havoc happened." She ground out from between clenched teeth. "No other injuries, give me the bloody pain killers."
"I need to check the injury first." Alan pulled the cutter from his medical kit. "Can you move your hands?"
She reluctantly nodded and shifted one hand out of his way. Working quickly, he cut a large section of her uniform away to expose the slim double edged knife buried to just below the hilt in Kayo's abdomen, perhaps an inch above her navel. A little blood trickled lazily from the wound, but not enough to be a concern. It was when he coaxed her other hand away that he realised the knife was twitching. His brain caught up with his eyes a moment later and informed him that those twitches were in time to her heart beat.
"Oh. Uh. Not good." Alan swallowed hard, readjusted the medical scanner and ran it again for a targeted scan, hoping he was wrong and feeling the bile bubble when he realised he wasn't. "Kayo, don't move. Seriously. Don't move, don't sneeze, don't anything. That knife is right against your abdominal aorta." The implications started piling up as the words fell out of him. The slightest wrong move and she'd be dead in moments.
Words that he wasn't supposed to recognise as swear words hissed out from Kayo as Alan keyed his radio. "Guys, I really hope you've gotten rid of the Chaos Crew!" He told them, fear pitching his voice higher. "We can't move Kayo out of here, you've got to clear a path to us."
"Why…" A wordless exclamation interrupted the sentence, Scott clearly still engaged with his opponent "...not?"
"She's got a knife embedded midline in her umbilical region, scans show it's against the abdominal aorta." Alan reported, finding refuge in the technical language of the medical trade. "I can pack it, but not much else."
"The GDF are almost there, they can help deal with the Chaos Crew." John cut in over the top of the heartfelt swearing from the other three Tracys.
"John," Virgil grunted, "stay on the line with Alan, organise a hospital! I'm busy!"
"F.A.B." Was John's crisp acknowledgement. "Thunderbird Three, put the monitor on Kayo and relay the vital signs to me."
"Transmitting now." Alan clipped the monitor to Kayo's uniform and pressed the appropriate button on his gauntlet, ever so grateful to Virgil. Out of all his siblings, when it came to situations in the field Virgil was the only one who consistently remembered that he'd only been 17 for a couple of months and operational for a year. Even though he'd been training for this for almost as long as he could remember, there was a big gap between simulations and real life, especially in medical emergencies. Having a more experienced sibling effectively watching over his shoulder was very, very welcome right now.
"Kayo, I'm going to pack that wound and set up an IV, okay?" Alan dug through the medical kit and came up with a little bottle of saline, a dressing, two long roller bandages and medical tape.
"Do it." Kayo ordered, hands clenched into fists as she tried to lie still and control her breathing.
Working ever so gently Alan cleaned the skin around the wound, dried it with the dressing and unwrapped the roller bandages. He tore off several long strips of the clear medical tape and stuck them onto his left arm to keep them in reach, then placed the bandages so they flanked the knife snugly. Unbidden, Kayo held one end of the bandages while he held the other and secured the bandages in place with long 'X's of tape at the top and bottom to keep the pressure evenly distributed around the knife. When it was secured, Alan gave himself a second to breathe before he set about putting the IV into the arm that Kayo offered to him. As per John's instructions, he effectively drip-fed Kayo just enough morphine to make the pain manageable but not affect her level of consciousness, squirting one milligram at a time into her bloodstream. The last thing he wanted was for Kayo to pass out, rolling her onto her side to protect her breathing would be far too much movement right now.
Finally he heard the dim roar of the Chaos Cruiser swooping low over the building as it flew away, different brothers reporting and relaying information as they shifted into rescue mode and started peeling away the layers of building and rubble between them and freedom.
At last the alcove was flooded with the golden light of the mid afternoon sun as Virgil opened the wall, allowing in Gordon and the three GDF soldiers he'd press-ganged into helping him carry the scoop stretcher that would let them pick up Kayo with the least amount of movement possible.
A/N: This one is inspired by the true story of a chap who was very drunk and as a result of his drunken stupidity decided it was a good idea to put a kitchen knife in his own gut. He slid it right alongside his abdominal aorta and somehow lived to tell the tale. I didn't get to meet him, but the nurses at ED said his brother was going to make sure he didn't bother them again.
The abdominal aorta is a rather large and important section of piping, it carries blood from your heart to your legs. Putting a hole in it is very, very bad.
General rule of thumb for embedded objects (basically anything bigger than a splinter) if in doubt, pack it, leave it where it is and keep it still. Pulling something out on the same trajectory that it went in is actually quite a skill and best left up to the surgeons. While it's in there it's plugging the hole, any bleeding is usually minimal. If you take it out, you take the plug out and odds are high you'll make the hole bigger in the process.
Some people may remember being taught to do a 'donut bandage'- taking a triangular bandage and wrapping it around your fingers to make a ring, then threading that over the object. It's not recommended in NZ anymore because of the risk of catching the donut on the object and moving it. What's taught now is packing- taking two soft but firm objects like roller or crepe bandages, balled up socks, rolled up tea towels, etc, putting one either side of the wound and then bandaging or taping them into place with a criss cross pattern so as to not shift the object. If it's a through and through, such as a screwdriver through the hand, pack and wrap on both sides.
Because the brain is weird, draping something over the object like a light cloth or putting a paper cup over it can help calm the patient because all of a sudden the object doesn't exist anymore and it reduces the perceived sensation of pain.
As always, hope that helps and please keep the suggestions coming! I've got some training snippets and seizures coming hopefully soon, depending on what happens with the muses.