Chapter 14

Author's Note: Here is chapter 14! Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing and also wishing me luck at school:) Its going okay so far, a little dry but within a few months I'll be into the medical part and that should pick it up a little. I'm going to try and get updates through the week but definitely at least one on the weekend (probably 2-3). Enjoy!

House was silent throughout the entire ambulance ride to PPTH. He worked with skill and grace, not once faltering under the pressure of saving Cameron's life. The medics, realizing he was a force not to be contended with, merely let him do his job and handed him supplies when he asked for them. Cameron had lost consciousness only seconds before they had come crashing in the door and found the normally unfettered House frantically performing mouth to mouth resuscitation on the nearly dead woman.

"BP is down to 80/40 Dr. House. O2 stats 76 and falling."

"Shit," House cursed softly, "she's suffocating. MOVE!" He pushed the medic off his chair and reached for the intubation kit in the cabinet beside him. "Spray her throat with topical anesthetic."

"Dr. House, we can't perform an intubation without the proper systemic drugs. She could wake up." The medic was angrily trying to stare down the doctor who was taking over his job and disregarding all protocols.

"She isn't going to wake up you idiot! She has a collapsed lung!" House grabbed the anesthetic out of his hand and sprayed some directly in the back of Cameron's throat. He then tilted her head back and was starting to ease the laryngoscope down her throat when the heart monitor started to scream.

"BP down to 70/30, pulse ox 61. She's going into arrest!"

House threw the scope to the side and picked up the defibrillator paddles the medic handed him. "Cut off the shirt!" The medic hurriedly complied and within seconds, her chest was bare except for her pink bra; House didn't even notice. "Ok, clear!" The paddles shocked Cameron's entire body, her torso lifting off the bed. The monitors beeped loudly then evened out, the frantic beeping fading back into a calm rhythm.

"Ok, she's back. BP climbing back to 80/50, pulse ox still in the low 60's." The medic leaned up into the front and ordered his partner to hurry up. "Two minutes out," was the reply from the front. "We're almost there!"

"Ok. Get me a 15 gauge needle and prep the second intercostal space with betadine." House pulled on a pair of latex gloves, "and call ahead to Princeton-Plains and get them to set up a chest tube kit and chest x-ray in the trauma room."

The medic looked at him, shocked. "You can't do a needle thoracostomy right here in the bus! You're out of your mind! We'll lose our jobs!"

"She's going to die very soon if you don't prep the damn chest! Then you will lose your job!" House was fuming.

"I'm sorry Dr. It isn't going to happen!" The medic pulled off his gloves dramatically.

House violently ripped the betadine from the medic's hands and pushed him out of the way. Using the gurney for leverage, he poured a generous amount of the yellow liquid onto Cameron's exposed chest and rubbed it in with the gauze pads. He attached a long piece of yellow tubing to the needle and without hesitation, jammed it into the skin between her first two ribs.

"Son of a bitch!" The medic was furious. "You are going to kill her by doing this here!"

"The way I see it, it would be killing her not to do this here. Now shut up and listen!" House leaned his ear close to her chest and felt his stomach sink when he heard the ominous hiss of escaping air. "Tension pneumo. What are her stats?"

The medic was still seething when he looked up at the monitor, "BP is coming up a little 90/60, pulse ox 87. You got damn lucky House."

"Lucky is my middle name." House maneuvered the oxygen mask over her face and squeezed the bag every three seconds, giving her some relief from the crushing pressure in her chest. His spirits lifted a little when he saw her eyes flutter and she moaned.

"Hey Cameron, how you doing?" His voiced sounded far away when she opened her eyes a slit and saw his blue eyes staring back down at her, worried. She swallowed painfully and tried to speak.

"Don't try to talk. We just had to stick a needle in your chest to get that nasty air out of there. You're going to be fine, we are almost there, just rest." He paused pumping air into her for a second to brush her hair off her forehead reassuringly.

Her eyes drifted closed again, thankful he was there.

MDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMD

When the ambulance pulled up to the back doors of the hospital, it was only a matter of seconds before the doors were pulled open and both Chase and Foreman were there, suited up in pale yellow trauma gowns, staring at their female colleague in shock.

"What the hell happened?" Foreman asked, pulling the gurney carefully out of the ambulance to the ground. Chase took over the airbag and House moved up to her side, holding the needle in place.

"She woke up with severe chest pain that rapidly increased and her breathing was compromised. She coded once on the way over and we got her back. I did a needle thoracostomy and her stats came back up to 90/60, pulse ox 87."

Foreman's eyebrows shot up to his forehead. "You performed a blind thorocostamy in a moving vehicle!" He was silenced by the death look from House. He turned his attention to Cameron who was drifting in and out of consciousness. "Hey Allison, can you hear me?" He shook her shoulder and getting no response he called ahead to the nurses and doctors standing in the hall. "Out of the way people! We've got a tension pneumo coming through!"

They made it to the trauma room where Cuddy and a team of nurses were waiting. "House! How is she?" Cuddy rushed over to the gurney and seeing one of her young doctors laying there covered in betadine and wires was momentarily stunned. "Son of a bitch! Have they caught this bastard yet!"

"Concentrate on the patient!" House growled and pulled on a set of green scrubs and yellow gown over his jeans and T-shirt. He pulled on a new set of gloves and grabbed the chest tube kit that was on a rolling tray. "Someone get me a stool!"

A nurse complied but Cuddy stepped in front of him. "House, you should leave. Let us take care of her, you are too emotionally involved."

"Get out of my way Cuddy!" House was in no mood for the other doctor's ramblings, he was going to save Cameron's life if it was the last thing he did.

Cuddy saw the look in his eyes and reluctantly complied, opening the kit for him and giving him the stool the nurse had brought. He sat down on the rolling seat and pulled himself up to her side. "Ok, pass me a scalpel!" A nurse slapped the metal tool in his hand and he made a small incision between her fifth and sixth rib. He tried to ignore the fact that Cameron flinched when he opened her chest. "Give me a 32 french and restrain her." House knew that they didn't have time to give her any anesthetic and praying that she would forgive him, pushed his gloved finger into her chest to make a path for the tube. He guided the tube in along-side his finger and got it situated in the correct position.

She screamed out in agony and pulled away as he got the tube situated in her chest, the air rushing out like someone had just opened a balloon by undoing the tie. House grimaced at the sound and ordered Chase and Foreman to hold her tighter as he sutured the tube in place. "Titrate five of morphine, lets get her little more comfortable."

Foreman hung the meds and a nurse rubbed a damp cloth over Cameron's brow and wiped away the tears that were flowing down her bruised face. Confident he had the tube in the right place, House hooked up the underwater seal to the drain tube and placed it on the floor, looking to see if there was any blood mixed with the oxygen escaping her chest. There was a little.

"Ok, the pneumo was definitely from a puncture. Lets get a chest X-ray and see what is going on in there." House stood up painfully from the stool pulled off his bloody gloves and gown. "Keep her on the morphine for a few more minutes then switch her to ketamine, I don't want her respiratory functions affected anymore than they already are."

Ignoring the admiring glances from the staff around him, he leaned down to Cameron's ear. "I'm sorry Cameron. You should be able to breath better soon though." He took the cloth from the nurse and not noticing the looks Foreman, Cuddy and Chase exchanged, placed it on her forehead. She was shaking from the procedure and wasn't fully conscious but House knew she was aware of what was going on. "It looks like one of your fractures hid from the last x-ray we did and it was displaced. It nicked your left lung and that caused the pneumo, it's fixed now but you are going to be pretty sore for a while." He placed his hand on her cheek and told the nurse to get a warmed blanket for her. "I'll be right back." Cameron barely nodded and her eyes fluttered closed.

House left the room with the rest of the staff as the x-ray was taken and returned back to her side. She was unconscious again but her blood pressure was stabilized. He looked to Chase, "Knock her out with succinylcholine and etomidate and intubate her, I don't want her to work so hard to breathe. Get her on a respirator and into the ICU for observation, I'll be back in a minute."

T.B.C...