Chapter 14
Roy and John pulled the squad as close to the overturned bus as they could, they were both surprised by the number of squads and ambulances parked in the area that had now been cleared of all nonessential vehicles.
"That bus must be loaded with kids," John commented as they slowed before moving into the place they were being directed to park. "Why else would they send us this far out of our area?"
"I'm afraid you're right junior, we're going to earn our pay check today." Roy added as he put the squad in park and reached for the door handle.
The battalion chief in charge jogged up to the newly arrived paramedics, "We're taking the more critical patients to the closest hospitals but they had to move some that are less sever out to get to the more seriously injured that were on the bottom. We have all the help we can squeeze inside the bus right now I want you boys to work with those patients being carried over there."
"Right chief." They answered in unison and pulling their supplies jogged to the area they had been directed. Glancing around as they moved among the teens scattered around them John noticed one car that looked out of place, it had no body damage to indicate it was involved in the accident but it wasn't red either, nor did it have a light bar on top.
"That looks like Stoker's truck." John commented getting Roy's attention.
"There's hundreds of trucks out there just like it. Cap said Mike was spending some time with his family." Roy dismissed John's thoughts.
"Yeah you're probably right." John surrendered and went to work.
There were all kinds of injuries including some suspected internal bleeding but John and Roy were both amazed at the first aid that had been given. Splints were made of school books and note books and tied in place using scarves, jackets, and gym clothes. Towels and blankets had been used in place of c-collars. It wasn't long before the two paramedics had used up a majority of their supplies and their patients were being loaded into an ambulance.
Roy climbed in to one that had a patient on the gurney, one on the bench on the other side and two hanging on stretchers from the ceiling and a fifth patient sitting in the chair that the paramedic usually sat in during the ride to the hospital.
John was aided into an ambulance where a patient was on the gurney, one hanging from the ceiling over head and five sitting up on the bench, with another in the chair normally used by the paramedic. These were among the less injured patients and they were taking them back to Rampart General which was one of the farthest hospitals from the accident.
Dixie was waiting at the emergency entrance when the ambulance backed in and Roy had to smile at the size of her eyes when the ambulance doors were opened to reveal the number of patients he was bringing in. "There's more in the next one," he warned her as he started pulling patients out of the back.
Once their patients were unloaded they grabbed some more supplies and climbed back in one of the ambulances for a ride back to the accident scene and more patients.
Their second run they only loaded one ambulance with five patients and as John gave the customary two slaps signaling it was safe to pull out the chief walked over to him and released him from the accident. "I think we have everything under control now you can go ahead and take your squad in. Thanks for the help on this one."
"That's what we're here for," John answered and climbed in the squad to go restock.
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Mike was out of his element, normally he would have been the one outside the bus washing down the gas leak and handing up supplies. Still he knew what to do in most of the cases and what he didn't know he understood what Laura was telling him. For the most part Laura stabilized the patients then moved on to the next one while Mike took charge of getting them moved out. This saved Laura's shoulder some but the moving she was required to do to keep her patients going took its toll. Mike watched as she used what ever she could find on the bus to do the job and then watched as she placed chest tubes in at least four patients because their lungs were collapsing.
Mike watched a few new techniques for starting IV's when the veins had collapsed he wanted to remember and tell John and Roy about, but wasn't sure he could describe them well enough.
Word came in when they had reached the worst of the injuries that there was a doctor who had responded from one of the near by hospitals and Laura hurried to get a couple of patients into his hands. Still she and Mike didn't see the outside of the bus until the last patient was being lifted out.
Medics who had been working at the back of the bus came to help Mike and Laura roll the last patient onto a back board and were carefully lifting him up through the side windows when Mike climbed out with the others to help lift the patient back down on to a stretcher. With water being sprayed at both the other exit's from the bus one of the firemen who had spent some time on top of the bus helping to lift patients out and supplies in reached down to give Laura a hand up. Unaware of Laura's sore shoulder he gave a pull up on her good hand but one hand wasn't enough of a hold and their grip slipped and Laura fell back into the bus striking one of the seats on the way down before banging her head on the roof of the bus.
Mike heard the clunk and the groan but it was the call, "Our nurse is down!" from one of the men in uniform that sparked him in to action. He was on top of the bus again faster than he had done the first time he was up there and he had long lost count of how many times he had been in and out of that bus through the windows.
"I'll live," were Laura's first words when Mike dropped down next to her with a worried look on his face. Another paramedic was quickly at her side performing an assessment and Mike just sat back watching.
"I didn't loose consciousness, I have a bruise on my back side and my back and no they don't hurt badly, the only part of me that does hurt is my shoulder and that was hurting before the bus turned over." Laura rattled off and once the paramedic confirmed her self diagnosis he and Mike helped her get to her feet by grabbing elbow to elbow instead of just pulling on the hand. The call then came to stop the water for a moment and Laura was guided out the emergency exit and Mike walked her over to his truck, where the battalion chief met them with cups of water for them to drink.
"Have you two been in that bus from the beginning?" He asked as he handed the water over.
"NO, we didn't get in until after it crashed," Laura smart cracked, "It's his idea of the perfect date." Laura shook her thumb in Mike's direction.
Mike turned away to hide his smile because he didn't dare let out the full belly laugh he wanted to burst out with. When the Chief brought seriousness back by asking if they had any idea what they were doing in there.
Both Mike and Laura pulled their credentials out and the chief took a few notes for his report before turning them over to the police to give a statement about how the accident happened.
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"That was some bus accident they called you on. It's the only thing on the TV all afternoon." Hank greeted his paramedics once they climbed out of the squad. "Just how many patients did you two haul away from there?"
"Let's see, I rode in with two loads of five each," Roy answered before turning to Johnny.
"My load had eight in it. You should have seen the look on Dixie's face when we started pulling them out of the back." Johnny added.
"Eighteen patients in three ambulance loads! Where did they find room for you guys?" Hank exclaimed. He had been watching the reports of the accident clean up on the TV since he heard ten squads called out on it and knew it had to be news worthy, and he wasn't really surprised by the numbers his paramedics were reporting because the news footage had shown that they were packing them in.
"There were a lot of kids on that bus, they had to do something to get them all to the hospital." Roy commented.
"How serious were the injuries?"
"A lot of broken collarbones and dislocated shoulders," Johnny reported.
"Yeah, that and broken arms from trying to stop them selves from falling." Roy added. "Of course because we were taking our patients to the farthest hospital we didn't have the worst of the patients."
"Yeah, we did have some of the more minor injuries," Johnny added, "They had to pull them out of the bus to get to the more seriously injured underneath them."
"That's what they were saying on the news." Hank was still shaking his head. "Sure glad we don't have these kind of things everyday."
"If they did they'd start putting seatbelts on buses," Johnny commented, "Most if not all the injuries came from falling on top of each other."
"Did you guys by any chance see Mike?" Chet asked.
"Mike?" Johnny questioned.
"Yeah, Chet here thinks he saw him in the news footage but no one else did." Marco filled the paramedics in.
"Well it just so happens we did see a truck just like his there," Johnny informed the group, "It was parked right behind the bus."
"So Mike was there," Hank's concern flared again.
"We didn't actually see him," Roy was quick to report, "Just a truck like his. We have no idea if it was his or someone else's."
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Lunch and a run later John and Roy were walking down the hall at Rampart in the direction of the squad when Johnny reached over and gently slapped his partner's shoulder stopping their progress. When he had Roy's attention he pointed with the antenna of the handy talkie toward the waiting room where Mike was sitting reading or at least pretending to read a magazine. They noticed that he looked tired and sweaty but different than he had looked last they saw him.
The two paramedics made their way to their friend and slipped in seats on either side of him catching his attention.
"Hi guys," Mike responded looking back and forth at his crew mates.
"Fancy seeing you here," Johnny commented, "are you all right?"
"Oh, I'm fine," Mike continued looking back and forth at his friends who were now smiling at him with 'okay tell me what's going on' type of smiles. "I'm just here with Laura."
"With Laura?" Roy gently prodded.
"Yeah, a, she um, hurt her shoulder, in a, over in China, um, a long time ago and a, it got infected." Mike stammered as the smiles on his comrades grew larger. "Well anyway, It's not getting better so she's having the doctor look at it again."
"I see," Johnny commented, "and you're waiting here for her why?"
"I didn't want to go back with her because she'll be taking her shirt off and all," Mike blushed and Johnny grinned even more crocked than normal while Roy let out a faint chuckle.
"Have you been waiting long?" Roy asked enjoying Mike's giddiness as much as his partner was.
"A, no they just took Laura back a, about five minutes ago." Mike answered still turning his head back and forth between the two smiling paramedics.
"It's a good thing you weren't here a little earlier," Johnny took pity on his friend and decided to change the subject, but he also wanted to find something out. "This place was hopping with patients from a bus wreck."
"Oh I know all about that." Mike let out a deep breath and shook his head. He was grateful for the change of subject.
"Did you hear about it on the radio?" Roy questioned.
"NO, I was driving right behind it when the semi pushed it over on its side!" Mike exclaimed still shaking his head. "A hundred and twenty kids all pilled on top of each other and the worst injuries were on the bottom. Did you guys roll on that one?"
"Yeah, we brought eighteen of the more minor injuries back to Rampart." Johnny informed, "Where were you?"
"In the bus, where else," Mike answered. "Laura was really amazing even with her bad shoulder."
The three firemen swapped stories while Mike waited and at times it seemed as if they were talking about two totally different wrecks. After a few minutes Mike glanced toward the treatment rooms to see Laura being escorted in his direction by Dr. Morton. Jumping to his feet Mike waited for Laura to approach. John and Roy slowly following him but not before sharing a friendly smile with each other behind Mike's back.
"I see they put your sling back on you." Mike commented with an 'I told you so' tone to his voice.
"Yea," Laura scowled shifting her eyes to glare at Dr. Morton with out turning her head.
"See what you can do to help her get some rest." Dr. Morton spoke to Mike, "No more taking care of mass injuries on wrecked buses."
"Now doc if you'd been in my place you'd have done the same thing." Laura defended.
"I don't have a badly infected shoulder," Morton countered.
"Even if you did you would have done what you could to help," Laura challenged.
Morton let out a sigh, "You're right," he conceded. "But if this antibiotic doesn't work the next option is to put you in the hospital on IV antibiotics and possibly more surgery."
"Threat received," Laura held up her right hand and sighed in resignation.
"If I were you right now and even ad much as saw a bus in front of me on the highway I'd take the first exit and head in the opposite direction," Morton added for extra measure.
"Maybe I'll just sleep in my camper in the parking garage with a sign on it saying emergency that way," Laura joked then turned to Mike, "I guess I better get my bag out of your truck so you can be rid of me."
"I thought I'd take you out for something to eat first," Mike stalled, "I know you haven't had anything to eat since breakfast."
"You really should have something on your stomach when you take that antibiotic," Dr. Morton cautioned having no idea what so ever he was interfering with. "It can make you nauseous if taken on an empty stomach."
"You really don't want to deal with nausea in addition to everything else you're dealing with now." Johnny added knowing exactly what he was trying to promote.
"You know Mike I think that's real sweet of you but I really don't feel up to going out any where," Laura protested. "I'd be rotten company right now and with my luck someone in the restaurant would choke on something or fall over with a heart attack and I'd have to make the fine doctor here mad at me again."
"Then I'll just take you to my place and fix you something to eat," Mike persisted.
"Mike is an excellent cook," Roy added his persuasion.
"After everything you've done for me and my family it's the lease I can do." Mike continued to persist.
"But—"
"And Mikes place has air conditioning and is a whole lot quieter than the parking structure." Johnny added.
Just then Dixie who had been listening in pushed a wheelchair into the back of Laura's knees forcing her to sit in it before adding, "That sounds like a wonderful idea, you can get a chance to sample the fringe benefits of working here. Why we have strong and handsome firemen like Mike here in and out of our hospital all day every day."
"Yeah but would my mother approve," Laura countered as Mike moved to take control of the wheelchair from Dixie.
"I know my mom would approve," Mike said as he moved toward the door. "If you want you can call her and ask her."
"Your mom would send the minister over," Laura scoffed.
Roy and Johnny managed to hold their breath until Mike managed to get Laura in his truck and drive off then they and Dixie burst out laughing.
Warning : my oldest son is graduating from High school next week and with all the awards dinners and parties on the schedule between now and then I will likely not get the next chapter out until after words. Sorry but the kids come first.