Tree Houses are for the Birds
These good fellows don't belong to me. But I promise to pick um up, dust um off and with a kiss on the cheek return them safely home.
"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face." Elenor Roosevelt.
I continue my thanks to everyone reading. Thanks for sharing your reviews and thoughts with me.
Chapter 5
"We better get her out of here fast." Roy's worry was easily reflected in his voice and eyes to Johnny. He knew they were all in danger at this point.
"HT to Squad 51." Johnny's HT squelched. He looked down to see the Engine 51 crew below them. With much relief he took out his HT.
"51 here. Cap, we're gonna need to get her out of here fast. Not sure how long this tree house is gonna hold out up here," Johnny reported.
The men standing below heard a long groaning out of the structure. Marco frowned. He had a gut feeling that things were going to go sour here.
"Marco, get extra ropes from the engine, backboard and the stokes. Mike go over and find a secure place for ropes. Chet?" Mike and Marco were already gone.
"Yea Cap," Chet answered.
"Go up and see if you can help them, stay on that ladder pally, don't put any additional weight on the structure itself." Hank was very uneasy about the height and security of the building. And with it being up that high, there was just no way to secure it.
"Ok Cap," Chet said as he ran towards the ladder. Chet looked up at the long climb up, he could see Johnny's feet sticking out of the bottom trap door. As he began the climb he tried to ignore the creaking and groaning of the childhood playhouse above him. He even had to keep his head down so his helmet could protect his eyes from falling dust and dirt.
As soon as he reached the top, Johnny moved away from the opening some and started handing him boards. Chet could see they were coming off the victim.
Looking below he called down, "Boards coming down Cap, look out!"
One board at a time, none were heavy but they were afraid to move too quickly with all the noise this thing was making. Roy uncovered an arm.
"She's got a pulse at least, weak and fast."
"Do you guys want your boxes up here?" Chet asked.
"No, we gotta get her down before we all fall out. We'll have to treat her down on the ground," Roy replied. They kept working.
Several more boards later and they could now see her face and upper body.
Roy began his assessment. "Head laceration, it's deep with blood loss." He continued, gently but skillfully running his hands over her arms and neck to check for broken bones. Nothing broken here. He checked her ribs. "Broken ribs on the right side. Right upper abdomen is tense." He pulled his hand away. It was covered in blood. Where is that coming from? He gently reached around her right side and felt down along her back. There's something in the way. What is it?
Roy realized that she had fallen on a broken piece of wood. It had penetrated into her right side, just under the ribcage. "She's fallen onto a shard of wood. It's in deep."
"How bad Roy?" Johnny asked his face furrowed with concern.
"I can't tell but there's a lot of bleeding behind her."
They continued to get the rest of the boards off of her. Roy placed a C-collar to stabilize her neck as Johnny worked on a quick set of vital signs.
"Cap?" Johnny called over his HT.
"Go ahead Gage," his firm reply came.
"We need you to contact Rampart." Hank opened up the link with the hospital to relay the information. Johnny continued, "Female 24yo with approximate 15 foot fall to hard surface. She's unconscious and unresponsive. BP 70/40, pulse 140, respirations 28. She has a deep head laceration on the forehead with abrasion, right sided broken ribs. Abdominal right upper quadrant firmness. Tell them she has a moderate sized piece of jagged wood piercing into the lateral right back just below the rib line. And Cap, tell them we have to move her. We can't start an IV up here. This thing is gonna go. We need to know if we have to try and free her with the shard intact or remove her from it."
Hank relayed all the information to Rampart as Johnny relayed it to them.
"51, how long until she can be extricated without removing the shard?" Joe Early asked.
"Rampart, estimating 30 minutes with the possibility it could bring down the entire structure," Hank replied, looking up.
"Affirmative 51. Remove the shard, apply pressure dressing. When she is down, start lateral IV's of LR, wide open and apply anti shock trousers. And 51. Be prepared that the shard is probably acting as a tourniquet right now and she will deteriorate quickly once it's removed."
"10-4 Rampart."
Chet was busy working on securing lines for the descent then getting the stokes up to them. He pulled against the rope until he could get his hands on the stokes. He waved down to Mike below who, with Marco, held the other ends of their safety ropes.
GGRRROOOOAAANNNNN…………………………….
"This thing is about to go," Roy almost whispered to Johnny, but everyone heard him quite clearly. The same thoughts were running through their minds.
Roy got towards her head with Johnny at her feet. It was gut wrenching to hear the wooden stake tear out of her side. Johnny quickly applied the dressing and leaned heavily on it for pressure. She was bleeding profusely now despite his pressure. They watched what little color she did have fade away from her face. She took a shuddering gasp then stopped breathing.
"Roy, she's in respiratory arrest!" They quickly loaded her up and secured her for transport down. Roy started mouth to mouth rescue breathing. Johnny felt for her pulse, "It's too weak Roy, I can't count it."
They both knew the situation was dire and they were in the worst place possible to resuscitate her. They had to get her down below, right now. They lowered her down to Chet who guided her down using the ropes between him, the tree and Mike below. Carefully he moved down the ladder as she descended. Johnny positioned himself to let Roy descend next knowing he would be right behind him. But a deep part of Johnny just wanted Roy out of the tree. Giving him some head space Johnny moved down next as he watched Roy and Chet reach the bottom.
Johnny felt a tug on his security line and looked up to find it was caught in the tree branch. He climbed back up a few rungs to loosen it again. Looking down he could see Roy giving Amy CPR while Chet was giving her breaths.
Hanks impatient voice came over the HT, "Gage what are you doing? Get out of there."
Johnny knew that his captain couldn't see the battle with ropes he was experiencing. He again started to descend and was moving at a pretty good clip when Hank's voice again came over the HT. This time he was yelling. He was hurrying, didn't Cap see that?
"GAGE! Get out of there NOW!"
GRROOOOOOOOOAAAAANNNNNN…………………………
The sounds almost echoed in Johnny's ears as he quickly looked up.
Johnny wasn't sure what had happened. He was coming down the ladder, still had his safety line on but after Cap called, the structure groaned and something jerked him hard. So hard it took the breath out of him. Then he felt himself falling.
Roy looked up when he heard the loud groan and Cap yelling at Johnny into the HT. He had started Marco doing chest compressions while he was on the phone with Rampart, running Amy's resuscitation.
It was almost like slow motion as he watched Johnny's body falling. The biophone link was still open to Rampart when Roy screamed Johnny's name.
