Hope you enjoy Chapter 2. Sorry it has taken me a little while to get it up.
Captain Stanley watched Karen getting the backboards off the squad as he called into HQ from the cab of the engine.
"LA, Engine 51."
"Go ahead, 51," the dispatcher replied.
"LA, we have only two victims at this location. Please return…" Cap trailed off as he watched in horror the scene unfolding in front of him.
Karen had gotten the two boards off the squad and was heading back to her partners when she dropped one. As she bent to retrieve it, Cap saw a red sports car speed around the corner a block away, swerving all over the road. Karen saw him as well. She threw down the boards and tried to run for the safety of the engine, but it was no use.
Captain Stanley helplessly watched as Karen was hit violently by the car and thrown about 300 feet down the road, looking like a rag doll being tossed around.
She slid off the hood of the car as the car turned down another street and vanished. Karen landed badly on her legs and crumpled to the road, motionless.
"Oh my God!" Cap exclaimed, not realizing fully he still had his finger on the transmitter button of the mic.
"Excuse me 51?" the dumbfounded dispatcher asked.
"LA, we now have a Code-I at this location, Burbank Avenue and Alameda Street. One of my crew has just been hit by a car and the driver has fled the scene. Possibly a DUI, LA. Please respond another ambulance and police to this location." Cap never waited for a response as he threw down the mic, grabbed the handi talki, jumped out of the cab and ran for his fallen paramedic.
He dropped to his knees by her side, taking in the horrible sight. Karen's legs were at grotesque angles, Cap could tell both were broken in more than just a few places. Her arms were also at odd angles. Her breaths were coming in short, raspy gasps. She was bleeding from many deep lacerations, staining her blue uniform crimson red and pooling around her on the pavement.
But what scared the captain the most was all the blood coming out of her ears, mouth and nose. He looked down as he felt something wet seeping through his uniform pants. He saw Karen's blood soaking his knees and hands.
He was still reeling at the shock of his bloody paramedic as he stumbled around the back of the engine over to his crew.
"Johnny! Roy!" Cap started yelling. He rounded the back of the engine looking like he had just seen a ghost.
"Cap? What's wrong?" Roy yelled, running for his captain.
All of the guys noticed that Cap's face was pale and his eyes were wide with what looked like fear. His hands were red with blood and his knees were soaked. Cap didn't answer Roy's question. Instead, he stumbled to the ground and started throwing up.
"Cap? My God, Cap! Are you okay?" Johnny asked kneeling next to Stanley. He had never seen his captain throw up this bad.
All were wondering where the blood had come from that was covering their captain. It took Cap a full minute to stop throwing up , then he said, " Karen. She got hit by a car, she's pretty bad." He barely finished speaking before Johnny was off the ground and he and Mike were running full tilt for Karen.
"How the hell could we have missed hearing that?! Chet, go get the backboards. Marco, stay with Cap for a few minutes until he gets his emotions in check and he's alright," Roy said as he ran for the bio-phone.
He saw officer Vince Howard pull up in his squad car and run for him. Roy put his hand up to Vince as he picked up the reciever and he heard Marco praying in Spanish under his breath as he called Rampart. "Rampart, squad 51."
"Go ahead, 51," Brackett replied.
"Rampart, be advised we now have a third victim at our location, a Code-I. It's Karen. The only information I have at this time is that she has been hit by a car. Johnny and Mike are helping her now," Roy said.
He heard Dixie McCall gasp in the background as Brackett came back on the line, "10-4, 51. Keep us posted please. As soon as you have any information, transmit. How are the other two victims? Do you have the vitals on them yet?"
Just then, Chet ran up with the two backboards. "Negative Rampart. Extricating now." Roy threw the bio-phone down and ran to the two vehicles.
Marco came running up. "Cap's went to help John and Mike. He said he was okay and he already called it in and an ambulance is on the way," Marco said.
"Roy, what happened?" Vince asked.
"I'm not sure Vince. All I know is Cap came from around the engine to tell us Karen had been hit by a car."
"Need some help?" Vince asked, deciding to ask questions later at the hospital. Roy only nodded as he and Marco went to the Toyota and placed the first victim on a backboard with Vince's help. They then went to the second victim and pulled her out of the car.
As Roy was getting the vitals on the first victim, the trio heard Johnny yelling, "Cap, hold her head, don't let it hit the ground! Mike, make sure she doesn't kick you!"
Roy's eyes widened with fear as he looked from Marco and Chet to Vince. He was so scared inside it took him three tries before he got the BP reading on the first victim.
Just then, Johnny ran around the engine heading for supplies. Roy's blue eyes met with Johnny's brown ones. "She's pretty bad. She's bleeding from her ears, mouth and nose, plus from other lacerations and broken bones. She just had a seizure," Johnny replied to the unspoken question his partner had asked with his eyes.
Before John could even get what he needed to treat Karen, Cap was yelling, "John! She quit breathing!"
"Damn!" Johnny yelled as he grabbed the trauma box and ran back to their fallen co-worker's side.
By the time Johnny left, the sirens of 110 was heard. The engine and squad pulled up behind Engine 51. Captain Jack Hearn jumped out of the cab and ran for Roy, Chet and Marco. Craig Brice and Bob Belling ham were hot on his heels, equipment in hand.
"DeSoto, what's going on?" he asked, taking in the senior paramedics pale face and the two firefighters stricken looks.
"Karen got hit by a car. She's already had a seizure and stopped breathing. Plus she's bleeding pretty badly. That's all I know Cap. Can Bob and Craig handle these two victims so that we can go help Johnny?" Roy asked, a pleading look in his eyes.
Captain Hearn looked from Roy, to the engine, and back to the trio. "Go! Brice and Bellingham can handle it," he told Roy, Marco and Chet. Roy ran as fast as he could, the two firefighters in tow. He was so afraid of what he was going to see on the other side of the engine.
"Roy! She's in cardiac arrest! I need the defibrillator!" Johnny yelled as he was doing chest compressions on Karen. Roy changed directions and ran to the squad as Chet turned and ran back the way he had come. He grabbed the defibrillator out of the passenger side compartment and ran back to Johnny's side.
Johnny was still doing compressions and Cap was bagging as he opened the box and pulled the paddles out. He put the clear gel on the paddles as he hit the charge button and started calling, "1...2...3...400! Clear!"
Cap pulled back from the ambu-bag and John stopped CPR as Roy shocked Karen's heart. Roy checked the screen. "No conversion! Damn! Again!" Roy yelled.
John was again doing compressions and Cap bagging as Roy counted again. "1...2...3...400! Clear!"
The process was repeated, only this time when Roy checked the screen, he said, "Thank God! Sinus rhythm!" He put the paddles away as Chet came back with their bio-phone and drug box in hand. "Bob had grabbed their's off their squad. I knew you needed these," he said as he placed the two boxes next to Roy and John.
The two paramedics could only mouth their thanks as Johnny, Cap and Mike log rolled Karen onto a backboard and Roy got on the bio-phone with Rampart. "Rampart, Squad 51. How do you read?"
"Go ahead, 51," Kelly Brackett said worriedly. He and Dix had heard nothing since 110 had arrived on the scene.
"Rampart, Squad 110 is handling our first two victims. We now have information on Karen. She has had a seizure and just went into cardiac arrest. She is now in sinus rhythm after applying counter shock twice. There is no spontaneous respirations. Captain Stanley is doing 24 breaths per minute by bag. We have her on full spinal precautions at this time. Both legs have compound fractures of the tib/fib and femur. Both arms are also fractured at the radius/ulna and humorous. We have splinted all four limbs. There is rigidity in the lower right quadrant of her abdomen and she is bleeding from her ears, mouth and nose and other deep lacerations and has contusions to her face, arms and legs. Her pupils are unequal and sluggish. Vitals are: BP 86/70, respirations 24 assisted and pulse is 110." Roy took a deep breath at the end of his transmission as he waited for Rampart's instructions. How the hell she was going to survive this one was beyond Roy.
At the base station, Kel and Dix were too stunned during Roy's transmission to say anything. When Roy finished, Kel looked at Dix before saying, " 51, start and IV Ringers wide open, also start a lateral IV D5W TKO. Insert esophageal airway to assist breathing, patch her in and send me a strip. As soon as you do that, get her in here stat!"
"10-4," Roy replied. Roy and Johnny started the IV's and sent Rampart a strip before loading Karen into the waiting ambulance. Both paramedics got in with her as Roy took over bagging her. Marco followed in the squad. The crew of Station 110 offered to stay and clean up the scene so that the engine company of Station 51 could follow their fallen paramedic. Officer Vince Howard followed in his police car.
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