They arrived at the hospital in a few minutes. Dr. Strauss jumped out of the car. A tall, blonde nurse came to her, reached her hand. She needs to talk very loud because a Medic flight came in for landing. "Ma'am! You must be the German anesthetist we requested. We´re so grateful, you´re here. I´m Luietenant McCallum. Please call me Ann." "Thank you, Ann. I´m Dr. Strauss. Another female colleague may come, too. How can I help? " "Please Ma'am, follow me." Ann went quickly in and Dr. Strauss followed her. "Have you clean clothes for me? My uniform is a little underdressed for here." She tried to make a joke while they almost ran. Ann smiled, "Of cause, Ma'am. I`ll get it for you."

They hurried through the entry, it seemed there must be hundreds of people there. Nurses, doctors, wounded… The moaning and wailing was there like vast amounts of blood on the floor. The air smelled like iodine, blood and burned flesh. In view of this organized chaos and the babble of sounds and voices her steps got slower.

There was a man with burns, needs to be calmed by a nurse. One was writhing in pain. It seemed that he had several bullet wounds. Another sat on a stretcher. His back was turned to her. So she could see the wounds on it. Not life-threatening but must be sewn. In his Mohawk haircut stuck a little blood. For a little moment she thought, she knew him. Ever seen him before… Suddenly she had a very, very queasy feeling in her stomach. But didn´t know why.

Ann yelled, "Craig, where is help needed? I´ve got the German anesthetist here with me!" Craig seemed to be the Coordinator here. The conductor .

"Trauma Bay 5! " he blurts from the other side of the hall.
They hurried out of the entry to a room with a leaf door. Ann pushed the door open.

Someone counts to three and the soldier is lifted in one fluid motion from the stretcher to a trauma bed. Seven people are working on him now, ripping away dirty clothes, starting IVs to replace lost blood and calling out vital signs.
Dr. Strauss took a short look around to orientate. "Oberstabsärtzin Strauss at your service" she shook the hand of a doctor who turned to her. He smiled. "Lt. Commander Daily. Thank you for coming here so fast! I´ll introduce you to the rest of the team, when we´re done ."he said. The team round the patient gave her a short friendly nod for greeting. No time for courtesies. She nodded back. "You´re welcome." The queasy feeling had gone now.
"What do we have here? Can someone give me a handing over?" She looked around. Ann came in again with some surgical clothing. "I hope it's the correct size.." "It will fit, I guess" Dr. Strauss went to a free corner in the room and started changing the clothes while Ann read from the patient´s medical form to inform her. "Atkins, James, male, 31. Got hit by shrapnel. He`s got a tourniquet on the left leg. Wound's not very deep, arterial bleeding has been stopped. But he has lost of blood, until a few minutes he was unconscious." Dr. Strauss took a look at her patient. Slowly she went over to him. Every step seemed to take an hour, the floor felt like the mattress of a water bed, the voices around her sounded like they were speaking through cotton.
He was pale, hard breathing, he tried to speak but he could only move his lips.
"We think there is a further internal bleeding." Daily said. "We must go to the operation room. NOW! Is one free?"-"Will be in about 15minutes.." someone answered.
Dr. Strauss took his hand. A hand she hadn´t held for almost 2 years. She pushed herself together. No Emotions now! She released his hand, asking Ann: "He has eaten or drunk anything in the last six hours?" "We don`t know.."
"Have you asked him?" Ann put a serious look on. "I´m sorry," Dr. Strauss said "Don´t want to…" "It´s ok.. " Ann smiled again. It was amazing that someone who has to see things like these everyday can preserve such a smile.
"Ok, prepare the ventilator and get me 6 further units of blood!" His pulse was rising.

Dr. Strauss filled a syringe with an anesthetic. Then she turned to her patient. He was calm but he began to shake. "BP is 100 over 40 and falling" she heard.
"Get me 4 more," She requested urgently more blood. The first six had arrived. She pushed two in him with low pressure by her hands. The remainder were transfused normally.
He turned his face to her, it was hard for him to speak. "Missed…" He felt dizzy and cold. Damn cold. The shaking got worse. Strauss took his hand again. She could not understand him, there was too much noise in the bay. He tried to hold her warm hand.
In this moment he thought, he will surely die when he lets go. She leaned over him and whispered in his ear: "Red, It`s ok now. I´ll put you into sleep now and take the pain. I´ll take care of you! Ok? The only thing for you to do is to hang in! Understand me, Seal?" "Yeah," he whispered while she pushed the injection slowly in an IV.

Once the anesthetic worked, she tried to intubate him. At this moment the monitor behind her began to alert. Ann reported: BP is falling… Pulse rising..
"Shit! Didn´t I tell you NOT TO GIVE UP? " she shouted in german at her sedated patient. She threw the laryngoscope and the tube away she wanted to place and decided to ventilate Atkins manually and ordered quickly some medication to stabilize his circulation. Then the beeping behind her changed into a continuous sound. "Cardiac arrest!" Ann blurts while Dr. Strauss injected the drugs. Ann began the CPR right away. She pushed with the power of her whole weight. After a few pressures he had a pulse again.
"What about the damn surgery? WE CAN´T WAIT!" Daily shouted out of the leaf door. In this moment a nurse rushed in: "Surgery Team One is free for ya!" At his command everything was unbound and laid on the trauma bed.
"We´re ready! GO!" Strauss yelled. So the leaf door was thrown up, and 4 of the team ran with the bed to the operating room.
Dr. Daily introduced Strauss quickly to the surgery team while they prepared Red for surgery.

As Ann went back to Trauma Bay 5 to clean up for the next patient, she was stopped by a soldier. "Will he make it? He`s my best friend…" The tall man with a mohawk looked worried. "They will fix him up again." She laid a hand on his shoulder. "Please wait over there… And pray."