Snow Storm part 4
When the snowmobile got to the garage where the command post had been set up, Johnny was greeted with open arms. As soon as Bob James introduced him, several people started trying to talk to him at once, and from the back of the garage, at a desk beside a makeshift command table consisting of a couple of benches with a door laid on top, a man waved to him to come over. Bob walked with him and introduced Johnny. "He's a paramedic from LA – lots of experience."
"Hello there, young man. We are sure pleased to see you! George Smith. Chief of the volunteer fire department and retired army. Getting this crew into some sort of shape, so we can hit the bad spots. Just need to decide if we want you most on the road, or at the hospital. What's your feeling? How much medical do you have?"
"Well, Chief, a good amount of field emergency, though I usually work with my partner under direction of a doctor. And normally I'd have quite a bit of equipment at hand."
Chief Smith nodded, and Bob put his hand on John's arm to get his attention. "I'm gonna go back and get your wife now." The chief looked up at Bob from over his glasses, and Bob clarified, "She's got some basic first aid – I was thinking the clinic would be a good place for her to work."
The chief nodded again. "You go do that." He turned his attention back to Johnny as Bob strode out of the garage and started his snowmobile back up again. "Come take a look at some injuries we've got right here." The two men walked over to the other side of the garage, where a man was lying on a cot, with a bandage covering his eye. Johnny bent down and introduced himself, and asked if he could look at the injury. The man nodded. Johnny lifted the dressing and saw a wound beside the man's eye, just missing the socket. It had stopped bleeding, but he could see a little flash of bone. "What happened?"
"Stupid thing – was trying to clear away some fallen branches, and one of them swung 'round and caught me right in the eye. Wife thought I had lost my eye 'cause of the blood – started screaming like a crazy woman. We don't live far – just over the rise – and we basically walked over; as best we could with this snow. It was hard slogging. M'wife's on the other cot – she didn't dress too warm in her rush to get me here, and with the accident, well…"
Johnny said soothingly, "You're going to be fine." He spread out the first aid kit and started to work cleaning and assessing the wound. After a moment he called over to the Fire Chief.
"Chief, I can't do stitches, and the wound isn't that big, but it should be closed right now because there's a bit of uncovered bone. I've seen a technique that's been used in emergency situations – super glue. Do we have any available?"
"I'll ask the garage men, but I expect so. Super glue, huh? Y'mean that stuff that can hold up a grown man from a beam? What will they think of next?"
Chief Smith watched carefully as John made sure the edges of the wound were touching exactly and when the paramedic said, "Okay, just a couple of drops right over the center", he did as instructed, then watched as John spread the glue very carefully and gently with a tooth pick, lightly covering the edges. John then used a couple of thin strips of tape to hold the edges together as the glue set, and to reinforce the repair.
"Nice work, if I do say so," commented the chief.
After Johnny had the man 'stitched' up, and sitting with a cold pack over his eye to reduce the swelling, he was able to go deal with the man's wife. She seemed to be most anxious about her husband's eye, and wasn't impressed at all to find that the wound had been glued together. She glared at Johnny. "Young man, do you really know what you are doing?"
Johnny had to use his considerable charm in order to calm her down and give her an examination. He reported to the chief that she would be fine – the cold exposure hadn't negatively affected her, and it was mainly anxiety about her husband that was causing her symptoms of heart palpitations and shortness of breath. "A hot cup of coffee with lots of sugar is my prescription." One of the other men grinned and went off to get it for her.
Chief Smith walked with John back to his desk. "Well, what's your feeling? Rescue or clinic? Got to decide now, 'cause I got a lot of area to cover, and you're about it for trained medical response."
Johnny wasn't used to having his opinion asked for, and replied, "Well, I think you're probably a better judge of that than I am, 'cause I don't know the area and I'm not used to snow, but I'm first and foremost a rescue man." He shrugged. "But if you don't have any docs around, then I guess I'm it for now."
The chief sat down. "Son, I need your take. I don't know you, and if I had two of you, it wouldn't be a question." Johnny still didn't know what to say. George put his hands together on the makeshift desktop. "How 'bout this then? We'll have you make your way over to the clinic, and if there's anything we hear about that we need you to make a trip for, we'll get you from there."
Johnny nodded, relieved. "That sounds great, Chief."
"Great. Just one more thing to do. Scott, c'mere a minute." The chief called over a man who was standing nearby and said to him, "I want you to be an official witness to this, and write it up for me to sign." He then turned back to John. "I'm hereby deputizing you as a temporary member of the volunteer fire department, and giving you a special assignment as a provider of emergency medical care to those within this jurisdiction." He shook John's hand. "Welcome, fireman. Glad to have you on board. Scott, get that typed out and back to me so he can sign it before he leaves." Scott nodded, writing notes on a pad of paper in his hand, and George raised his eyebrows at him, saying firmly, "That means right now." John grinned.
Jane heard the snowmobile coming from inside the cabin, and went outside to meet Bob. He raised his arm in greeting, and yelled over the sound of his motor, "I'm gonna take you over to the local clinic. You can help out there for now." She nodded, and climbed onto the back of his machine. The ride took about 20 minutes, and they didn't bother trying to talk to each other due to the wind and flying snow. When they pulled up to the clinic, she saw that it was about the size of a large cottage.
Bob helped Jane climb off the snowmobile and carried her bag of supplies. There was one other person there, a woman who had come on snowshoes, which were standing up beside the door outside. She was widening a shovelled path to the door. The window frames were uncovered as well, making the lower half of the clinic look a little bit like a hybrid igloo. The woman looked like she was in her mid forties, but her hair was almost white. Her face was kind, with large grey eyes. She put her shovel aside when Bob came up and asked, "Hi, Bob, who's your friend?"
"Cathy, this is Jane Gage. She's got some first aid, and she's willing to help out with whatever needs to be done."
Cathy shook Jane's hand. "Great to meet you, Jane. I trained as a nurse's aide many moons ago, so after I cleared this out, I was going to go around inside and check on supplies. I'm just refreshing my memory here, before these guys start bringing us customers."
She smiled at Bob, who gave Jane a pat on the back and said, "I'm going to fill up the generator with gas, get it started for you, and then head right out, but I'll prob'ly be seeing you fairly soon. Good luck, ladies!" He waved and was gone.
The two women pushed open the clinic door and entered. Jane looked around the room, and Cathy said, "Why don't I show you around, and we can see what we've got to work with together, okay?" Jane nodded. The building was constructed with lots of inexpensive knotty pine wood panelling. The reception area consisted of a blue-green Formica-topped counter with a black telephone, a Formica covered desk and a tall pale green filing cabinet behind it. A bookcase of files and office supplies stood against the far wall. On a smaller desk beside the cabinet was a shortwave radio with a headset. On the other side of the room there were several wooden benches and some metal and plastic chairs. There was a pamphlet display on a table under the window, and a message board with items for sale and offers of services.
Cathy opened one of the three doors that lead off the reception area, and Jane saw that it was a basic examining/surgical room. A locked glass cabinet stood in the corner. Cathy pointed to it and said, "I have a key, courtesy of the sheriff's office, but I'm not touching anything in there unless I receive a direct order." Jane nodded. Cathy opened some cupboards over a little sink in the room. "Gloves, bandages, pads, splints, the basics…" She opened the doors underneath the counter. "Some gowns, masks, more dressings, antibiotic ointments, burn kit…" She stood up. "Well, I guess we've got more than we need, at least for our level of expertise."
They continued their tour, ending with the generator outside, beside the back door. A large plug attached it to the building. "That's how we get our electricity. For now, we're okay, because we've got enough fuel for several hours," said Cathy.
Jane commented, "Just like the old days."
"A bit better than that, Jane. We've got some advantages."
"And for that, we are all very grateful."
"Very!" remarked Cathy, as they headed back inside.
Johnny was back on a snowmobile, but this time someone had lent him a balaclava, so he could lift his face from his driver's back and actually take a look around. It was very beautiful, though he noticed that the sky was becoming a bit overcast. "More snow?" he called.
His driver, whose name he didn't catch, shrugged and yelled back over his shoulder, "Not forecast. Hope not." The driver looked at the sky and then called back, "Don't think so. Too high." Johnny nodded, surmising that the man was referring to the cloud cover. The man called again over his shoulder, "Think we got something!" Ahead, on the side of the road, there was a misshapen lump like a giant snow-covered boulder. "Doesn't look good!" he called, "Looks like a car off the road!"
As soon as the snowmobile stopped, the two men leaped from their seats and climbed as fast as they could through the hip deep snow to the car, pushing the snow off the roof and sides as fast as they could. It was hard work, because there was nowhere to push the snow, and they had to dig down to free the doors, scooping the snow away with their arms. The windows were all frosted over on the inside, so they couldn't tell if there was anyone in the car or not. Johnny called out, just in case there was someone there who could hear him, "Hello! Hey! Anyone there? Can you hear me?"
When they finally got the door clear, they couldn't get it open – the handle was either frozen or locked. Johnny turned to his companion in frustration. Without saying a word, the other man clambered back to his snowmobile and got out a small crowbar. Johnny continued to bang along the edges of the door to try and get it unstuck. There was no sound from inside the car.
Finally, together, the two men were able to pry the door open, but it was a sad sight that met their eyes. An elderly couple sat in the front seat, their arms wrapped around each other, frozen in death, their faces stained an unnatural ruddy colour that said they had asphyxiated from carbon monoxide poisoning before the cold had gotten to them. Johnny checked for vital signs automatically, even though he could see there was no way they were alive.
The two men could tell all too easily what had happened. For some reason, the couple had been trying to get to the clinic last night when the driving became so bad that they slipped off the road. Not able to get traction, or see where they were going, they decided to wait out the storm in the car. But it was cold, so they left the engine running. Unfortunately, when they went off the road, the snow was high enough that it blocked the tailpipe, and the air inside the car became poisoned. Johnny leaned up against the side of the car, closed his eyes and found himself saying a silent prayer for the couple, even though he was not a religious man. This was not a good start to their rescues. His driver tore off a piece of his shirt and tied the scrap material to the car's antenna, so the vehicle could be found again. They got back on the snow mobile and drove on.