Chapter Fifty-Five
Trapper understood what Stanley meant when he said he didn't know where to start. This person's limbs were folded in more directions than he could count, some of the bones penetrating the torso, and the head bent to the side with a arm wrapped all the way around it. "Vitals."
"Pulse one-forty-four. We can't get a blood pressure."
"Do we know if he's conscious? I can't get to his eyes."
"He hasn't made a sound or moved since he's been on the table."
"I would think not. Is his pulse holding?"
"Yes, doctor."
"All right. Let's try to get these clothes off first so we can see where all these broken bones went. Then we'll get some x-rays. If his pulse changes, I want to know stat. I'll be in the other room." Gonzo came in and stood off to the side open-mouthed as Trapper checked the other patient. Taking a deep breath, Trapper said, "Take in all in Gonzo, and then get over it. We have to figure out a game plan for these two."
"There's two like this?" Gonzo asked, still stunned from the view. He shook it off and stepped up to the table. This one's eyes were unobstructed, so Gonzo bent down and spoke. "I'm Dr. Gates. You're at San Francisco Memorial Hospital. Do you understand me?" The head moved only slightly and the eyes blinked. "Don't try to move. Blink twice for 'yes' and once for 'no.' Do you understand?" The patient blinked twice. "We're going to examine you to determine a course of action. I'm going to give you something for pain." A tear rolled out of his eye as he blinked twice. "Are you allergic to anything?" One blink. Speaking over his shoulder, Gonzo said, "Get me some morphine and a syringe." When the nurse handed him the bottle and syringe, Gonzo pushed the needle into the top of the bottle. "I'll start him with four milligrams."
"Her," said Trapper.
"Did you find any ID in her clothes?"
"No. Nothing. Find out what you can from the other one, and if he's conscious, start him on morphine. I'll meet you outside at the counter," said Trapper, leaving the room.
When Gonzo found him, Trapper was writing notes in a chart. "Stanley," he called. "Find out what you can from the policemen who came in with them…a name…anything. We'll have to do quite a bit of surgery. Gonzo, I'm putting two teams together. I'll want you to lead one of them. Gloria, would you contact these doctors?" he asked, passing her a piece of paper with a list of names. "Tell them we'll need their services immediately and to meet us down here. We're not moving them until we have a consult. I don't want to take them to x-ray but once." Turning to Gonzo, he asked, "Do you know anything more about the other one?"
"Well, he's male, but there was nothing to identify him in his clothes."
"I think we can assume they know each other. Come on. Let's get started with a plan."
"Well, doctors, you see what we've got. Edwin, Marty, you're the bone doctors. It would seem to me that we've got to unfold them first before we do anything else."
"I'd agree with that, Trapper," replied Dr. Edwin Fry, one of the orthopedic surgeons. "The bones are already broken, so straightening them out isn't going to make them any worse. They need to be sedated before we do that."
"Maybe we should go ahead and move them to an OR," said Dr. Marty Applebaum, the other orthopedic surgeon. "If we work on them in the same room, we could share the issues between the two of them."
"All right," said Trapper. "Get the sedation started. I'll go get the OR reserved. Do we need any special equipment?"
Rubbing his forehead, Dr. Applebaum said, "We're going to need an awful lot of hardware. I'll go with you and make the arrangements."
Arnold Slocum paced outside the surgery suite waiting for Trapper to come out. When the doors opened, he hurried forward. "Trapper, what's going on? I hear you have eight surgeons working on two patients in there." Seeing the look on Trapper's face; brow furrowed, lips drawn, troubled eyes, he waited patiently for an explanation.
It took a moment for Trapper to put words together. "Arnold…I've never seen anything like it; not even in Korea. We have two people, a man and woman, who were found in the back of garbage truck compacted with trash. It looks like someone wadded them up in their hands like a piece of paper and tossed them aside."
"Oh my. And they're alive?"
Trapper gave him a cross look.
"Yes, of course they are. Are we going to be able to do anything for them?"
"We're going to try. The woman has been conscious. We're working on x-rays now." Trapper turned to leave, but stopped. "Arnold, you should be prepared for reporters. Some followed the ambulance and police to the hospital. They got some pictures as the victims were rolled into emergency, so I'm sure they'll be asking questions.
"Victims?"
"They didn't throw themselves into a garbage truck," said Trapper acerbically with his hands out to his sides.
"No, I suppose not. I'll take care of the reporters. Just have someone keep me informed."
Ernie stuck her head in the door of Leah's room after Leah pressed the call button. "Ernie, I didn't know you were on this floor tonight. Come in," invited Leah.
"I'm not really. I just found out about your foot. I hear you kicked a gate." Leah looked away and blew her cheeks out. "So it's true. How bad?"
"Not that I've seen it that well, but Gonzo and Trapper both say I exploded the end of my big toe and toenail and broke my first metatarsal."
Chuckling, Ernie said, "That'll teach you."
Leah pointed to her over bed table where a tray of food had been delivered moments before Ernie came into the room. "Trapper was supposed to have dinner with me. Have you seen him?"
"He'll be in surgery for awhile. You should go ahead and eat without him."
"Bad, huh?"
"Unspeakable is more like it. Turn on your television. You'll probably see it on the news." Ernie squeezed Leah's hand. "I have to go back down. We're waiting for the orthopedists to finish before we go in."
After Ernie closed the door, Leah pushed the button for the TV, and then flipped the channel to a news station. "Two bodies were removed from this garbage truck this morning when an employee of the refuse company began cleaning it out. Reports from the police say the people were badly mangled, but still alive. These pictures taken outside the emergency room at San Francisco Memorial Hospital show just how badly mangled one person was."
"Oh my God," said Leah out loud.
"Arnold Slocum, the hospital administrator had this to say."
"The two people who arrived at the hospital earlier today are being treated by eight members of our surgical staff led by our Chief of Surgery, Dr. John McIntyre. At this point, they're still in surgery. I don't have any news as yet."
"Mr. Slocum, have the victims been identified?"
"No, they haven't. One is male. The other is female. That's all we know at this time." Arnold turned and went back inside the hospital.
"At the time of this interview, the police either didn't know or weren't providing the identity of the victims, but were continuing to investigate. We hope to have more details on our ten o'clock newscast."
Leah pushed the button that turned the television off, wondering how Trapper managed to stay sane after seeing all that he'd seen in his career.
"All right. Now pull the leg back down," said Dr. Applebaum. "No wait. Trapper, you need to evaluate this. We have bone penetration just below the xiphoid process above the liver."
"Get those pictures up on the light box," said Trapper as he examined the other end of the bone. How much bone are we talking about Marty?" Stepping back to the light box, both men looked at the x-rays.
"It's definitely long enough to lacerate the liver."
"We don't have any more penetration in the immediate area. Once you pull the leg down, we'll get some suction on it, and I'll make the incision. If it's lacerated, you'll have to wait until I can repair it." Trapper turned back toward the table. "How's she doing?"
"She's stable, Trapper. But I'm on a fifth unit of blood."
"She probably won't have any of her own blood left by the time we're done. Ernie?"
"I'm right here," she said ready to move her tray in place.
Standing mid-table, Trapper did a visual check of his equipment and implements. "All right, Marty. Pull."
Everyone heard a wet sucking sound when the bone was pulled out of the tissue followed by multiple cracks and crunches as Dr. Applebaum moved the leg to its normal position. Trapper didn't notice. By the time the leg was down, he was already making the incision.
"Trap, when you're finished with that, I need you to take a look over here," said Gonzo. "We've got a perforated heart. The only thing stopping this guy from bleeding out is a bone."
Eighteen hours later the surgical team stopped working.