on the register. I’ll do it.
Oh, but—
I’m right here. You wouldn’t even need to do a cross match, my type is O.
The universal blood donor; that made the doctor’s face brighten.
I hurried to get the sterile kit from the top shelf.
Behind me I heard Honor White cough shrilly as the next pang pulled her back into the eye of the storm.
The doctor told her, Keep pushing if you’re able.
Honor White groaned as she bore down. The bed was a sea of red.
I readied my left arm by whirling it a dozen times.
Bridie watched as if witnessing some arcane ritual.
I checked the other patients. Mary O’Rahilly was somehow sleeping through all this, but Delia Garrett asked, What on earth—
Just transfusing some blood, I said as glibly as if it were something I did every day.
No room for a chair by her cot, so I perched on the edge and unbuttoned my cuff with my trembling right hand. I wasn’t afraid, only thrilled at the prospect of giving exactly what was needed.
Dr. Lynn said loudly, Mrs. White, I’m going to put a pint of Nurse Power’s blood into you.
No response. Was she sliding beyond our reach?
I took her pulse again. It’s climbed to one hundred and fifteen, Doctor.
(Her heart was pumping faster to compensate for the fact that she was bleeding to death.)
Bridie, said the doctor, a glass of water for Nurse Power.
I almost barked, Don’t waste time. But I was a patient now, so I held my tongue.
The doctor would need my artery for fresher blood and stronger flow to help her pump it faster into the sinking woman. So I offered her the thumb side of my wrist, hoping she had the knack of locating the deep radial pulse.
Dr. Lynn refused it. No, no, those little arteries hurt like the devil, and there’s the risk of leakage and embolisms.
I really don’t mind—
You’re too necessary to risk your health, Nurse. Besides, I read an article that said vein to vein, assisted by gravity, will do in a pinch.
In a pinch; was that where we were now? And had the doctor never actually tried this vein-to-vein technique before?
She slid her warm hand into the crook of my elbow. When she found the best vein, she bounced on it a few times.
I looked away and drained the glass of water Bridie was holding out; oddly enough, I was squeamish when it came to anything piercing my own skin.
Dr. Lynn took only two goes to get the needle in, which wasn’t half bad for a physician. A dark line of blood filled the tube, and she turned the stopcock before it could spill. Rapidly, she bandaged the apparatus onto my arm.
But Honor White’s head was falling back; her eyelids closed. Were we too late? Another contraction seized her now, ghastly to watch—an unseen monster shaking her limp body on a crimson bier.
I said, Do it!
Dr. Lynn was calmly attaching my tubing to the other metal syringe. She tied Honor White’s arm to make the veins stand out, but they were flat as string.
With my right hand I took the pulse on the woman’s other wrist—up to a hundred and twenty now, and so faint.
The doctor still couldn’t find a vein on the dying woman.
Heat? My voice came out almost angry. Bridie, dip a clean cloth in the pot of hot water, would you?
Dr. Lynn murmured, I almost have the bugger.
But for all the probing and prodding, Honor White’s veins kept rolling under the doctor’s fingers.
When Bridie brought over the hot cloth, I snatched it myself, despite my impediments. I flapped it in the air two or three times to release some steam so it wouldn’t burn Honor White, then folded it over and pressed it along her inner arm.
Can you, Nurse Power? Dr. Lynn offered me the handle of the syringe.
Even in the hurry, I respected her for knowing that this was a moment when all her study and experience was no match for a nurse’s.
I grabbed the syringe and pulled the hot cloth off Honor White’s arm. There, on the pink-flushed skin, was a little blue line—a creek in a canyon. I beat out a rhythm on it with my fingertip: Stay alive, Mrs. White. The wary blood vessel rose a little, just enough, and I slid the needle in.
Dr. Lynn took over promptly, bandaging the tube onto the slumped patient so it wouldn’t slip out.
Stand up, she urged me.
I leapt off the cot.
As soon as she opened the stopcock, my blood began