two of the factory’s neighboring buildings in the industrial complex. Fueled now, they moved on at a seemingly unstoppable pace. Taking in the scene, he whispered, “If you’ve got a minute, Lord, we could sure use some help around here.”
At that instant, three fire trucks appeared and expertly parked near the hydrant. At the same time, Tom could hear helicopter blades in the distance. A half dozen ambulances and police cruisers followed. “Thanks,” he whispered, welcoming them with a wave. “Good to know you’re listening.”
“Tom!”
T.J.? He turned to find his young cousin right behind him.
“Look who I got!”
Tom’s glance darted from the teen’s beaming face to the tall blonde in khakis and a blue, pinstriped shirt. He stopped mid-stride, as if colliding into a stone wall. Pam!
Tentative, she met his shocked gaze. “Where do you want me?”
Truths Unveiled
Truths Unveiled
Chapter Two
“I need a medic over here!”
Tom spun toward the voice yelling over the fire’s crackling thunder. It came from a firefighter exiting the burning building. He carried a victim over one shoulder.
Tom looked at Pam and grabbed his medic bag. “Let’s go!”
Approaching the patient now lying on the grass, Tom noted he was unconscious.
“I found him in a hallway,” gasped the distressed fire fighter.
Automatically, Tom reached to find the victim’s pulse. “He’s still breathing,” he told Pam. Continuing to check the vital signs, he noted Pam taking a spot opposite him and loosening the man’s collar. He also noticed that, for a moment, she’d closed her eyes. She was praying, he realized.
“Look at his nose,” she pointed, a second later. “It’s charred and swollen. From inhaling a lot of smoke.”
“Agreed.” Back to business. Tom rubbed his knuckles into the man’s chest, trying to elicit some kind of response. Nothing. He reached for his portable radio. “Medic One to Rescue Flight.”
“Go ahead, Medic One.”
“How far out are you?”
“Two minutes.”
“I have a priority transport for you at the factory’s southeast entrance. Bring a backboard, oxygen and your monitor.”
“Roger.”
Tom reached for his intubation kit and watched Pam get the IV started. The patient’s airway was swelling shut from the superheated gases in the burning factory. There wasn’t much time.
“Pam, do me a favor,” he asked, seeing her finish. “Grab an ambu-bag and hook it up to my oxygen cylinder. I’m going to tube him.”
Already in the groove, she found the equipment.
Tom knew she’d done this plenty of times, but only in a hospital. She was in his world now. And seemed to catch on quick.
Gathering what he needed, he leaned on one knee and inhaled the burnt air. The wet earth seeped through his pants. Meanwhile, a helicopter hovered above. The blades drowned out the sound of the still arriving engine sirens.
Tom took a glance at the sky. It bled red from the setting sun. Glowing embers and ash swirled through the black smoke below. At the same time, portable radios filled the air with orders being barked out and acknowledged. No. This was definitely not a hospital emergency room.
Tipping back the patient’s head, Tom carefully inserted the laryngoscope blade into his mouth, gently pushing his tongue to one side. Charred wasn’t the word, he thought, seeing the blisters forming everywhere. Slowly, but surely, they multiplied, threatening to close the airway shut. With the vocal cords in sight, Tom fed the tube needed to help the patient breathe. He then took the ambu-bag from Pam and attached it to the end of the tube. Slowly, he squeezed it. Thankfully, the man’s chest rose. “Check his lungs,” he told Pam.
She took his stethoscope and placed it on the patient’s chest. If she could hear equal lung sounds on both sides, the intubation tube was in the proper place.
She gave him a thumb’s up. “You’re in.”
“Thanks. Now hold the tube and bag him while I tape everything in place for transport.”
Tom grabbed a roll of tape from his bag. Without thinking, he put his hand on Pam’s to help her hold the tube. The touch was quick. And distracting.
“All set, Chief?”
Tom hadn’t noticed the chopper landing or the paramedics wheeling over the stretcher. “Yeah. You’re all set.” He stood. “Keep the fluids going. He’s burnt pretty bad, and his airway was already swelling when I inserted the tube. “
Both medics nodded. In a flash, they loaded the patient onto a stretcher and whisked him away to the waiting chopper.
Tom turned to thank Pam for her help. Instead, he saw her already running to the next victim.
****
“That’s the last of them,” Pam heard someone announce. The sound