‘Mia’s assigning the emergencies.’ With a meaningful look, Ray opens the ambulance door.
‘Got it.’ Since she was worried about Jaden’s condition earlier, she’ll do her best not to assign any stressful cases to our rig.
Relief floods through me as I climb into the rig. Just like before, Jaden joins me.
‘Well, look at that—a smile.’ He leans a little closer to me to fasten his seat belt. His aftershave clouds my senses for a moment.
‘5-8-1, this is Dispatch, come in.’
Jaden reaches for the radio. ‘5-8-1 here, what’s up?’
I watch the tension in his face and can’t shake the feeling that he needs what comes with this job. That he’s addicted to the hustle, the adrenaline, the challenge. And from everything I know about him so far, he loves risk. Maybe even more than his own life.
What a strange man.
‘Suspected heart attack. Male patient, 62 years old, severe chest pain, shortness of breath, clammy sweating. Patient is responsive. Home address: 145 Moran Street, third floor, no elevator.’
A cold shiver runs down my spine. If the man really is having a heart attack and isn’t treated immediately, his risk of dying is eighty to ninety percent!
Ray switches on the blue lights and hits the gas.
‘No one is on scene, he alerted the emergency services himself. No emergency doctor dispatched, as already in the vehicle. Priority level: Code 4. Understood?’
Jaden’s gaze flicks to the tablet display that shows our route and all the details of the call. He nods in concentration and presses the button on the radio. ‘5-8-1, copy. We’re on our way. Arrival on scene in fifteen minutes.’
We leave the hospital grounds, Ray activates the siren and swings sharply left onto the main road. Gravity presses me against Jaden’s side, I claw at the seat—and all at once it’s as if I’m driving into a tunnel.
The siren.
The jolting of the vehicle.
Blue lights.
The path that opens up for us between the cars on the road.
The speed with which the skyscrapers pass by the window behind Jaden’s face, as he looks attentively ahead and seems to be in a completely different world.
He doesn’t smile. He doesn’t crack jokes. Every fiber of his body is focused.
In a flash, he’s no longer the laid-back golden boy he’s shown me so far, but a responsible adult, ready to walk through any fire.
I don’t want that, yet my gaze still lingers on him. He doesn’t seem to notice; he doesn’t register me, his thoughts are somewhere else. Probably with our patient.
The vehicle swerves around a bend.
‘Control, this is 5-8-1, we’re on scene,’ Jaden reports over the radio, and not a second later the vehicle slows down. ‘You take the defib,’ he says to me, then grabs the emergency bag, yanks the door open, and jumps out of the vehicle even though it hasn’t come to a stop yet.
‘I’ll be right behind you.’ Ray motions for me to follow Jaden.
My pulse speeds up as I get out of the vehicle as well and enter the apartment building. Jaden sprints up the stairs to the third floor, I run after him and reach the top, out of breath.
He pushes the apartment door open. We’re already in the hallway, rushing toward the man lying on the sofa in the living room, and start with the initial treatment.
‘Where exactly is the pain?’ Jaden asks the patient, putting on the blood pressure cuff. ‘Is it radiating? Into your arm, into your back?’
The man’s answers are so incoherent that I can barely understand them. Not a good sign. He needs oxygen; I take the mask out of the emergency kit.
Meanwhile, Jaden measures the vital signs with practiced ease. ‘Pulse 100, blood pressure 85 over 55, oxygen saturation 88.’
