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“Shut up, Josh!” Brad turned to Steven who was still on line with the nine-one-one operator. “Tell them we need an IV set up stat, normal saline. Anne, do you know her blood type?”
Anne was sobbing, her face buried in Steven’s jacket. She shook her head. “I’m s-so s-sorry. I d-don’t know.”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s okay,” said Brad.
“Brad! I don’t see her breathing!”
“Check for a pulse,” Brad ordered as he lifted her chin to give her two breaths.
“I can’t feel a pulse! She’s lost too much blood—she’s not going to make it!” Josh could hear the roar of the snowmobile pulling the litter toward them.
“Shut up, Josh. She’s going to make it,” Brad said, movi
ng to do chest compressions.
“You’ll lacerate her organs.” Josh protested, but followed Brad’s lead, shifting to breathe into her mouth, while Brad gave chest compressions.
“They’re already lacerated,” said Brad. “We don’t have a choice. You know that.”
“I know. I know. Oh please, God. I know.” Josh replied, before breathing into her mouth again, tasting the salt of his tears on her skin.
“The hospital is close,” Brad said. “Really close. And they deal with trauma all the time.”
“It’s small.” Josh knew there was no way they could save her when she’d lost this much blood.
“It doesn’t matter what size it is. They’re good with trauma. And they’re good surgeons. Some of the best.”
“I’ll take care of her myself,” Josh muttered.
“You can’t. And even if you were on staff here, you’re in no emotional state to take care of her. You just forgot her breaths.”
Josh attempted to concentrate on Charlie’s CPR as the ski patrol worked on transporting her to the litter to carry her down the mountain.
“I’ve got to keep this CPR going on the way down,” said Brad. “I’ll have to ride with her.”
When the ski patrol started to protest, Brad said, “I’m a physician, and I’m telling you unless you want that young man over there charged with manslaughter, I have to ride with her.”
The men paled at his statement, but made no more protest. “And I want the emergency physician on the phone by the time we get to the base.”
Brad turned to Josh. “Get your stuff, buddy. You’ve got to ski down if you want to be in the ambulance.”
Josh was staring at the bloodstained snow where Charlie had been lying. “Josh!” yelled Brad. “We’re going!”
Josh suddenly realized Jace was still sitting in the snow, crying. Emily was holding him, trying to comfort him, even as she cried her own tears.
“Hurry, Josh. We’ll come as soon as we can. We’ll bring Jace. Just go!” Steven waved him away.
With one last look at the crimson blemish marring the slope, Josh hurried down the hill to retrieve his skis and race after Charlie, fearing in his heart she was truly gone forever.
“WHAT’S THE real prognosis,” Steven asked Brad, pulling him to the side as he emerged from the emergency room doors into the waiting room with an angry Josh in tow.
“She’s critical. I’ll be honest—we won’t know until she gets out of surgery. She’s lost a lot of blood, and we don’t know how much internal damage she has. The x-ray showed hemothorax. That’s when there’s blood in the chest cavity. So they put in a chest tube and drained a lot of blood. We can’t be certain where all the blood’s coming from. One lung is torn, for sure. But the way it looks, we suspect her descending aorta has a nick, although there may be other internal lacerations as well. So they’re keeping her blood pressure low to keep pressure off the aorta until it’s repaired.”
Brad rubbed his head, feeling an ache coming on. “But at least her heart’s beating again. It appears her arm has a deep laceration and her ribs were shattered, but hopefully no other bones. She’s got an entire section of ribs broken, so her breathing isn’t working right. It’s called flail chest. That part of her chest wall doesn’t expand and contract when she breathes. In fact, it moves in the opposite direction. But they’re going to fix that during surgery.”
“What about him?” Steven indicated Josh with his eyes. He was pacing like a caged animal in front of the locked doors blocking him from Charlie.
“He’s ticked because they threw him out. I know he’s worried out of his mind, but he’s making everyone crazy. He’s not on staff here, but he’s trying to tell everyone what to do, like he would back in New York. To be honest, they probably would’ve let me stay in there, but I came out because they needed to get rid of Josh.”
