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Since realizing how completely hung up he was on his best friend’s widow.
“Have things been quiet?” He asked as they made their way into the kitchen. When they weren't fighting fires or responding to paramedic calls, they tended to eat.
Following his nose, he realized they were in for a treat. Big Joe Jansen was already cooking up a hearty breakfast feast.
“Pretty quiet. A few routine paramedic runs. No fire calls, though.” Jack sounded disappointed.
Californians knew their sunny, warm and dry weather, predisposed them to fires. As much as a firefighter didn't want to see people suffer tragedies, there was something inside them that longed for the adrenaline rush of fighting a fire. It was one of the reasons he and Sam had applied to be a part of the smoke jumping crew. He liked knowing his talents were needed.
It had seemed like an adventure. Until he’d lost his best friend.
“Hungry?” Big Joe waved a spatula at them. “It's almost ready.”
“I could eat.” Austin dropped into a chair at the table. It was a good thing there was a weight room in the back, otherwise they'd grow fat and lazy from big Joe's cooking.
Although Lindsey’s dinners were a pretty close second. He looked forward to going home after his twenty-four-hour long shifts knowing she was there.
Shying away from that dangerous thought, he listened as the guys argued over the latest sports games. They've just finished eating when their first call came in. Since Austin and Jack were the freshest of the bunch, they were identified as the first responders.
“What do we have?” Austin asked from the driver's seat.
“Sixty-four-year-old unconscious male with a history of heart problems,” Jack repeated what the dispatcher had told him.
“He fell?”
“Not that we are aware of.”
He pulled up in front of the patient's house. A woman he assumed was the gentleman's wife, waited anxiously for them in the doorway. “This way,” she urged leading them through the house to the master bedroom.
Carrying his EMS pack and wheeling a gurney between them, Austin and Jack followed her. “What sort of heart problems does he have?” Austin asked.
“He had a heart attack about a year ago.” The patient's wife pulled out a handwritten note as they entered the room, where the patient was still lying in bed. “These are the medications he's taking.”
“Smart of you to write them down.” He set the list aside and began a quick assessment, glad to note the patient was breathing, if barely. “Let's give him a little oxygen.”
Jack turned on a portable tank and placed an oxygen mask over the patient's nose and mouth. The man groaned a little, indicating he wasn't as unconscious as Austin had originally thought. He connected the elderly man to their portable heart monitor and then obtained a blood pressure.
“BP low, 96 / 70, and he’s in sinus tack with a rate of 142.” Austin glanced at the medication list. “He takes a beta blocker, aspirin, and wears a nitroglycerin patch.”
“We better get the patch off with his blood pressure so low.” Jack opened the guy's shirt and removed it.
“Does he have any other medical problems?” Austin asked the hovering wife.
“He's diabetic but doesn't take any pills or insulin. He just watches his diet.”
“Check a blood glucose level,” Austin advised. The guy's vitals weren't great, but they were stable enough for transport. “I'll start an IV. “
“Sounds good.” Jack pulled out the tiny glucometer and proceeded to prick the man's finger for a drop of blood while Austin inserted the antecubital intravenous catheter. While he worked, the wife explained how her husband had been sick with a cold for several days, staying in bed longer than normal period he didn't never bounced back.
After a few seconds the tiny machine beeped. “Wow, his glucose is critically high at 750,” Jack announced.
“He must be in diabetic ketoacidosis,” Austin said as he hung a bag of normal saline. During his paramedic career, he'd seen many patients in a similar condition. “We’ll run fluids on the way to the hospital.”
“You got it.” With Jack's help they lifted the patient onto the gurney. The closest healthcare center was Sun Valley Community Hospital, so once they were situated in the ambulance, he radioed the dispatcher to relay a message about their impending arrival.
The staff in the emergency department were expecting them. He wasn't completely surprised to see Lindsey was the nurse waiting to take their patient. If he were honest, he'd admit he had been hoping to run into her there.
Either at work or at home, seeing Lindsey was the highlight of his day.
