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The woman was rocking and crying, still holding her daughter. Megan bound the dressings over a gash in the child’s leg and she screamed in pain. The mother clung to her child.
‘Okay... Tell her I’m sorry, and that I had to stop the bleeding. And I need some room down here.’
Jaye translated quickly, telling the woman that she must go now to make room to lower the stretcher down, and she shook her head.
Megan understood that. ‘Tell her... No, ask her to let me take care of her daughter. I will treat her as if she were my own child.’
And Megan would. There was no doubt in Jaye’s mind that she would do anything to protect the little girl. He translated the words into Sinhalese and the woman hesitated, and then nodded.
If Megan’s words hadn’t been enough to convince the woman, her fierce and loving determination were. Megan took the little girl from her arms and the men beside Jaye reached down, helping to pull the woman up to safety. A line of willing hands helped her across the pile of rubble to her husband.
Jaye called for the stretcher and the folding cot from the truck was lowered into the hole. ‘Check her again, Megan.’ Speed was essential, but it was also critical to make sure that the girl had no other injuries.
‘Okay. Done. She’s been moving around down here but I’ve put a collar on her.’ Megan had snapped the cot open and was securing the child in it. ‘Make it quick. The dressings haven’t completely stopped the bleeding and we need to keep pressure up on the wound.’
‘I’ll take her, and you follow with the medical bag.’ Jaye wanted to lift Megan back up to safety himself, to feel her arms around him and to know that she was all right. But his first duty lay with their patient, and he knew that Megan would understand.
‘Righty. See you there.’
Jaye supervised the men at the mouth of the hole and they hauled the cot up, carrying it carefully to the shade of a veranda. He bent down beside the child, checking her pulse, and then clamped his hand over the dressings on her leg.
‘Saline.’ He heard footsteps behind him and knew they were Megan’s. ‘We have some in the back of the truck.’
‘Okay.’ She was back again in less than a minute, carrying the bag that contained everything they needed to set up a saline drip.
‘What’s her pulse like?’ Megan snapped on a pair of surgical gloves, gripping the dressings over the girl’s leg and using her free hand to help Jaye pull a glove onto his good hand.
‘Fast. Weak. She’s bleeding out.’ Jaye glanced up into Megan’s eyes. ‘Follow my lead...’
She was his left hand, and he was her right. Together they managed to insert the catheter and set up a line to the saline. They were a team...no, a dream team...each knowing what the other was about to do.
‘We’ll replace the dressings?’
Jaye nodded. Blood was oozing out of the hastily applied dressing, and although Megan had done a good job, they could do better now.
He gripped the saline bag between the thumb and forefinger of his injured hand, holding it up to get as much fluid into the girl’s veins as quickly as possible. It would keep her alive for long enough, until they could get her back to the clinic to administer blood. Pain shot up his arm and he winced.
‘Okay?’ Megan’s gaze found his and Jaye nodded.
Quickly she reapplied the dressings while Jaye pressed hard on the girl’s leg to stem the flow of blood. One more check, to make sure that she was stable, and they were ready to go. Jaye transferred the saline bag to his other hand, and the pain in his fingers subsided to a fierce ache.
The stretcher bearers stepped forward from the circle of people around them, lifting the cot carefully and taking it to the truck to secure it on the back seat. Jaye felt almost dizzy. Pain and effort would do that to you, but this was the dizziness of exhilaration. The little girl was free of the rubble and still alive. There was still a way to go before she was out of danger, but he and Megan had accomplished so much already. Together.
Chapter Eleven
JAYE WAS TALKING rapidly in Sinhalese to the girl’s parents, and her father climbed into the passenger seat of the truck beside her. It seemed that the mother was staying behind in the care of the other villagers.
‘Do we need to bring the other children?’ Megan twisted around as Jaye settled himself in the back seat, next to the little girl.
‘I gave them the once-over as they came out. And I called down to the clinic while you were digging. They’re sending someone up. They’ll be here soon.’
The sound of a motorbike heralded Dinesh’s arrival. Perched on the back, Dr Stone, the young, sandy haired doctor who had arrived at the clinic yesterday, was looking pale but otherwise unscathed. He walked unsteadily up to the truck and a brief exchange between him and Jaye established that there was another vehicle on its way, and that Dr Stone would take charge of the rest of the family.
‘So much for easing him in gently.’ Megan murmured the words as she drove out of the compound, following Jaye’s directions on the quickest way back to the clinic.
‘He’s survived the worst of it.’ Jaye knew as well as she did that any medical challenges involved in looking after the family paled into insignificance next to being bumped around, riding pillion, as Dinesh took the quickest and most hair-raising route from A to B.
‘Yes. Suppose so.’ Megan concentrated on the track ahead of her, hoping that the girl in Jaye’s care on the back seat of the truck would survive too.
