her ears as the mask threatened to slip. The mix of sweat and blood on the driver’s face worked against her and Billie had to fight back a gag as the smell invaded her nostrils.
If she just shut her eyes and concentrated on the flow of air, the rhythm of her delivery, mentally counted the breaths, she might just get through this without disgracing herself.
‘What do you reckon, heart attack?’ Gareth asked after he’d checked for a pulse two minutes in.
Billie, concentrating deeply, opened her eyes at the sudden intrusion. Rivulets of dried blood stared back at her and she quickly shut them again. ‘Probably,’ she said between breaths. ‘Something caused him to veer off the road like that and he feels pretty clammy. Only he looks young, though. Fit too.’
Gareth agreed, his arms already feeling the effort of prolonged compressions. The man didn’t look much older than himself. ‘’Bout forty, I reckon.’
Billie nodded. ‘Too young to die.’
He grunted and Billie wondered if he was thinking the same thing she was. The taxi driver probably was going to die. The statistics for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests were grim. Even for young, fit people. This man needed so much more than they could give him here on the roadside.
They fell silent again as they continued to give a complete stranger, who had nearly wiped both of them out tonight, a chance at life.
‘Come on, mate,’ Gareth said, as he checked the pulse for the third time and went back to compressions. ‘Cut us some slack here.’
A minute later, the silence was pierced by the first low wails of a siren. ‘Yes,’ Gareth muttered. ‘Hold on, mate. The cavalry’s nearly here.’
In another minute two ambulances—one with an intensive care paramedic—pulled up, followed closely by a police car. A minute after that a fire engine joined the fray. Reinforcements surrounded them, artificial light suddenly flooding the scene, Billie and Gareth continued their CPR as Gareth gave an impressive rapid-fire handover.
‘Keep managing the airway,’ the female intensive care paramedic instructed Billie, after Gareth had informed her of their medical credentials. She handed Billie a proper resus set—complete with peep valve and oxygen supply. ‘You okay to intubate?’
Billie nodded. She could. As a second-year resident she’d done it before but not a lot. And then there was the blood.
She took another deep, steadying breath.
Gareth continued compressions as one of the advanced care paramedics slapped on some defib pads and the other tried to establish IV access.
In the background several firemen dealt with the car, some set up a road block with the police while others directed a newly arrived tow truck to one side.
The automatic defibrillator warned everyone to move away from the patient as it advised a shock.
‘Stand clear,’ the paramedic called, and everyone dropped what they were doing and moved well back.
A series of shocks was delivered, to no avail, and everyone resumed their positions. IV access was gained and emergency drugs were delivered. Billie successfully intubated as Gareth continued with cardiac massage. Two minutes later the defibrillator recommended another shock and everyone moved away again.
The driver’s chest arched. ‘We’ve got a rhythm,’ the paramedic announced.
Gareth reached over and felt for the carotid. ‘Yep,’ he agreed. ‘I have a pulse.’
‘Okay, let’s get him loaded and go.’
Billie reached for the bag to resume respiratory support on the still unconscious patient but the intensive care paramedic crouched beside Billie said, ‘Would you like me to take over?’
Billie looked at her, startled. She’d been concentrating so hard on not losing her stomach contents she’d shut everything out other than the whoosh of her own breath. But the airway was secure and they had a pulse. She could easily hand over to a professional who had way more experience dealing with these situations.
Not to mention the fact that now the emergency was under control her hands were shaking, her teeth were chattering and she was shivering with the cold.
And her knees were killing her.
She looked down at her gloves. They were streaked with blood and another wave of nausea welled inside her.
Billie handed the bag over and then suddenly warm hands were lifting her up onto her shaking legs, supporting her as her numb knees threatened to buckle. A blanket was thrown around her shoulders and she huddled into its warmth as she was shepherded in the direction of her car.
‘Are you okay?’
Billie glanced towards the deep voice, surprised to find herself looking at Gareth. He was tall and broad and looked warm and inviting and she felt so cold. She had the strangest urge to walk into his arms.
‘I’m fine,’ she said, gripping the blanket tighter around her shoulders, looking down at where her gloved hands held the edges of the blanket together.
Dried blood stared back at her. The nausea she’d been valiantly trying to keep at bay hit her in a rush.
And right there, dressed to the nines in front of Gareth and a dozen emergency personnel, she bent over and threw up her fancy, two-hundred-dollar, three-course meal on the side of the road.
BILLIE WAS THANKFUL as she talked to the police a few minutes later she’d never have to see anyone here ever again. She doubted if any of these seasoned veterans blinked an eye at someone barfing at the scene of an accident and they’d all been very understanding but she was the doctor, for crying out loud.
People looked to her to be the calm, in-control one. To take bloodied accident victims in her stride. She was supposed to be able to hold herself together.
Not throw up at the sight of blood and gore.
Billie wondered anew how she was going to cope in the emergency room for the next six months. For the rest of her life, for that matter, given that emergency medicine was her chosen career path.
Mostly because it was high-flying enough to assuage parental and family expectations without being surgical. The Ashworth-Keyes of the world were all surgeons. Choosing a non-surgical specialty was not an option.
Unless it carried the same kind of kudos. As emergency medicine, apparently, did.
And at least this way Billie knew she’d still be able to treat the things that interested her most. Raw and messy were not her cup of tea but infections and diseases, the run-of-the-mill medical problems that were seen in GP practices across the country every day were.
But Ashworth-Keyes’ were not GPs.
And Billie was carrying a double load of expectation.
She glanced across at Gareth, who was looking
