style="font-size:15px;"> ‘But he must have smashed into the car up front.’ Jessica’s eyes widened. ‘That must be one of the cars that they’re loading on to the retrieval truck right now.’
‘I hope the people who were hurt manage to come through this safely in the end,’ Katie murmured. She tried to gauge what was happening in the distance, but Jessica was jabbing her in the ribs again.
‘Something’s not right—look over there, in the bushes. I can see something. Come on, we have to go and find out what’s going on.’ Already, Jessica had released herself from her seat belt and was pushing at the passenger door.
‘Jess, come back here,’ Katie called out, but her sister wasn’t listening. She had jumped down onto the verge at the side of the road and now she was headed for the trees.
‘I don’t believe this,’ Katie muttered under her breath. ‘Will this nightmare never end?’ She manoeuvred the car onto the grass verge so that others could pass her, and then she switched off the ignition, sliding out of the driver’s seat to go in search of Jessica.
‘Over here,’ Jessica shouted. ‘There’s a man—Katie, I don’t think he’s breathing.’
Katie made her way through the thicket of brushwood that lined the hedgerow and saw that her sister was kneeling beside a man who was lying crumpled on his side on the meadow grass.
‘I saw his shoe through a break in the hedge,’ Jessica said, ‘so I guessed there might be someone here. Do you think he might have been thrown out of the car?’
Katie nodded. ‘It looks that way. I suppose the car door might have been flung open if it hit a post, and perhaps he wasn’t strapped in.’ She crouched down and was busy checking the young man for signs of life. He was in his early twenties, she guessed, and from the looks of things his jaw was broken. That would make it virtually impossible for anyone to insert an airway, and that could be disastrous, because he was already struggling for air, making strange gurgling sounds.
He wasn’t responding to Katie’s urgent attempts to talk to him and find out if he was aware of what was going on, and she knew that he was in a bad way. ‘His pulse is rapid and faint,’ Katie murmured, glancing up at Jessica, who was looking shocked and pale. ‘I need to help him to breathe. Do you think you could look in the glove compartment of my car for a pen or maybe a plastic drink straw, while I do what I can to clear the obstruction in his throat? And bring me the first-aid kit from the boot?’ She handed over the keys.
Jessica nodded, and hurried away. Katie was relieved. At least if the child had something to do, it would stop her from dwelling on the awfulness of the situation.
She rummaged in her bag, spilling some of the contents out onto the grass as she hastily searched for her phone. Finding it, she called for an ambulance. If only the paramedics who had attended the accident up ahead had stayed around for a few moments longer…but they hadn’t, and she had to deal with this calamity all by herself.
That thought barely had time to sink in before Jessica came back, and Katie’s eyes widened when she saw that her sister wasn’t alone. The man from the café was with her, his face taut with concern, a line indenting his brow. He came to kneel down beside her, so close that they were almost touching one another. Katie felt her senses swim.
‘Have you managed to clear his airway?’ he asked.
She gave herself a mental shake. ‘Not really. I’ve brought his tongue forward and done what I can, but he’s bleeding heavily and I can’t manoeuvre him properly to resuscitate him because his jaw is broken.’
‘Let me see what I can do.’
He made as though he would move her to one side but she resisted, saying quietly, ‘No, thank you. I believe I’ll manage.’ She gave him a determined blue stare. She couldn’t imagine why he thought he would know any better than she did about what needed to be done. ‘I’m going to improvise an airway. There’s no way he can be intubated in the usual way, even if there was any time to wait.’
He frowned, his eyes narrowing, as Jessica leaned over to hand her a plastic straw and then placed the first-aid kit down on the ground beside her.
Jessica’s jaw dropped as Katie opened up the box and took out a small sharp knife. ‘What are you going to do?’ she asked breathlessly.
‘I’m going to make a small incision in his throat and put the straw in place so that he can get air into his lungs.’ She looked up at her sister. ‘Perhaps you should turn away for a while. You might not want to see this.’
Jessica swallowed hard but steadfastly continued to watch what was going on. Beside her, Katie felt the man stiffen.
She sent him a quick glance. ‘Maybe you should look away, too,’ she said. The last thing she needed was for him to pass out through squeamishness. Anyway, it was unsettling, having him watch her every movement.
He shook his head. ‘Do you know what you’re doing?’ His whole body was poised as though he was ready to intervene at any second. Katie could feel the warmth emanating from him, almost as though he was touching her, and her skin began to tingle in response.
‘Yes, it’s all right.’ Her voice was husky and she cleared her throat. ‘I’m a doctor.’ As she spoke, she was already feeling for the thyroid cartilage, and within seconds she began to make the incision. Once she had established that she had managed to puncture the cricothyroid membrane she opened up the fissure with a finger and inserted the drinking straw a little way into the trachea. Breathing into the tube, she was relieved to see that the man’s chest began to rise.
‘Is he going to be all right?’ Jessica’s eyes were wide.
‘I hope so. I think he has some broken ribs, and there may be a skull fracture, but at least he’s breathing now, and we’ve managed to buy some time for him. We can’t do much more until the paramedics get here with proper equipment.’
She eased back a fraction and saw that Alex was checking the man’s pulse. ‘There’s a strong possibility he’ll go into shock,’ he said. ‘We don’t know for sure how long he might have been lying here. His heart rate is rapid, but the pulse is weak, and I suspect his blood pressure is way down. He must be bleeding internally.’ He was already getting to his feet. ‘I’ll go and get my medical bag from the car. We can at least put in an IV line and try to get some initial fluids into him.’
Katie stared up at him. ‘You’re a doctor?’
He nodded briefly, but he was already moving away from her, and after a moment Katie released a long breath. She hadn’t realised how keyed up she had been, having him so close beside her that his shoulder had almost brushed against hers. It had been like being surrounded by an electric force field strong enough to make the air crackle.
She blinked. So he was a doctor, too? No wonder he had tried to intervene. She tried to absorb this new revelation and at the same time keep a check on her patient. Alex seemed to think they had met before, but surely she would have remembered him if they had been at medical school together? After all, he wasn’t the kind of man you would easily forget. He was incredibly good-looking, with strong features and grey-blue eyes that seemed to penetrate deep into her soul. Just being around him had the power to stop her in her tracks.
He came back as she was taping the makeshift breathing tube securely in place. He sank down next to her on the grass and opened up his black
