awful. All grey and sweaty…’
‘Fifty-six. Never had a sick day in his…’
By the time Kathryn had the life pack on top of the stretcher, Tim had added all the other equipment they needed, unhooked the end of the stretcher and was pulling it free. Kathryn made a lunge to catch the handle on her end so it wouldn’t crash down the steps. Then she had to trot to keep up.
Their patient did look awful. The middle-aged man was slumped against a wall near the massive ovens in the supermarket bakery.
‘Get some oxygen on him,’ Tim instructed Kathryn. ‘Fifteen litres a minute with a non-rebreather mask.’
An easy enough task. Kathryn unzipped the pouch attached to the portable oxygen cylinder and ripped open a plastic bag containing a mask, only to find it was a standard acute mask. She reached into the bag again and this time found the one with the reservoir bag attached. She hooked it up to the cylinder and remembered to keep her finger over the hole at the base of the mask until the reservoir bag was full.
Tim had cut away the apron and uniform shirt of the man and was attaching the sticky electrodes on the ends of the life-pack leads.
‘Have you got any history of heart problems?’
Their patient couldn’t speak. Clearly in agonising pain, he clutched his chest and shook his head as he moaned incoherently.
Kathryn moved closer. ‘I’m just going to put a mask on your face, sir,’ she said. ‘Is that OK?’
Patient consent was not forthcoming but Kathryn found her nervousness vanishing as she touched the man. She could do this. Without being told, she picked up the blood-pressure cuff and wrapped it round the man’s arm. She listened with a stethoscope as she let the pressure in the cuff down but could hear nothing. Frowning, she caught Tim’s gaze as he reached into the kit for a tourniquet.
‘Unrecordable?’ Tim mirrored Kathryn’s quick nod. ‘I’m not surprised. I couldn’t get a radial pulse.’
That meant the man’s systolic blood pressure was less than 80. Kathryn looked at the screen of the life pack and felt a chill of premonition. The trace looked far from normal with the spike of the QRS bizarrely wide.
‘Complete heart block,’ Tim said quietly. ‘Draw me up a flush, would you, please, Kathryn? And give him an aspirin.’
Kathryn found her brain was moving far more quickly than her hands. Her fingers shook as she followed Tim’s calm directions but she managed to draw up the morphine and other drugs he requested. There was no time to do anything more than absorb the impression of urgency after that as bakery staff helped get the man onto the stretcher and load him and the gear into the ambulance. Within a matter of minutes Kathryn found herself driving the ambulance towards the hospital with Tim in the back, caring for a very sick cardiac patient.
Driving such a large, heavy vehicle had been a challenge in itself during her training and it would be months before Kathryn would be allowed to drive under lights and sirens, but she was confident enough at road speed and far happier leaving Tim to care for the patient this time.
By the time they got back to the main road she was almost enjoying herself. Her first job with Tim had gone well, all things considered. Maybe she had been a bit slow drawing up the morphine and adding the saline, but she just wasn’t used to doing things under such pressure of time. She’d get used to it soon enough. Pulling out the wrong oxygen mask had wasted valuable seconds, though. She’d have to—
‘Pull over!’ The shout from the back cut through any satisfaction enveloping Kathryn.
She checked the side mirrors and indicated that she was pulling onto the shoulder of the road.
‘Now, Kat!’
She jammed on the brakes and heard a curse from Tim as he had to catch his balance.
‘Get in the back,’ Tim said tersely, as he reached for the radio microphone. ‘Get the gel pads and charge up the defib. He’s in VF.’
Oh…God! This was her worst nightmare. Her first job and she was expected to defibrillate someone. Kathryn could feel the prickle of perspiration break out down the entire length of her spine as she ripped open the foil packet and slapped two rectangles of spongy orange material onto the patient’s chest.
‘Charge it,’ Tim snapped as a response to his radio signal came through. ‘We need back-up,’ he told the control room. ‘VF arrest.’ He was watching Kathryn as he spoke.
She held a paddle in each hand. The crescendo of sound that depressing the charge button had elicited stopped with a loud beep. The paddles were charged.
‘Do it,’ Tim commanded.
Kathryn pressed the paddles onto the gel pads. She remembered to move so that her legs were not touching the metal sides of the stretcher. A flash of some horror story of an ambulance officer giving himself a nasty shock surfaced.
‘I’m clear,’ she said shakily. ‘Are you?’
‘Just do it, Kat!’
She pressed her thumbs down hard on the buttons. The man jerked and his arm flopped over the side of the stretcher to hit her leg. Kathryn lifted the paddles hurriedly, too horrified to look at the screen behind her.
‘Charge again,’ Tim ordered.
The sound started to crescendo again. Kathryn’s clutch on the paddle handles felt slippery so she tightened her grip. Two shocks at 200 joules, she reminded herself. Then one at 360. Then CPR. She pressed the paddles into position.
‘Wait!’ Tim shouted. ‘Look at the screen.’
Kathryn’s head jerked up. A rapid but normal cardiac rhythm was evident. And here she was with charged-up paddles pressed onto the patient’s chest. She lifted them and her jaw dropped. The only thing she could remember was how dangerous it was to discharge a shock into the air. She couldn’t catch Tim’s eye, though, as he was leaning past her. Hitting a button on the centre of the menu control dial…emptying the charge safely from the paddles.
He was talking into the microphone at the same time. ‘Cancel the back-up,’ he told Control. ‘My partner has just saved our patient.’
Kathryn’s jaw dropped even further. Was he serious?
‘You can put those down now,’ Tim said. Then he grinned. ‘So, how does it feel to save a life, then?’
‘I…ah…’ Kathryn was totally lost for words. She looked at the patient who was actually moving his head and groaning. She looked at the life-pack screen, which still showed a rapid, steady sinus rhythm. Then she looked at Tim and couldn’t help the grin that broke out.
‘Now, let’s see how fast you can get us into hospital,’ Tim said. ‘Use the lights and siren.’
‘But I’m not allowed—’
‘Just do it, Kat. This man’s not exactly stable yet. Or would you rather stay in the back with him?’
Kathryn drove. She could see the reflection of the flashing beacons on the windows of vehicles she shot
