It wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough. She needed concrete dates for visits, not some vague idea that he’d return when it suited him or his superiors. But looking into his eyes, like peering into his soul, her breath stuck somewhere between her lungs and her lips, and she couldn’t find the words to tell him what she needed.
Then her cellphone rang, shocking her back to the here and now of the rental company. Flipping the phone open, she saw it was Molly from the medical centre.
‘Sorry, got to take this,’ Charlie said to Marshall. ‘Hey, what’s up?’ she asked the centre’s receptionist.
‘Emergency at the airport. A small plane with tandem skydivers on board crashed on take-off. The police are asking for any available doctors to proceed to the airport immediately. Can you go?’
‘Yes. Hold on. I might have another doctor for you.’ She looked at Marshall. ‘There’s been an accident and doctors are needed. Can you help? Under my guidance, of course, as you’re not New Zealand registered.’
‘What are we waiting for?’ Marshall headed back round to the driver’s door then changed his mind. ‘Better for you to drive. That’ll save time.’
Talking to Molly at the same time as slipping into the SUV, Charlie said, ‘I’m on my way with another doctor. He’ll have to work under supervision but I don’t see a problem.’
‘That’s great. Where’s your dad? I can’t raise him.’
‘He’s out on the lake. I need to drop Aimee off with someone. I’m in town.’
‘Got that covered. Gemma’s here and says she’ll meet you at the airport. She’ll bring you a medical bag and take Aimee home.’
Charlie slammed the gear lever into ‘Drive’ and snapped her seat belt on. ‘Let’s go.’
CHAPTER SIX
THE RIDE TO the airport would’ve been exciting if Marshall hadn’t been considering the injuries they’d find when they got there.
Obviously Charlie was too because she hissed through clenched teeth, ‘Impact injuries mean spinal damage, ruptured organs and broken bones.’
‘For starters.’ Marshall grimaced. ‘You’re presuming there are survivors.’
‘We wouldn’t have been called if there weren’t.’
‘True. I wonder what altitude the plane reached before something went wrong. It would’ve been moving at maximum speed and could’ve spun into the ground nose first.’ Goose-bumps rose on his arms. He knew exactly what that looked like. ‘We had a plane crash on landing at my last posting in Afghanistan so I’ve some idea of what to expect.’
‘How did you cope? Did you know any of the men on that plane?’
‘Yes.’ He stared out the windscreen but it was the injured bodies of his men he saw. He could hear Rod groaning, could see his shaking hands splayed across his leaking wound. Marshall closed his eyes, drew air deep into his lungs and focused inwards. If only he’d been able to save his buddy then he wouldn’t have this guilt of failure weighing him down. It could’ve happened to him, and still could one day. He couldn’t put Charlie and Aimee through what Rod’s family had had to deal with.
Charlie’s soft voice slowly broke through his dark thoughts. ‘I wonder how many people were on board. Usually there’s a maximum of six skydivers strapped together in pairs, and the pilot.’
Turning from staring outside to watching her, he asked, ‘As the hospital here isn’t a major one, what happens with the patients we attend?’
Indicating to turn left, Charlie slowed and turned into the airport grounds. ‘Depending on the severity of the injuries, they’ll be flown by helicopter to either Rotorua Hospital or Waikato Hospital up in Hamilton. Again, depending on the extent of injuries, one of us may have to accompany the patient or patients.’
A police car led them onto the grass perimeter. Ahead, black smoke spewed into the sky and fire trucks surrounded what had to be the wrecked plane. Ambulances were parked nearby, the back doors wide open as crews carried heavy packs of equipment towards the victims.
As Charlie pulled up beside the trucks she hauled in a deep breath and clenched her hands then loosened them. ‘Here we go.’ Shoving the door wide, she dropped to the ground and handed Aimee over to Gemma.
Jogging along beside her, Marshall took her free hand and squeezed it hard. ‘You’ll do fine. Once you get started, everything will slot into place. Just like you used to do in the ED.’
Then there was no more time to talk. They were at the site of the crash. Tangled metal that no longer resembled an aircraft stuck up out of the ground from the small crater the impact had made. Bodies lay everywhere.
‘Hey, Charlie. Glad you’re here,’ Joseph, a doctor from another medical centre in town, called to her. He crossed to them and shook Marshall’s hand when she introduced the two men. She recognised the other doctor and a nurse already working with victims. ‘I’ve been put in charge of the scene. We’ve triaged the poor devils who are lucky to be alive. Two dead. Four in a very bad way. We need to crack on.’
‘Where do you want us? You understand that Marshall is an American army doctor without registration here?’ She’d had Molly relay the information earlier.
Joseph nodded at Marshall. ‘You’re probably more qualified for this scenario than the rest of us. You two take that couple by the firemen. They’re still strapped together in preparation for their dive.’
The male and female victims had been slammed into the ground, their bodies tangled together and bound by the parachute straps. Both were unconscious. ‘Barely alive,’ Charlie muttered, after finding very weak carotid pulses in both.
‘Freeing them won’t be easy,’ Marshall muttered. ‘We could cause more damage but there’s no helping that. Let’s start the ABCs.’
They dropped to their knees and began checking airways, breathing rates, pulses. Charlie automatically went for the young woman. At least she presumed the girl was young. Hard to tell with the facial injuries.
She looked around for one of the ambulance crew. ‘Can we have two neck braces?’ They’d need to put the braces on before trying to separate their patients and move them. She began a thorough examination of the woman, not easy when there was a man strapped to her back. ‘Soft bone on the side of her skull, broken cheekbones.’ Her hands moved down the neck, over her patient’s arms. ‘Broken right humerus, crushed ribs, palpable spleen.’
Marshall reported similar injuries in the places he could reach on his patient. With the help of two ambulance officers they placed th
e neck braces on, before supervising the firemen as they cut the straps and removed the parachute from the man’s back.
‘Slowly does it,’ Marshall cautioned as the woman was placed carefully on a stretcher. Immediately Charlie began another check of the woman’s vital signs. ‘Blood pressure’s dropping, resp rate’s falling.’ Suddenly there were no heartbeats. ‘Cardiac arrest,’ she yelled, and began CPR. Nodding at one of the ambulance officers, she gasped, ‘Need an airway in place, attach a mask and bag. Someone get the defib.’ Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen. She continued counting the compressions as the ambulance officer slipped the plastic airway into the patient’s mouth and then strapped a mask over her face.
‘Twenty-nine, thirty.’ Charlie sat back, watched as the oxygen bag was squeezed twice. Leaning forward, she folded one hand over the other and began the next round of compressions while a paramedic placed the defib pads on the woman’s now exposed chest.
‘Stand back,’ he ordered quietly but firmly.
Charlie stopped the compressions and moved away from her patient. She continued compressions when the electric shock did not restart the heart. Another shock, more compressions.
‘I’m not giving up,’ she muttered, more to herself than anyone else.
‘I’ve got a pulse.’ The paramedic sounded relieved.
She could relate to that. ‘Right, let’s finish the assessment and do what’s necessary before sending this lady off to hospital. Where’s Joseph?’
‘Right here. Want to fly her to Waikato?’
‘A.S.A.P.’ Oh, hell. The monitors attached to the woman reading her heart rate gave a warning. ‘Here we go again.’ The blood loss from those internal injuries had to be huge, causing the heart to stop.
They got the woman’s heart going again, gained large-bore IV access to give fluids for shock and made her ready for evacuation. The paramedics whisked her over to a waiting helicopter for her flight to Waikato Hospital’s major trauma unit.
Charlie joined Marshall as he was splinting both his patient’s legs. She held the cardboard splint while he strapped it tight enough to be effective without cutting off any blood supply.