Medical 3

She shifted and Chris could finally see the man's face. It looked like hamburger. The entire top half of his body looked like it had been shredded and Chris wasn't sure how he could be alive. The girl's hands were buried inside the man's armpit, plunged into the wound.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“I'm applying direct pressure to four different veins trying to keep him from bleeding out,” the girl said. “And if you think that's easy with two hands, it's not. I know what I'm doing, but my hands are getting tired.”

 

What he could see of her face was sweaty and her face looked a little white.

 

***

 

Two men stepped inside, and the girl said, “These men all have severe spinal injuries, but this one is the worst. He's got punctures to four of the veins in his...I don't know the words, but he's bleeding to death and I've got my hands on all four spots.”

 

The paramedics took over, but it took six men to try to keep him alive.

 

The girl's hands were dripping in blood. She looked white, and she staggered back, her face pale as the paramedics started to carefully slide people onto backboards.

 

“He's got three crushed vertebra,” she called out to one pair of paramedics. “The third from the top, fifth and sixth.”

 

***

 

Interlude: Chris