Mitch moaned. ‘Me hip’s killing me.’
Reaching out her hand, she took his carotid pulse and counted for ten seconds. It was fast but relatively steady and she hoped the speed was due to pain and not internal bleeding. Only time would tell. ‘Dennis, call an ambulance.’
The builder nodded, fishing his phone out of his overalls pocket and making the call.
Georgie examined Mitch’s legs, which were bloody from cuts and scratches. One ankle was swelling before her eyes and his leg was rotated outwards, which wasn’t a good sign. She added it to the growing list of injuries but possible fractures were the least of her concerns at the moment.
‘Mitch, I need you to listen very carefully to me and only move when I tell you.’
The fear of getting into trouble morphed into a fear of a different kind and his entire body stiffened. Suddenly he looked a lot younger than his seventeen years. ‘It hurts to move.’
‘Good,’ said Dennis. ‘You won’t be tempted to do any more stupid things.’
Despite the gruffly spoken words, Georgie could hear the worry and concern in the boss’s voice and he had plenty to worry about. A fall like the one Mitch had just sustained meant a strong possibility of fractured vertebrae and a compromised spinal cord, along with a host of other injuries. ‘Can you feel your fingers and toes?’
‘Yeah.’ He wiggled his fingers but flinched when he tried his toes. ‘Me right leg feels wrong.’
At least he could feel it.
‘Here’s your bag, Doc.’ Dennis knelt down opposite her and handed her the medical kit, which Greg, the carpenter, had just passed him.
‘Thanks,’ she called out to Greg. ‘I need towels and sheets, please. They’re in the linen press in the hall.’
‘Sure thing.’
As he left the room, Georgie pulled the green whistle out of her bag—the emergency analgesia that patients sucked on for pain relief. ‘Mitch, put this in your mouth and take deep breaths and it will help with the pain.’
The young man did as he was asked and Georgie started to assemble a cervical collar. ‘I’m going to put this around your neck for support and then Dennis and I are going to roll you onto your back like you’re a log. It might hurt.’
‘That don’t sound good.’ Mitch’s voice sounded small and scared.
‘Sorry, mate, but until I know exactly what damage you’ve done to yourself, we’re protecting your spine.’ She started measuring for the collar, using an imaginary line from the top of his shoulder to where the collar would rest and then another from the chin. Putting as many of her fingers that fitted into the space, she used them to measure the distance.
A moment later with a series of clicks and clacks she adjusted the collar, using the locks, until it was the correct size. ‘Dennis, I need you to hold Mitch’s head like this.’ She demonstrated.
‘Can do.’ Dennis’s usually loud and beefy voice quavered slightly and his face had stayed white tinged with green. Despite that, he did exactly as he was asked, using his burly hands—one on each side of Mitch’s cheeks—to keep his head in a neutral position.
Mitch wore a silver skull on a chain around his neck. ‘I have to take this off,’ she said, pulling back on the clasp, ‘but I promise it will be safe.’ She slipped it into her pocket and then slid the back portion of the collar behind his neck and folded the loop of Velcro inwards on top of the foam padding. After attaching it to the chinpiece, she tightened the collar, using the tracheal hole as the anchor point. Mitch’s chin protruded over the collar, which was a good sign.
‘Is it comfortable?’
‘Yes. My neck never hurt. Just everything else.’
She needed to examine him fully but she wasn’t prepared to do that until she’d protected his spinal cord. She patted his arm and said, ‘Take another couple of deep breaths on the green whistle.’
Greg had dropped onto the dusty floor two fluffy towels and her brand-new one-thousand-thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets she’d bought to celebrate moving into her own home. Linen she’d not even used yet.
She silenced her moan of disappointment as she rolled a luxury towel and inserted it between Mitch’s knees to keep his legs apart and the head of both his femurs in their hip sockets. Using one sheet, she tied his ankles together and then wrapped another one around his hips. She’d stake her bottom dollar he’d fractured his pelvis and, with the close proximity of his bladder and bowel, that was a real concern. ‘How are you travelling, Mitch?’
His eyes fluttered close to closing. ‘This whistle’s good stuff.’
She gave a vote of thanks for Australian ingenuity and inventions and smiled, having heard similar stories from injured patients in the past. Mitch was going to need all the help it could give him.
Glancing up at Dennis, she said, ‘We need to move him very carefully. You hold his ankles and support his legs and, Greg, you put your hands on his hips and I’ll take care of his neck. On my count we’re going to roll him very slowly onto his back.’
She waited for the men to get into position. ‘Mitch, are you ready?’
‘I guess.’ He sounded hesitant and scared.
‘Right, fellas. One, two, three.’
Mitch slowly came onto his back, his body in alignment, and the moment they took their hands away he sucked down another deep draft on the whistle.
‘Great work, guys. Thanks.’ Georgie rechecked Mitch’s pulse and then took his blood pressure. Both were up. Was he bleeding?
She quickly primed an IV line by folding the plastic cord in half before breaking the solution seal and letting the fluid roll down without air bubbles. ‘Can someone go out and wave down the ambulance so they know which house?’
‘I’ll go,’ said Greg.
‘Dennis, cut off Mitch’s jeans, please.’ She tightened a tourniquet around Mitch’s upper arm and then flicked her fingers against his inner elbow. A vein rose up against her finger. ‘Just the prick of a needle,’ she said as she slid the cannula into place.
Mitch didn’t even flinch. As she connected up the IV, the baby kicked her hard under the ribs. She rechecked the teenager’s pulse, which was rapid, and took his blood pressure, which was low, and she ran the drip full bore. Where was the ambulance?
‘Mitch, sorry, but I need to examine your groin.’
Fortunately, the teenager was now drugged up enough not to be embarrassed and she checked for bruising and bleeding around the scrotum and inguinal area that were often associated with a fractured pelvis.
Voices sounded down the hall and she swivelled around, welcoming the ambulance officers. ‘Hi, guys. This is Mitch, aged seventeen, and he’s fallen ten feet. Suspected fractured pelvis, left femur, right wrist and treating as a spinal injury until proven otherwise. I’ve given him morphine, put up a saline drip and he’s stable, but I’m worried about a slow internal bleed.’
‘Thanks, Doc, we can take it from here.’ The older ambulance officer put the spinal board on the floor next to Mitch and started to connect the teenager up to the portable monitor.
‘Mitch, I’ll call your mum and swing by the hospital later to see you. Meanwhile, you’re in good hands with these guys.’
‘Okay.’ He didn’t sound very certain but no patient in shock ever did.
‘Fellas, we need to give the ambos some space to do their job.’
Dennis put his