The nod came without the slightest hesitation that Teo could detect. ‘What status is the child?’
‘Can’t tell. The seat’s upside down and the roof is badly dented on that side. I can see an arm. I reckon it’s a toddler more than a baby.’
‘I’m a paediatrician,’ Teo cut in. ‘Can I be of any assistance?’
She looked at him now. Green eyes were assessing him rapidly but with keen attention. He had the impression that he’d passed some kind of test. Pulling off her vest, she handed it to Tom. ‘Take over scene control,’ she told him. ‘There’re two more trucks responding and we should be able to start transporting using the northern lanes. The police are clearing an area for the chopper to get down but we’ll keep them on standby until we know what’s happening with the rolled car.’
She pulled another vest from a container labelled ‘Major Incident’ and handed it to Teo. ‘Put this on,’ she ordered. ‘And come with me.’
This vest had ‘Doctor’ on the back. It was a tight squeeze for his large frame but Teo got it on as he followed Zoe. It took only seconds to get amongst the knot of fire officers working on the vehicle. Teo had to watch his feet as he stepped over the thick black cables that connected the cutting gear to the power generators. A blanket marked a patch of ground where a paramedic kit was opened beside a life pack and an oxygen cylinder. Tubing from the cylinder was attached to a bag mask unit being held over the face of the driver by another ambulance officer. A policewoman was holding a bag of IV fluid aloft, its tubing snaking in through the broken window.
‘Any change?’ Zoe queried.
‘Sats down to 95. BP’s still dropping. Ninety-five on 60 now. We should be able to get her out any minute.’
Zoe’s nod was curt. ‘I’ll assess her for intubation as soon as she’s clear.’ She turned to Teo. ‘Stay here,’ she commanded. ‘I’m going to take a few seconds to see if I can get to the child. If it’s alive, we’ll get it out and I’ll hand over to you. The driver’s status 1 and I’ll need to focus on her.’
Teo knew that meant the victim was in a life-threatening situation. Was it the child’s mother? Was the child badly hurt as well? Teo normally saw his patients in the well-controlled environment of a paediatric ward or sometimes the emergency department. This was the first time he’d been on scene in a situation like this. The tension was palpable. The working conditions were astonishing—so many people, so much noise, the smell of fuel and hot metal. How hard would it be to focus?
He watched the redheaded paramedic having a short but intense conversation with a fire officer. She jammed a hard hat onto her head and then lay down, edging herself beneath the wreck of the car’s chassis.
Teo felt his breath leave his body in a silent whistle. Not only was it a challenge to focus in this kind of environment but these people were clearly willing to put themselves at considerable physical risk as well. This would be impressive at any time but the actions of this woman called Zoe were positively mind-blowing.
Because she was female?
Teo was ashamed to have to admit that was partly true but there was more to it in this case. Maybe it had something to do with this particular woman. With her striking colouring and those unusually obvious freckles on her skin that made her seem … younger? More vulnerable?
It wasn’t a word he should even think of associating with a person who was clearly in command of such an intense situation but, oddly, it stuck somewhere in the back of his head as he stood there, his gaze fixed on the steel-capped black boots he could see protruding from this side of the vehicle. They were moving. Turning as Zoe was positioning herself inside what had to be an impossibly small space to work in. He could hear the muffled, shouted conversation she was having with firemen on the other side of the wreck.
They repositioned their equipment. The ‘jaws of life’ were used to cut through a central pillar on that side of the car and metal was being peeled back like the top of a spaghetti can. Teo’s view was obstructed by the wheels of the wreck and then by the surge of rescuers that moved in. There was more shouting, the wreck rocked a little and then, less than a minute after Zoe had disappeared beneath the wreck, he saw the car seat being lifted clear and passed from one set of arms to another. It was carried towards him and suddenly Teo realised that it was actually easy to focus in the messy, dangerous environment. All you needed was a patient who needed you. This car seat had a small body strapped inside it. A baby about twelve months old. A boy who was not only alive but fully conscious. His eyes were wide open and frightened as he looked right back at Teo.
‘Put him down here,’ Teo said. He crouched beside the car seat and reached for the central buckle. ‘Hey, there, little one …’
The driver of the car was freed from the wreckage moments after the baby seat had been extricated.
What a stroke of luck, having a paediatrician on scene. Not that Zoe would have had trouble coping but it was an undeniable relief not to have to deal with a baby just yet. That might well blur the comforting demarcation she was establishing between her private and professional life.
She would far rather attend to the female driver and deal with the life-threatening injuries that were immediately apparent as they transferred her from the back board onto a stretcher. She had a collarbone and ribs that had shattered and caused major lung damage on one side. Zoe had to intubate the woman to secure her airway and then do a needle decompression to relieve the increasing pressure from air and blood accumulating in her chest, which could stop her breathing altogether.
Even then, Zoe wasn’t happy with how well the woman was breathing. Her blood pressure was still dropping as well and that might indicate further internal injuries.
‘I’d like to go with her in the chopper,’ she informed Tom when he joined the team assisting her in stabilising this patient for transport. ‘I’d prefer to monitor that tension pneumothorax myself if the air rescue team don’t mind.’
‘We don’t mind,’ one of the helicopter paramedics said over his shoulder. ‘You can party with us any time, Red.’
Zoe had never liked the nickname, earned thanks to her bright auburn hair colour, but the way it pulled her back in time was welcome. She still belonged in this world. It was Tom who would be most affected, however. ‘Would you be OK to meet me at the hospital?’ Zoe checked.
‘Shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll let Control know, borrow a crew member from one of the other trucks and we’ll transport the baby.’
‘Oh …’ It was the first moment Zoe had had to think about the child since her relief in finding it, hanging upside down in the car seat, but conscious and alert. ‘How’s he doing?’
‘Teo’s happy.’
‘Teo?’ The name was unusual.
‘The paediatrician from the Harbour. Nice guy.’
‘Mmm.’ Zoe shifted her gaze. So his name was Teo? She had noticed the dark olive skin, of course, and the broad features that suggested he was Polynesian.
Right now, he had the baby, wrapped in a blanket, in his arms. He didn’t notice Zoe’s glance because he was looking down at the child. And … he was smiling. He was also radiating an aura of calmness. As if it was nothing out of the ordinary to be holding a baby at the scene of a major accident. As if he was actually enjoying it.
She was close enough to be able to hear if the baby was crying and she couldn’t hear even a whimper. Zoe wouldn’t have been the least bit surprised if she’d walked over there to find that the baby was smiling back up at him and, for some inexplicable reason that was irritating.
‘What’s the baby’s status?’ It came out almost as a snap.
OK, maybe the reason wasn’t that inexplicable. How was it that this guy—who looked as if he