Hey guys so I'm aussie and this is gonna have a lot of slang so if ur confused I'll put meanings in comments
DREAMS PERSPECTIVE:
I'm in Australia at I'm down at Bondi with Nick and Tina. I went for a bit of a surf, but I got stuck in a rip. I definitely popped my shoulder, and I struggle to get back to shore. I made it back without waving for any of the blues, but the pain was a solid 10/10.
I sit back down with Nick and he almsot throws up, "dude- your shoulder is dislocated," he says. Tina looks over and gasps.
"No shit, sherlock," I mutter. I lay down on my back, but somethign hurts, and I sit up a little. and just then, one of the lifeguards is driving past in a buggy. He stops when he sees my shoulder.
"Hey mate, you alright?" he asks, hopping off. They must be filming Bondi Rescue, cause he's got a cameraman with him. "Think you've popped your shoulder there," he says.
"Yeah, I was in a bit of a rip and I think my shoulder got smashed by something," I say, sitting up.
"Nah, yeah, it's not looking good," he says. He says soemthing into his walkie talkie but his accent is too thick to understand what he's fully saying.
Then, two more lifeguards come out from the tower and make their way over. One of them has a green stick-looking thing in his hand.
"Alright mate, I'm Jesse. This is Jethro and Hoppo. Now I just need you to inhale on this, this is the green whistle, okay?" Jesse says.
I take the green whistle from him and inhale a lot of it.
NICKS PERSPECTIVE:
"What's that for?" I ask.
"It's an anaesthesia, makes 'em really loopy so we can just pop that shoulder back in place," Hoppo says. I stand back for the three lifeguards so they can do what they need to.
"Alright, and what's your name, mate?" Jethro asks.
"Clay," Dream says.
"Alright Clay. Now on 3, I'm gonna need you to take a big deep breath, yeah?" Jethro says. He puts his hand on Dream's shoulder, and puts his other hand on his upper arm.
"1, 2, 3," Jethro counts down, and on 3, there's a massive crack, but Dream's shoulder isn't in place. It's a little bit better.
"Fuck!" Dream yells. "It still- it hurts," Dream chokes out. He's not crying or anything, but you can tell it's a painful thing.
"Shit," Hoppo mutters.
"What? Don't tell me you cocked it up," Jesse says.
"Nah, yeah, I did- i didn't do it right," Jethro mutters.
"Okay, look, we're just gonna- we're just going to call an EMT d-"
"Wait, Jesse-" Hoppo starts. "Clay, can you go ahead and stand up for me?"
Dream's a bit loopy, but he stands up.
"Turn around," Hoppo says. Dream turns around and there is a fucking massive strike going diagonal across his back and starting to wrap around his arms like an infection. It's red, and has a million little strikes sticking out of it and almsot poking through his skin. It looks like he was struck by lightning.
"Holy fuck," Jesse says. "This is- this is the worst blue bottle sting I've seen," he says.
"Fuckin' oath," Jethro chimes. He quickly calls for an EMT, and Hoppo gets Dream to walk with him into the lifeguard tower. Tina and I follow.
"Did you not feel something wrapping around you?" Hoppo asks, sitting Dream down on the first aid bed. More lifeguards look over and mutter about how bad the sting is.
"Nah," Dream says. "I just thought it was seaweed."
Two EMT's head on in and put icepacks on the worst areas. The sting starts to infect its way into Dream's stomach. They have to take him to hospital, because Dream starts talking about how he thinks he's gonna be sick.
I'm talking to Hoppo, who seems to be the main lifeguard.
"Blue bottle stings like those can bring adults to their knees, they're absolutely shocking. I've worked at Bondi for over two decades and I've never seen anything like that before. Not even close."
"What are blue bottles?"
"Jellyfish, like box jellyfish. They wrap around anything they find and sting you. Your mates lucky to be alive, because fuckin hell. On top of s dislocated shoulder, too? Get fucked," Hoppo sighs. "But, look, he was a total champ and barely broke a sweat, but I think we have the green whistle to thank for that. Hospital will check em out."
"And which hospital is he going to?" Tina asks.
"Randwick private. Drive through Bondi, past Tamma and up around Bronte," Jethro chimes in. "Then you go past Waverly, around St Catherines, and you'll be around Kensington, semi. you know those places, yeah?"
"Not really."
"You lot not from here? I mean, I could tell you're American but your mate was out in the water like any other Aussie," Jesse says. "Bloody hell, he was taking the rip like a champ. You never would've thought there was a rip there."
"We're all from the states, yeah." Tina says.
"How about we just take you there? Not a lot of tradies doing anything this past month, roads will be clear." Hoppo says. He takes us to his car and hits the gas, speeding off. Within 15 minutes, we're at Randwick Private.
He uses the fact that they're filming a show to get us into Dream's room, and tells us to update them on what happens to Dream, then he leaves.
DREAMS PERSPECTIVE:
Doctor Bayard asks me to sit down. It's 2 days after I went to hospital, and he's just finished reading through my tests. It turns out I didn't just dislocate my shoulder, but I broke a lot of nerves and shattered an artery. It poked through to my left lung and is slowly leaking blood into my lung. The jellyfish sting was unlike anything they've seen, and a bit of the jellyfish' tentacle had struck my liver and a bit of my heart.
"So, Clay. Though we've never seen anything like this, you'll be able to go under surgery if you'd like and we can seal the hole in your lung and fix up your artery- your shoulder will slowly heal itself over the next 5 days or so, and then you can be on your way. You're a very lucky man," Dr. Bayard says. He pats my other shoulder, and I smile with a lot of relief.
"Thank you, so much," I say.
"Your friends are outside. Wanna bring them in?" He asks. I nod eagerly.
Nick and Tina walk in as Dr. Bayard exits.
"Heyy!" Nick says.
"How are you?" Tina says.
"I'm good! I have to go in for surgery to fix up my lung and my artery, and my shoulder will only take about 5 days to heal. I think we'll be out of here in 1 or 2 weeks," I say with a big smile.
"What a fun holiday, huh?" Tina mocks.
"Holiday from hell."
