The Chronicles of Medic Bob

A Right Pain in the Neck (Pt. 2)

Bolting upright as the medic's faint words registered in his mind, Ant quickly threw back the covers and grabbed his coat before sprinting out of the trailer, down the stairs, and across the gravel to where he spotted the older man crouched down beside a dark shape.

He arrived just as Bob was pulling out his radio and making a call to Sophie, the other medic on-duty that evening. Skidding to a halt beside them, Ant's eyes widened and he gasped when his gaze fell upon the dark shadowy lump beside Bob.

Even in the faint light from many metres away, Ant could see just how horrid his friend looked. 

"Help me get him on his back, Ant" Bob instructed, taking Dec's shoulders as Ant took hold of his legs, and together they rolled him slowly onto his back.

As they did that, a few of the crew members arrived - one of them carrying a spare miniature flood light. Switching it on, it took a few seconds for everyone's eyes to adjust to the new amount of light, but when Bob reopened his, something very worrying caught his eye.

There was a dark purple shadow on Dec's forearm, spreading almost the entire circumference in a very irregular pattern. Eyes flickering across his body, Bob also spotted a similar patch on his other arm, as well as the beginnings of one poking above his sternum.

Oh God.....I hope that's not what I think it is..... he prayed desperately inside his head.

Sophie glanced worriedly up at him as she removed the thermometer, and she showed him the reading: 40.8 degrees.

Looking down at her notebook, Sophie added in a grimly quiet voice "He's got a BP of 85/50, a heart rate of 105, a resp rate of 24, cap refill is greater than three seconds, and a GCS of 7 - eyes are a 1, verbal's 2, motor's 4."

As she'd spoken, Bob had been ticking off signs and symptoms inside his head, and they pointed him towards a dangerous diagnosis.

Taking a deep breath in an attempt to prepare himself, he raised Dec's right arm into the light, and pressed down in the middle of the purplish patch of skin.

It stayed the same colour - no blanching whatsoever.

"Fuck" he swore, the tiniest bit of fear creeping into his voice as the dreaded diagnosis appeared confirmed.

 "Want me to go call in some outside help?" Sophie offered, looking as scared as Bob felt - her blue eyes wide with fear as she watched her boss.

Bob shook his head, "No, I need you to stay here." Turning to one of the crew members who'd gathered around them, he spied Ricky among the crowd. "Ricky, can you go and call an ambulance for us? Tell them we've got a suspected meningococcal septicaemia down here and we need urgent assistance."

Ricky's eyes went wide, but he nodded and quickly pulled out his phone, sprinting off to one of the offices where he might have a bit more privacy (and less likelihood of the call dropping out halfway through).

Next, Bob went into his bag and pulled out three face masks; one which he passed to Sophie, one which he put on himself, and the other he passed down to Ant - who just looked at it confusedly.

"You need to put this on, Ant" Bob advised, getting an unsure tilt of the head in response. "If this is meningococcal, then we don't want you getting sick too - the bacteria is spread through droplets, so you'll need this over your nose and mouth."

Still biting his lip, Ant nodded and took the mask from Bob with shaking hands, making short work of tying it around his face.

Satisfied that everyone was now more suitably protected, he handed Ant a pair of gloves for good measure, before grabbing his main kit and grabbing what he would need for an IV cannulation, as well as an OP airway.