The Unknown

Chapter Two

Monday morning went by painfully slow, luckily too as we were short staffed due to the latest bout of norovirus rippling trough the staff. I was eating lunch- a simple tuna salad I'd made at home- when a massive trauma came in. A&E was always busy but this put normal procedures to a halt. Three stretchers sped past the small window I was peering out of and I dropped the fork with the piece of lettuce I had been nibbling on when I caught sight of it. There was no other way to explain what I saw other than red. Red everywhere. The beds were soaked with it and the trauma medics running alongside them were also. Not to mention the pools of blood lining the floors as they pass. Haphazardly I through the lid on my Tupperware container and sprinted out the door following it. 

As I approached the distinct shouting became apparent when the lead trauma consultant barked out orders with groups of doctors each on their own patients screaming what they need from their teams.
"Anyone available I need you now! All hands on deck! Where is everyone?!"
Consultant Dr James Rush screeched out but all doctors ignored him. Only a student nurse, Steph I think her name is, had the balls to respond as she ran past with an IV fluid bag in her hand.
"They're all sick Dr Rush! Norovirus again" she didn't wait for him to respond, just got on with what she was doing. He didn't respond to her though, just huffed and sprinted to one of the beds when the monitor started to flatline.
"There's a bleed. I need someone to compress it." I watched on as he searched the room for anyone to help but they were all preoccupied with their own patients in critical conditions. He swept the room before his eye landed on me and narrowed. "You! What are doing?! Get over here and help!"
I panicked, my heart began to thud in the chest and I realised I had to admit why I was just onlooking.
"I-I can't. I'm just a pre-reg."
"I don't care! Get over here and save this mans life!" He roared at me and it spurred my legs forward without me asking them to. I looked over the patient to see a gushing wound on his abdomen.
"That's it. Now put your hands on the wound. Put pressure on it and don't let go until I say so." Dr. Rush's voice had softened as he murmured encouragement. I dove straight in, no gloves which was probably stupid, but a mans life was at risk, and pushed the wound down until I felt the gushing slow. No one really realised how sticky blood is. You don't normally see this much at any one time. Maybe if you cut your hand or something, but never this much. It's so viscous. I just stayed in place not moving as everyone around me shouted and demanded different things from their colleagues. I drowned it all out really as I studied the guy whom had my hands inside his abdomen.

He was really in bad shape. There were long gashes running down his dark skinned face but not bleeding too profusely. Probably would scar for life though. His eyes were closed and his full lips were parted slightly as the ventilation tube hung out of his mouth, breathing for him. His face actually looked almost peaceful. They must have given him so much morphine it knocked him out. Either that or he was already passed out when they reached him. His dark hair was ruffled and had a few twigs and leaves stuck in it so I can only imagine they found him in a forest or woods of some sort. I was going to continue studying him but Dr. Rush jumped me out of my thoughts.
"Pre-reg! Hop on, let's go! We need to get him into surgery now!"
"What? How?"
"Just jump on and sit on the bed. You can't remove the pressure. You're the only thing keeping him from bleeding out right now."
My body acted as if on autopilot, which I'm glad for since I don't really know what I would've done if I had to think about it. I swung one leg over the bed carefully and hoisted myself up with it trying to maintain the pressure I have on the wound. Once I was on the bed immediately we were off and they raced us down the halls to theatre 2.

The operation was long and arduous but I wasn't required for a lot of it. I had to keep my hands in and slowly remove them when asked to until they could isolate the bleed and clamp it. He was in surgery for 4 hours until they finally stop the bleeding and by then they had nearly replaced his entire blood volume in transfusions. He crashed once after they found the bleed and I'd removed my hands but then he stabilised. Turns out it was a gunshot wound. And they retrieved the bullet after securing the bleed.