The Perfect Bride (Completed)

CHAPTER: 2

All hell broke loose then. The Casualty doors were held wide open. The trolleys were brought, one after the other. Manik was working on the first casualty before they entered the resuscitation room. (Resuscitation is the process of correcting physiological disorders such as lack of breathing or heartbeat.) Nandani just had time to register mass of frothy blood around the girl's face before her own patient was taken on the second trolley. The paramedic accompanying gave her a quick breakdown of the findings.

"Motorbike accident," he said. "The patient was unconscious at the scene, he has not regained consciousness. His left leg has been splinted. It is deformed, looks like a fracture in the femur bone. We don't know about spinal injuries, but it is possible. We have put a backboard to support his spine. We removed his helmet because we needed to put an airway." Nandani nodded and said, "Thank you."

While the paramedic had been talking, Nandani checked the patient's airway and found that he was breathing but it was labored. She was concerned about his chest. She ordered the nurse to get his clothes off. 

Manik from the other side of the room ordered the X-ray technician to put him on a sliding plate trolley, and then the patient was gently shifted, taking care of his head and neck. His clothes were cut away to reveal his injuries.

"If he lives he'll complain like mad about this," the nurse working along with Nandani said with a grin, as she cut open the expensive leather gear the man was wearing.

"Let's just hope he lives to complain," Nandani muttered. She then ran her expert eye over him, so as not to miss anything.

As the paramedic staff had said, the patient's femur bone just above the knee was distorted. His right wrist also looked strange. But it was his chest that Nandani was concerned about. The left side was not inflating properly, and when she pressed down gently she could feel the crepitations (sound) of the bone ends scraping together.

She informed Manik, "I think he has got a punctured lung, as his lower ribs have shifted to the left."

Manik advised her, "Watch him for shock, his spleen might have gone too," Manik then swore as his patient had severe convulsions. He ordered, "Damn it. I need to get an airway sorted."

Nandani then concentrated on her patient. His pupils were equal and reactive to light, which she was grateful for, but he did not respond at all to voice, and only slightly to pain. She recorded everything on a neurological chart because of the suspected head injury. She was more concerned about his chest and abdomen.

She put in two chest drains, one for air and one for blood, and asked the nurse for his status, while she watched the drain. There was a steady ooze of blood from the lower chest drain. She was glad she did it before it was too late.

The nurse informed, "Pulse one-twenty, blood pressure seventy over thirty and falling (Suggestive of shock.)

"Damn. Let's get an I.V line and put in some fluids. Is X-ray coming?" she asked.

The door opened then and the radiographer came in. He asked Nandani to move, while the patient was been X-rayed. Nandani refused to move and continued putting an I.V line into his left arm.

"You are a young woman, you shouldn't do that," the radiographer scolded her gently. (X-ray harms the uterus, particularly during childbearing age.) 

"Don't worry about me, I am fine," Nandani said, as she withdrew some blood from the IV line, for cross-matching. "Can we have the chest results quickly, please?"

"Sure," the radiographer replied.

They then infused, 'Haemaccele,' a plasma expander in very rapidly, till they waited for his cross-matching report. His blood pressure increased a little, and they inserted another line into his damaged right arm.