Previously......
He was barely able to make it a few more steps before the disorientation forced him to his knees, the gravel feeling like knives stabbing through his joints as he glanced blearily around at his surroundings - unable to make any sense out of them.
His whole body was swaying in time with his head now, and the edges of his vision were starting to go dark. He tried his hardest to shake it off, but the odd feeling persisted - though he couldn't remember why. All he could remember was that something was wrong, and that he needed help.
Need.....to find......Bob....... was the last thought that went through his mind before the world went black and Dec collapsed in a limp heap onto the gravel.
*****
9pm.....
Bob sat at his desk in his office, going over some paperwork that needed to be completed. He had managed to avoid doing it for most of the day - given that he much preferred to do this sort of work at night - but now that he was forcing himself to sit down and do it, he found that he couldn't concentrate.
His mind kept drifting back to earlier that evening in the canteen, and the conversation that he'd witnessed between Ant and Dec. Something tickled annoyingly at the back of his mind, the thought just out of his reach; all he knew was that something wasn't quite right.
Sighing heavily, Bob tossed the paperwork onto the desk and sat back in his chair, rubbing a hand over his face tiredly. Checking his watch, he decided that he should probably head off to get some rest of his own soon - but he knew he had to get the paperwork done before he did so.
He also knew that he wasn't going to get any work done sitting in his chair feeling like he was about to fall asleep at any moment.
Standing up and letting his knees crack with a satisfying pop, Bob stretched his arms up and decided to take a quick walk outside. The fresh air would do him good, he supposed. Pushing open the door, he let out a contented sigh as the cool air brushed gently past his face, almost as if it was inviting him out further.
Smiling, he was only too happy to oblige, and he put his hands in the pockets of his jacket and began to walk casually up the gravel path.
In the quiet of the night, Bob let his thoughts drift away as he listened to the noises of the jungle around him. The chirping of cicadas, the croaking of tree frogs, the laughter of a lonely kookaburra, the hooting of an owl, and the gentle rustle of the eucalyptus leaves.
He imagined koalas way up in the canopy - munching lazily on gum leaves or napping comfortably on a gum branch. He pictured kangaroos and wombats rummaging through the undergrowth, looking for a tasty treat for dinner. He conjured up images of animals of all shapes and sizes just waking up and going off to find themselves something to eat.
The next image he would have thought of was quickly snatched out of his grasp when he tripped over something dark on the ground.
Righting himself, Bob spun around and tried to find whatever it was that he had tripped over. This part of the path was darker than the rest, and the closest light source was a good few hundred metres back down the path.
When his eyes had adjusted however, he saw the outline of a figure lying motionless in the middle of the path. Bending closer, his heart practically stopped when he recognised them.
"Oh my God, Declan!"
*****
Ant had decided to put his book down for the night and had just closed his eyes in an attempt to tempt his body and mind into rest, when he had heard Bob's voice exclaim nearby.
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.
Passing the cannulation gear to Sophie, he set about sizing up the plastic tube before quickly inserting it into Dec's mouth and over his tongue. This would hopefully prevent the tongue from falling back against his throat and blocking his airway.
It was the best he could do until the paramedics arrived and they could decide whether to insert an LMA or not.
Speaking of which......
The flashing of red and blue lights in the distance caught his eye, and within moments, an ambulance had pulled up about ten metres away from them. The crew jumped out - accompanied by a student, Bob noticed with the slight raise of an eyebrow - and grabbed their gear before making their way over.
"Evening Bobbo!" Steve - one of the paramedics, and a very good friend and former partner of Bob's - greeted enthusiastically.
Spying the mask around his face, Steve halted and grabbed a mask out of his pocket, before passing two more over to his partner and their student.
"You sure it's meningococcal then?" he asked, crouching down next to his old friend and giving their patient a glance-over.
"Pretty much certain of it" Bob replied, reciting all of their findings so far to the new arrivals, watching as comprehension - and a bit of dread - started to dawn on Steve and Tanya's faces.
"And the rash?" Tanya questioned, getting a cuff on Dec's other arm to get her own set of vitals.
Bob gestured silently to the purpling skin on their patient's arms, and pulled the top of his shirt back to reveal the advancing rash on his chest.
Tanya and Steve both winced - yep, this definitely looked like meningococcal alright.
Then Sophie piped up again.
"Shall I keep going with that IV Bob?"
Steve glanced over at Bob, one of his eyebrows raised.
"Actually, would you mind if Danielle gives it a go?" he wondered, nodding back to his student - who smiled shyly at them at the mention of her name.
"You ever cannulated before?" Bob asked kindly, smiling reassuringly back at her - she seemed alright, he supposed.
Nodding, Danielle took a few steps towards them.
"Only on patients with decent veins though" she replied softly, not sounding too confident. "I haven't had a chance on a hypotensive patient yet."
Poor thing looks absolutely terrified, Bob thought to himself.
"Well, no time like the present, hey?" he suggested, offering her a spot next to him and Sophie smiled kindly as she passed the ready kit over to her.
Swallowing against the nerves that were no doubt surging in her mind, Danielle prepared the site for the injection, but her hands were shaking so much when she came to actually inserting the cannula that she accidentally missed the vein entirely and ended up going through the vein instead of into it.
This didn't seem to go down well with their patient.
Despite only being barely semi-conscious, the painful stimuli caused Dec to squirm and attempt to pull his arm away from Danielle, a horrible groaning noise echoing around the plastic airway in his mouth.
Bob rested a firm hand on his arm in an attempt to keep it (somewhat) still, and Ant (who Bob had almost forgotten was there) stepped around and sat by his friend's head, rubbing a comforting palm across his feverish brow.
"Easy kidda, it's alright" he soothed in a hushed tone, continuing to shush him quietly as Danielle pulled back to try again - with minimal success.
She eventually pulled out of the vein completely, looking a bit disheartened as she disposed of the cannula into the sharps container.
Bob raised a friendly smile to the younger girl, eyes twinkling softly despite the intense worry that the nineteen year old could clearly see in them.
"Don't be too down on yourself" he reassured kindly, "It's hard enough trying to get into collapsed veins, let alone when you've got an uncooperative and feverish patient like this."
Ant decided to join in, keeping his hand moving as he spoke.
"Yeah, he doesn't like making it easy on you folks, do ye kiddo?" he mused fondly - although Bob caught the worried shake in his voice and the shining in his eyes.
Danielle smiled weakly back at him, taking a deep breath and grabbing another cannula.
"I'd like one more go, if that's okay?" she asked, as if not sure if she would be allowed to.
Bob nodded encouragingly, and Danielle moved in for another attempt. This time, her hand was much steadier, and she ended up getting the needle in the vein on the first try.
Grinning to herself at her accomplishment, she quickly finished up her task and stepped back to let Steve administer the drug he'd spent the last minute or so preparing in a syringe.
"Just check this one with me, Danielle?" he requested, holding up the vial of the drug to her and listening as she recited the name of the drug, the strength and the expiry date back to him. Confirming it with his own recitation, Steve knelt down and screwed the syringe onto the bung and began the slow process of pushing the drug through.
"So what is this drug, anyway?" Danielle wondered, reading the name on the vial again.
Tanya stepped in, "It's an antibiotic" she explained, wrapping her blood pressure cuff up as she spoke. "It's supposed to stop the bacteria from dividing and to hopefully kill the bacteria that are already present."
Nodding in understanding, Danielle put the vial back in the plastic zip-seal bag for them to take to the hospital with them.
When Steve had finally finished pushing the drug through - a process that had to take around three to five minutes - he then grabbed the bag of fluids and prepared line that Bob had set up for him and attached the end of the line to the bung.
"Right, that should do us for a little while" he announced, leaning back on his heels.
Tanya had brought over the stretcher and they carefully organised themselves so they could do a team-lift from the path up onto the stretcher.
Once Dec was finally settled on the gurney, Danielle loaded it into the ambulance and jumped up into one of the seats. Tanya picked up the last of their equipment, before she put each bag back in its place and then she climbed into the driver's seat.
"So, have we got a ride-along?" Steve asked, glancing around at the huddle and his kind dark eyes resting on Ant knowingly.
Bob caught Ant's eye and raised an eyebrow, smiling knowingly when the younger man nodded as if to say "Of course I'm going with him!"
Smiling at their exchange, Steve gestured for Ant to get into the front passenger seat before he too stepped into the back of the truck, closing the doors behind him.
Ant hesitated before he went to open the door.
"What's wrong, son?" Bob asked softly, putting a hand on his shoulder - saddened when he felt the trembling under his touch.
Taking a few shaky breaths, Ant looked up at him with shimmering green eyes that were full of emotion.
"Is he going to be alright?" he whispered brokenly, sounding desperately hopeful.
Bob was about to reply when he heard Steve's voice ring out from inside the truck - perfectly clear over the sound of the engine.
"Danielle, grab the midazolam: he's seizing!"
*****
TBC......
*****
Next time.....
Have the team managed to get there before things become irreversible? Will Dec make a full recovery? And what does this mean for the show?
*****