X-ray Chapter 5, part 4

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"Backup Three-five C at an MVA," Frank read as he put them en route. "Go down two blocks to 201."

Ian flipped on the lights and reached for the siren. His heart pounded, and he felt the familiar impatient queasiness as he waited for a UPS truck to lumber past so he could pull out into the street. "And?" He asked.

"And go left," Frank said. "You're clear right."

Two large bore IV's, IV NS, consider dopamine at -- what was the rate for an alpha response? He couldn't remember. He turned onto 201st street and wondered if they would need to cut the cars. He hoped they would -- he had never seen that done, and he felt ashamed for hoping. If they were cutting, the accident was bad.

They would not need to cut the cars. The FD was already there when they pulled up, but this was not an MVA so much as a pedestrian-struck: a car sat half up on the sidewalk, with a knot of rescuers between its front-end and the brick wall of a building. Two feet and a pair of legs stuck out from the small gathering. Cries rose above the noise of the gathering onlookers. A longboard stood propped against the car's side. "What happened?" Ian asked a firefighter as he and Frank pulled their gear from the ambulance.

"Car jumped the curb and hit her into the wall. Bastard tried to run off but they caught him."

Over at the car, Frank took charge immediately. He got a report from Three-five C, and asked Ian to start an IV, while Frank did a more thorough exam of the patient.

The woman's knees were crushed. Ian thought that they looked deflated. They must've been the point of impact, he reasoned, where the car's bumper caught her and swept her into the wall. And the impact must've been pretty severe, judging by the depth of the dent in the wall.

While he was starting his IV -- he only remembered to prep and run out his line of the last moment -- there was a sudden opening of the scene, more area in which to work, and Ian realized that the FD had quietly rolled the car back and secured it. Three-five Charlie helped them move the patient over to the board, to lift the board onto the stretcher, until it the stretcher into the ambulance.

Frank shook his head when Three-five Charlie asked if he wanted them to drive. Just before they closed the door on him, he nodded to Ian: "Gantry."

Ian climbed into the cab and tapped the siren to clear path for the crowd of onlookers. Their presence, they're gawking angered him, he didn't know why. When he had some attention to spare, perhaps he would be able to figure it out, but not now.
He used the siren to scoot through an intersection and too late, too late, he realized that he still had his blood-flecked gloves on. "Well," he decided, "the steering wheel's slimed to now, so I might as well leave them on."

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