two.
"So, a Silver Star, huh?" Chimney questioned Eddie as soon as the fire truck was on the way, his eyebrows raising as he tried to indulge in all the new things. Ollie assumed her interrogation was en route, but she was too busy clenching the pants of her turnouts tightly in her fists until her knuckles turned white to worry about that.
Eddie chuckled slowly. He had always been good at keeping his head. "Yeah." He kept his response short, turning to look back out the window.
But Chim was persistent. "You save a platoon or something?"
If Ollie wasn't too busy holding her breath so she didn't vomit all over Hen's lap every time the truck hit a bump in the road, she would've laughed. Buck wasn't too happy about his coworker fawning over the guy that he showed jealousy for, and his eyes never faltered from the daggers he was sending Eddie's way.
If looks could kill, Ollie would be wearing black and wiping away her running mascara.
In response, Eddie shook his head. "No, no, nothing like that. Just a convoy."
"Ever so humble." Ollie snorted, trying to keep her voice from shaking as she passed a glance over to her friend. Buck scoffed, visibly rolling his eyes before starting to mess with his fingers so he didn't have to look at anyone that was currently cherishing the guy he wanted to punch for no good reason at all.
Hen peeked at Buck's face, and a smirk twitched at the corners of her lips. "Eddie, uh, you heard about the hot firefighter calendar?" She questioned, leaning closer to the man, as if they weren't all wearing headphones that helped them communicate easier with each other while on the rig. In response, Buck gave her an incredulous look and Chimney shot back a smirk of his own, while Hen just gave an innocent grin, showing all of her pearly whites.
Eddie's eyebrows raised so high that Ollie swore they'd start to blend in with his hairline. "Sorry, what?"
"It's for charity!" Hen cheered, suddenly a lot more chipper about the idea of a sexy firefighter calendar now that it had become a truly bloodthirsty competition. Captain Nash laughed from the front seat, catching the jokes and doing nothing to stop it.
Buck was practically trembling with irritation, and he clenched his fist before interrupting the joke that he didn't find too funny. "So, is your full name Eduardo?"
Ollie let out a large cackle, her first outwardly reaction towards Buck since she had realized that he somehow had ended up her coworker. She blamed the way she let her guard down on the way-too-long car ride before immediately shutting down any reaction she had had, building back up the brick wall around her.
"No." Eddie answered shortly.
"Do people ever call you 'Diaz?'" Buck questioned again.
"Not if they want me to respond." He replied.
"Something's gotta give." Buck retorted. "We got... well, we got Cap, Hen, Chimney, Buck, Ollie. We can't just call you Eddie." He explained it as if it was the most sensible thing in the world, even though everyone around him knew it was just him trying to pick any type of fight. He was childish in that way. If Ollie's memory served her correctly, it was the way he had always been. Horribly stubborn and childish.
Eddie's attention moved towards Ollie, and the girl's lip tipped up at the corners at how she could practically feel the annoyance radiating off of Evan. "I can't tell if he's being serious or not."
Chimney snorted, including himself in what was supposed to be a one-on-one conversation. "I like to always operate under the assumption that nothing he says is serious."
Ollie let herself laugh at that one, shaking her head before tensing up when they hit a specifically rough dip in the road, closing her eyes and leaning her head back, trying to imagine that she was in an inflatable flamingo, floating in a pool or river rather than on a vehicle that weighed way more than she did. Once she got that tranquility back over her, she accidentally made eye contact with Buck, who was staring at her with the exact same look he had given her ten years ago.
She looked away just as they pulled up to the car shop they had been called to, opening the door right next to her and hopping out as soon as she could. The team all met up at the front of the rig once everyone was out, watching as a man ran up to them and started to explain the situation.
"The air nozzle is embedded in his ass cheek," he started, and she held back her snort, "I shut it off, but I was afraid to move him."
The team made their way inside, and her eyes turned round as she took in the sight in front of her. A man was leaning against a pole, bloated beyond no belief literally everywhere. His cheeks, forehead and cheek were round, his belly was horribly distended, even his legs had become swollen past the limit of comical. It was concerning.
Nash ran up to the man, leaning his head down. "Okay. Hector, can you hear me? Alright, hang in there, buddy. Let's get him on his side!" He called to the paramedics, and Ollie easily kicked into gear, jumping in to place her hands on Hector. "Maintain pressure on the wound!" Ollie helped the team pull Hector off of the air compressor, laying him down on the ground and pulling out her stethoscope.
"It's a hundred pounds per square inch of air pumped through his entire body." Buck informed, reading off of a sticker on the pole Hector was formerly leaning against.
"Breathing's shallow, hearts racing." Ollie piped in, holding her stethoscope to Hector's entire torso. She could hear the air circling around, like the dull buzz of a fan's blades.. "Air filled his stomach, his chest, even behind his eyelids. More than that, I'm concerned about the space around his heart and lungs. It'll compress on it until his heart won't beat or his lungs won't be able to fill."
"Alright, Eddie, start a nasal cannula. Chimney, get him some morphine." Nash ordered.
Chimney immediately reached into his medical bag, pulling out a syringe and a vial of morphine. "I'm on it." He chirped, taking Hector's hand that Ollie held up for him. With his arms so bloated with air, it would be impossible to get a vein there, so the hand was the best bet. Less skin. "It's like trying to inject a needle into stone." He groaned.
Ollie kept her stethoscope near Hector's lungs and heart, making sure he kept breathing and his heart kept beating. The nasal cannula would assist with helping to push the oxygen in, but his heart still had a very faint beating, and if it grew even fainter, she'd have to let them know as soon as she heard it.
"The pressure's pushing everything out. I can't even get air through the nostril." Eddie informed, and she held back a swear. If Hector couldn't be assisted with taking in oxygen, they had a lot more stress on their shoulders.
She took her stethoscope off for just a second, beginning to do a full work-up of Hector, not just focusing on the sole problem of his heart and lungs. "Jugular venous distention, tachycardia, hypotension, diminished breath... we're looking at a tension pneumothorax. The air pressure is already starting to collapse his organs. We have to act fast if we're going to save him."
Nash nodded. "We need to get in there and drain the fluid. Buck, I need you to get a 14-gauge Angiocath. We need to start decompressing the pleural cavity."
"All right, all right." Buck mumbled, digging in the medical bag next to him for what he was asked for. He unbuttoned the first few buttons of Hector's work shirt, brushing off Eddie's hands when he attempted to assist him. "Hang in there, Hector." His fingers felt out the spot where he would insert the angiocath, but was stopped by Ollie.
"I'd go lower." She piped in, looking up to stare right into his piercing eyes.
"What?" He questioned, the pressure of the situation and her gaze making his voice sound breathless. He shot back to who he was in a quick second, shaking his head. "Um, no. Second intercostal space. Midclavicular line."
Ollie gritted her teeth. "The chest wall is thinner at the fifth intercostal, at the anterior axillary line. There's a decreased chance of hitting any vital organs. I've treated guys with collapsed lungs before, Evan." She pressed, furrowing her eyebrows.
"Do it." Nash ordered, putting faith in Ollie.
At Buck's hesitation, she held out a hand for the angiocath. "Please." A deep breath escaped her lips when he handed it over reluctantly, and she thanked him quietly before she began to use her fingers to locate the correct spot between his ribs. "Can you help me out with the shirt?"
Ollie could feel the irritation radiating off of his skin as he glanced at her in disbelief. He started to rushedly undo more buttons, and she used scissors to cut a perfect hole in Hector's tank top. Within seconds, she had inserted the angiocath into his fifth intercostal space, removing the top so that the air currently pushing against his skin and organs could escape. It made a small hissing sound as she held the angiocath in place, watching Hector closely.
Within seconds, Hector's body began to deflate like a popped balloon, and his eyes opened soon after with the removal of the pressure against his eyelids. With the removal of the pressure around his lungs, he began to take as deep of breaths as he could, and Ollie let out her own exhale as she continued to hold the angiocath. She could feel the heat of everyone's gaze on her, silently praising her for her quick, and close, call.
Once Hector was properly deflated, they loaded him into the ambulance, where a sole paramedic got stuck with the release of all the pressure via farting. The firefighters all began to load their equipment back into the rig, Ollie included. She was just pulling her hair up into a ponytail when she felt a hand clap on her shoulder, Nash giving her his praise as he breezed past. Chimney followed behind with a 'Nice job' before continuing his way to the truck, and Ollie just yelled her 'thanks' as she slammed shut the compartment she had just been filling.
"Yeah, good call." Evan spoke behind her, and she just gave him a breezy smile before stepping past him so that she could get in the rig.
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen247.Pro