Back in the Garage
When Stephen came back into the work bay, he found Lacy sitting on a stool in front of a small mobile worktable, her arm resting on the large towel covering the work surface, her father standing next to her.
“Good. This will work great.” Stephen said as he set several things down on the table.
“So, how are we going to do this?” The mechanic asked Stephen.
“Ok, the first thing we are going to do is stop the bleeding so we can get a good look at the wound and clean it up before we close it.”
About this time Gabriel came into the bay. The mechanic immediately went towards him.
“Sir, we are closed for lunch right now. I can…”
“It’s ok, he’s with me.” Stephen reassured him.
“Is he another paramedic?” the woman asked.
Stephen smiled at Lacy. “No, this is Gabe a master seamstress. His stitches will be a lot smaller, more even and more effective. Don’t worry. I’m doing the medicine parts, he’s just a whole lot better with a needle than I am.”
Stephen glanced over to see Gabe giving the young women one of his father’s flirtatious smiles. Just what he needed Gabe acting like his father in a time like this.
Stephen paused a moment to get his thoughts together. He knew he had to explain things to keep everyone on track with what needed to be done. He tried to think how Doug would do it. Stephen thought back to a rescue he did with Doug. It was hard one, Stephen was doing what Doug called ‘Wilderness Paramedic ride along’. Stephen resented it at first but with multiple casualties, he was glad Doug was there.
During the rescue, Stephen watched how Doug seamlessly splint the guy’s broke leg while keeping him distracted talking about what he was doing. Doug even managed to throw in a few jokes and find out about the guy. The guy was still laughing while occasionally wincing when Doug told him he was done and ready to carry him out in the Stokes basket. Doug assured Stephen he would learn to do it someday. Stephen wished someday was today. He wanted Doug here right now. Tenderness was his thing. He had no choice but to step up; there was no one to step aside to. This girl needed him.
“Alright, Lacy, I need you to look at me. I’m not going to lie to you. This going to hurt but I do what I can to minimize the pain. Tell me when it hurts too much. I am going to tell you what we are doing so you won’t be as afraid Ok. If you have questions, ask me Ok?
Lacy looked over at her father and nodded.
“Let’s get started. We are going to put a tourniquet on your arm.” He saw some apprehension appear right away.
“Don’t worry. It’s only temporary. We have to stop the bleeding. This way you won’t be bleeding while we work on the cut. As soon as we are done, we take the tourniquet off. The other thing is it will help it not hurt as much when we sew. Have you ever slept wrong on your hand, and it goes numb? Well, that’s part of what we are doing here.”
While he was talking, he was building an improvised tourniquet out of a cravat and a small rod. He tied the cravat tightly around the woman’s upper arm.
“The bad thing about a tourniquet, when I put it on, it’s going to hurt a lot if I do it right. Are you ready?”
He saw her take her father’s hand with her other hand then nod. Stephen began to twist. He could see the pain on her face and in how she squirmed. He didn’t stop. He had to cut off the flow. After two full rotations, he checked the pulse in her wrist. None.
“OK, now, I tie the second one around your arm to keep the stick where it is.” When he was done with that step, he looked at her face.
“Doing ok?”
She was still squirming but managed to blurt out a soft, “OK”
“Good. Now let’s get this thing unwrapped.” Stephen pulled the towel and makeshift bandages away. Now he could see the extent of the wound. It looked like a jagged tear more than a slice. In the cut itself, he could see some spots of clotted blood or debris.
Well, he was prepared for that, but she wouldn’t like what he had to do. First step was to numb it up as much as he could now since the other effect would take time to kick in.
He picked up the hand towel full of ice he brought from the motel and put the icepack directly on the wound.
“This will help numb it up before we clean it.”
While the ice did its job, he unwrapped the pediatric toothbrush and loosened the cap on the bottle of distilled water. After about ten minutes, Stephen decided it was time.
“You doing Ok Lacy?”
The young woman tried to answer but her head was buried deep in her father’s chest trying not to cry and wholly uninterested in watching what they were doing. The best she could answer was a small whimper which everyone took as a good sign.
“It’s time to start cleaning the wound so it doesn’t get infected. My brother is going to pour a little water over it while I clean it out with the tiny toothbrush. This will wash it out so I can see what is going on and Gabe can see what he is going to be sewing.”
Stephen kept hoping Gabriel’s was concentrating on providing the small trickle of water onto the wound, not the pretty girl. If he wasn’t, there was going to be one mad mechanic and one less brother. Stephen also had to keep his mind on scrubbing the wound with the toothbrush or his sister would be without a truck and two brothers.
“Everything thing is cleaned out and it looks good. I am going to turn the work over to the Master with the needle so you will have a minimal scarring.”
Stephen and Gabriel worked at bringing the wound edges together. Stephen pointed out the structure of the skin and how he wanted Gabe to sew it together.
“Hi Lacy. I’m Gabe. I’m going to be sewing up your wound. It shouldn’t hurt any more than getting a tattoo. You ever get a tattoo?” Lacy shook her head no. “Do you want a tattoo? I can make you scar look like a tat if you want me to. I can do mean looking dragon. Celtic knot? A heart for that special guy?” when she didn’t answer, he continued. “No special guy? I’m available.” Lacy for the first time since all this started raised her head and managed a smile as she looked into Gabe’s smiling eyes. Her father wasn’t sure if he was amused.
“Time to get the sewing done Gabe.” Stephen tried not to admonish him since Lacy was relaxing but time was important. He didn’t want to have the tourniquet on longer than they had to.
Gabe had the idea of what he had to do. It didn’t take long for him to finish. Watching Gabe work, Stephen knew he made the right call. It would have taken him eight times as long and would have looked like a seizure victim trying to draw Abraham Lincoln on an Etch-A-Sketch.
“Now, the part you have been waiting for. I’m going to slowly release the tourniquet, and make sure it doesn’t leak. It’s going to hurt again as the blood comes back into your arm, but it will pass.” Stephen told Lacy.
Gabriel’s sewing did a great job bringing everything together and there was barely a small amount of ooze, and even that didn’t keep going.
“OK, you need to leave these in for probably about two weeks.” Stephen was talking as he started dressing the wound, first with some antibiotic ointment, then a fresh pad and an Ace wrap.
“Keep an eye on it. If it gets really red or warm, then you need a doctor and some antibiotics. Don’t do any vigorous stuff with it and give it some time to knit back together. In about two weeks, clip the stitch and pull it out. After you do that, keep it protected another week since it won’t have the stitch helping hold it together.”
He was bundling up their tools as they finished. The mechanic stepped up to Stephen.
“Thanks. What can I do to help you for doing this?”
“Help us find a way to get north.”